Reverse Osmosis Systems

[Kit_B]

For a few years now, I've been using a Typhoon III 150 gallon per day system from Air Water Ice.
I also have a 30 gallon bladder tank.
This supplies my brewing water & a drinking water line in my kitchen.
Anyone else have RO systems they would like to share?

[Beersk]

Mine is a little counter top RO system. Apex 4 stage, I believe. I takes a while to get 5 gallons of water out of it, but it's a pretty nice little system for my brewing purposes.

[Bryan R]

[lhommedieu]

I received an Aqua Pro 5 Stage 100g/Day RO system; I also received a float valve and plan to install it on a 20g hot water pot. My goal is to fill the pot twice and fill four 5 gallon plastic water bottles for doughing-in and back up water; then use the 20g pot as a hot water tun. I go through about 25-30 gallons of water used for brewing on a brew day, plus water for cleaning, sanitizing, and cleaning up that does not have to be RO water.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151333213144

[Owenbräu]

Mine is the standard 3 x10" filter canister style RO/DI. However, I replaced the initial sediment filter with a 5 um carbon filter, then the regular carbon filter is a 1 um carbon filter. So, I get twice the removal before the water hits the RO. I added the extra RO filter, which runs off the wastewater from the first filter. It doubles the output to 150 gal/day, and I waste half the water. I have two 15-gal drums that I fill (I pump instead of using a pressurized bladder). The DI polishes off anything that gets through the RO, which the drinking water systems don't do. I highly recommend the reusable cartridge, as replacement resin is much cheaper than buying DI cartridges.

[lhommedieu]

Just tried mine out and I'm having a hard time getting it to work. Everything is connected properly but I think that I probably don't have enough water pressure running a 30' RV hose out from my kitchen sink (12" of snow here and my outside hose faucet is frozen).

Question: could I run water from the hose to a pump and back into the RO filter system?

(Edit:) Answer: no - the problem probably lies elsewhere and at any rate I've been informed that a chugger pump won't provide enough pressure.

[Kit_B]

[lhommedieu]

My problem stemmed from lack of foresight: I'd intended to run from an outside faucet piped from my main water supply, but with a couple days of sub-freezing weather, lack of attention paid to a hose that was attached to the faucet (I had been away from my house for a couple of weeks) and in the middle of last week's blizzard, I noticed that I had a plug of ice in the faucet due to the hose.

Because I wanted to flush out the carbon filter before running the system, I tried running the water from an indoor faucet, out the door and into the garage. It didn't seem as though water was getting into the system at all, but perhaps I didn't wait long enough. That was when I thought that perhaps I was losing pressure because of the length of the hose, and came up with my hair-brained scheme of using a pump (the idea that was quickly shot down).

My next step was to run the system directly an the indoor faucet on a kind of "mini sink" that the previous owner had installed, by using the attachment that the RO system has to attach to the hose directly on the threaded faucet head - just to see if the problem wasn't with the RO system. That worked fine: I was able to flush out the carbon filter as per the manufacture's directions and run the system without issue, but the indoor faucet leaks quite a bit due to age and needs to be tightened up. I'd just as soon not have to transfer 5 gallons of water to the garage at a time, as well.

I'm going back to square one and see if I can run the system off the outdoor faucet with the RV hose.

[Owenbräu]

10 gal/min pressure is enough to run two RO filters in series. I don't see why you cannot run a single. I'm sure you'll be able to get this working.

[lhommedieu]