Surprise - making my own RO water

[Tamberav]

I looked at Marine Depot, my concern was with the BRS acquisition, if Marine Depot branded stuff is going to become unavailable. Or are membranes/filters standardized?

Standardize…. The ro buddie isn’t but the other big ones are all the same. It’s just plastic you shove filters into. Some filters are very high quality and some are cheaper and replace more often but they all fit.

 

[Theulli]

Alright, think I'll go this route. Thanks all! Maybe this is the kick in the butt I needed to start making my own anyway...

 

[Woodyman]

Alright, think I'll go this route. Thanks all! Maybe this is the kick in the butt I needed to start making my own anyway...

Its fairly straightforward and easy to setup and use.

I'd recommend extra tubing, a cutter, and an RO piggyback. None of it is necessary but it does make it easier to cut the tubing with the cutter, and depending on how you decide to store/mount the extra tubing will be nice so it all reaches. The piggyback is nice to increase your output and reduce waste. The piggyback, additional prefilters, and DI resins can all be added down the road as well as additional TDS meters. Feel free to reach out with any additional questions.

 

[Theulli]

4 stages is a good starting point, city water does vary, do you know if your city uses chlorine or chloramine to treat the water? If chloramines are used you will want to either add another carbon prefilter, to help extend the life of your RO membrane.

Do you happen to know your incoming TDS currently or any other parameters about your water?

City water report claims sodium hypochlorite. Does anyone ever put Prime into their RO/DI water just in case there are chloramines present?

 

[DaddyFish]

City water report claims sodium hypochlorite. Does anyone ever put Prime into their RO/DI water just in case there are chloramines present?

Free Chlorine at 0.80 average / 1.16 Max isn't bad. Any quality Carbon Block filter should take care of that before it hits the RO Membrane.

 

[DaddyFish]

@Theulli It's a bit expensive, but the IceCap Smart RO/DI system has a stand/frame that makes it super easy to move around, store, operate from the floor.

 

[Woodyman]

Free Chlorine at 0.80 average / 1.16 Max isn't bad. Any quality Carbon Block filter should take care of that before it hits the RO Membrane.

+1 you should be fine with 1 carbon filter. Just remember to monitor the water so that when you start detecting the chlorine through the carbon block you can swap it out to preserve the membrane

 

[mike89t]

RO buddie is cheap effective and does the job for small tanks. I used these while I was in a living situation where I had to hook and unhook often.
If hooking to a outside hose make sure water is not super hot as it sometimes gets really warm here in the summer.

AQUATIC LIFE RO Buddie Four Stage Osmosis System, 50-gal - Chewy.com

Buy Aquatic Life RO Buddie Four Stage Osmosis System, 50-gal at Chewy.com. FREE shipping and the BEST customer service!

www.chewy.com

Make sure to get the 4 stage not the 3 stage, I used 3 or 4 these total over a one year period and they worked great, TDS was around 0-5.

I picked this up a month ago and it seemed to work great until it started leaking out of the DI canister lid and flooded my garage today. I looked up the manual online and it says to use plumbers tape around the thread if it leaks.

Also noticed that the instructions say DO NOT leave unattended. Now I know why.

 

[Steven240]

Hi all,

So the LFS suddenly closed, and I had been getting my RO water from them. I am researching this but was hoping someone might be able to pipe in with some info while I'm at it. Basically I am needing to set up my own RO system, quickly, and I was wondering if anyone had input on:

(1) Is there an RO setup that I can run out of my bathroom or a garden hose faucet? I don't have the space to have a permanent setup, I would need something I can hook up to a faucet and then put away when I don't need it. It doesn't need to be super powered, I have two 20 gallon tanks. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

(2) What tests do you rely upon to validate that your RO water is actually high enough quality to use for your tank?

(3) How much waste water does the average RO system produce? For every gallon about how much am I going to be pouring down the drain?

Thanks!

I got a 6 stage (from BRS) that can produce 75 gal a day. came with tons of attachments. It feeds from a garden hose at the moment, but they included attachments for a faucet as well. I added a water saver upgrade so that my waist to clean water should be around 1.5:1. Water pressure is the key, more is better. Instead of mounting it to a wall, I made a little stand for it with a handle on top to move around. I'll add photos in a few minutes.

hope this helps

 

[Steven240]

I got a 6 stage (from BRS) that can produce 75 gal a day. came with tons of attachments. It feeds from a garden hose at the moment, but they included attachments for a faucet as well. I added a water saver upgrade so that my waist to clean water should be around 1.5:1. Water pressure is the key, more is better. Instead of mounting it to a wall, I made a little stand for it with a handle on top to move around. I'll add photos in a few minutes.

hope this helps

The second picture (for me; 4 canisters) show the water saver- extra RO upgrade and to the far left, an extra 5-micron pre-filter before the 1-micron unit the RODI came with.

end the end, trying to show you that this can be portable and comes with the attachment that you need without going to the hardware store.

best of luck to you