Anyone installed or got an RO unit for drinking water?

[Dupont666]

RO or reverse osmosis unit removes the crap out of the water that left by the chemicals in it.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/50-GALLON-PER-DAY-3-STAGE-RO...

Was looking at were would be a good place to get something like the above and at that kind of price.... But not on Ebay.

Has anyone installed one of the above and how difficult was it?

The OH thinks its cause I want nice pure water... didnt tell her its for the fish tank

[Graham E]

Most RO water systems put an awful lot ofwater to drain - so for every pure litre, you throw away 2.
You might want to bear this in mind re. your water bill.

[cazzer]

I've got one pretty much exactly the same as that.
Its a doddle to fit.
Just clamps around your water pipe then screws in and makes a self sealing hole/valve thing.
They're not quick and you only have a thin flexible pipe as an output.

Don't think you'll be fillin a kettle real time with it

[Dupont666]

cazzer said:

I've got one pretty much exactly the same as that.
Its a doddle to fit.
Just clamps around your water pipe then screws in and makes a self sealing hole/valve thing.
They're not quick and you only have a thin flexible pipe as an output.

Don't think you'll be fillin a kettle real time with it

So do you have it on a seperate tap then or off the main taps in the sink?

And just put up with a trickle coming out?

[cazzer]

Mine is for fillin the fishtank, so it just comes from the pipe into a 20 gallon bucket.
So not really applicable.

[Dupont666]

cazzer said:

Mine is for fillin the fishtank, so it just comes from the pipe into a 20 gallon bucket.
So not really applicable.

So directly off the mains and underneath the sink and it doesnt affect the taps above?

Was thinking of doing it in the kitchen so under the sink but not affecting the main supply coming in is a bonus, is this possible?

[cazzer]

Dupont666 said:

cazzer said:

Mine is for fillin the fishtank, so it just comes from the pipe into a 20 gallon bucket.
So not really applicable.

So directly off the mains and underneath the sink and it doesnt affect the taps above?

Was thinking of doing it in the kitchen so under the sink but not affecting the main supply coming in is a bonus, is this possible?

Well yeah don't see why not.
Mine is in the utility room and comes off the cold feed to the washer but same thing really.
It will fill a 20 gallon bucket in 3 or 4 hours, so you wont have it on all the time, but even if you did, the flow through it is so slow it wont affect the normal pressure at the tap.

You have to deal with the waste water as well though.
Theres two outlets from them, one is yer RO water and one is the waste.
As mine sits on top of the cabinet the waste just goes into the the utility room sink.
If you're going to put yours underneath the sink you need to decide how to deal with this waste outlet.

[Ferg]

I had one about 15 years ago. We weren't on a meter at the time, but the wasteage is pretty horrific. In the end it was the research into the lowering of immunity levels in the children that made me abandon it. Before fitting one for drinking water I'd look carefully at what is actually in the water. We used to test a lot of water and the nitrate/nitrite levels in some was very high, but almost non-existent in others. Mind you the same was true of lots of bottled water. For this reason I dink raw tap water, although I have encountered some very chloriney stuff. Solution: Carbon Filter.

[Jazoli]

I install a lot of commmercial water machines, the simplest solution for home use would be to put a filter head and carbon filter under your sink, going to a swan neck tap fitted to the drainer, you can then use it for filling kettles, bottled water etc, I'd avoid RO as already said, especially if you are on a meter

[Dupont666]

for the last 2 posters... the RO unit is for water for the marine fish tank as its cheaper to have one of these then it is to have issues with algae and then trying to extract the impurities out of the water with tablets and other machines.

OH just thinks im being healthy with drinking pure water

[MMTWRX]

You should install a particle filter and a carbon filter pre the RO membrane. The carbon filter removes Chlorine which can destroy the RO membrane. The particle filter should be 5 micron and will stop the RO membrane clogging up. The RO's are cross flow and require a waste line to drain. As as already been posted the waste can be quite high as this water flows across the membrane to help keep it clean.

Edited to add: Try eastmidlandwater for a 100gpd unit and hook it up to an outside tap.

Also some good info here

HTH

Edited by MMTWRX on Tuesday 17th November 22:49

[Graham E]

mmt, you seem to have incredibly in depth knowledge of water systems! Is that a result of a serious fish based hobby, or is it your line of work?

[MMTWRX]

Graham E said:

mmt, you seem to have incredibly in depth knowledge of water systems! Is that a result of a serious fish based hobby, or is it your line of work?

Work really. I have a system that produces about a 1000gpd pure water at '000' TDS.

[Graham E]

Cool, I too sell water systems - but possibly a totally different kind - we do class 1 to 3 (up to 18.2 meg ohm), but in much, much smaller quantities. That said, I think your 2 line post showed more knowledge than I have on that particular line of products!