cost of ro/di unit?

[schoch79]

I've been back and forth over purchasing a unit for myself because I am afraid that the 4-1 wastewater ratio will cause my water bill to skyrocket too much. In the meantime I have been buying my water from those machines in the grocery stores and from my lfs for about 30 cents a gallon I think it equates to. Does anyone know how that relates to if I just had my own unit? What can I expect to pay for a gallon of water from my own? Just looking for an estimate. Doesn't need to be exact. Thanks guys.

[Playa-1]

If i did the math right it would cost you about 2 cents per gallon to make your own. My current rate is .0025 per gallon including water and sewage. I'm sure mine is higher than yours. So if you have a system that takes 10 gallons to make one gallon then that's about 2.5 cents per gallon. Some units are more efficient then others. I think now days the biggest issue is your free time and the gas that it would take to go get the water. How much is your free time worth to you. Mine is very valuable to me. So screwin around wasting $5 dollars in gas and 45 minutes of my day off luggin water around is not very appealing to me. Another way to look at is is that the waste water does not have to go down the drain. Its ordinary tap water. You can use it to water the roses, fill the bird bath, make kool-aid.

[schoch79]

Ok then, I guess that sounds good to me. I don't mind wasting the water so much as I'm just trying to save a buck. Not to say I wouldn't recycle the waste water if I could but I was mostly concerned about the cost. Now that you spelled it out for me I guess I will be getting that unit after all. Thanks bunches.

[melev]

When I hooked up my own RO/DI system, I don't think my water bill went up $5 the next month.

[Playa-1]

It's the initial cost of the system that hurts a little but after that the unit will begin paying for itself. I think it's a great investment. If you want to get creative then run a line after the RO but before the DI to the ice maker and your ice cubes will be almost crystal clear and tasty too :)

[2farNorth]

Just take 1 less shower a week and you made up the extra right there!!:D

[dendro982]

I'm also interested in advice on what of the cheaper brands is fairly good, how it is connected to the plumbing (general idea), cost of replacement parts, like filters, will any filter fit or only own brand, and the total cost of operation.
Thanks.

[rickh]

I brought free RO water home from work for about a year. What a pain hauling all those 5 gallon jugs. Buy a RO unit--maybe one from Melev:)

[AZDesertRat]

Don't waste your time and money as well as risk your tank and its inhabitants on a cheap RO/DI unit, its not worth the risk!
Expect to pay right at $150-$160 for a good reef quality basic system, any less and you are compromising water quality, unit life or both.
Several good vendors as well as Sponsors of RC are
www.buckeyefieldsupply.com
www.melevsreef.com
www.thefilterguys.biz
www.spectrapure.com
www.purelyh2o.com

[westcoastreef]

So is there an opinion on which one is the best quality?

[AZDesertRat]

Spectrapure is the best but you pay for that performance and quality. No one else offers individually hand tested and guaranteed 98+% rejection rate membranes and custom blended DI resins for specific conditions.
The others are all very equal when it comes to the $150-$230 price range. I would contact each of the vendors with your water comnditions and needs to see what they recommend and who you feel the most comfortable with. You can't go wrong with any of them!

[rustybucket145]

I got mine from melevsreef.com Have nothing but good things to say about it. Solid Sturdy Unit. Mine lives outside also, so quality is a big factor in my unit holding up.

[burris]

Do you say that you can't go wrong with any of these RC sponsors for political reasons? When I look at their sites I see that some of them they are happy to sell you crappy horizontal DIs, over porous particulate filters that will let your carbon block get plugged, two carbon stages where one should be enough, etc...

[AZDesertRat]

No. When you look at my thousands of posts on the subject of RO/DI you will see I have certain models that I consider to be "Reef Quality". In this case it is:

www.buckeyefieldsupply.com - 75 GPD Premium
www.melevsreef.com - Reefkeeper
www.thefilterguys.biz - Ocean Reef+1
www.spectrapure.com - MaxCap
www.purelyh2o.com - Optima Vision, Automated or Professional.

All use good quality pre and carbon filters, no GAC, true vertical DI filters and some include things like inline pressure gauges and TDS meters as well as autoshutoff valves, flush valves and RO bypass valves.

I don't recommend any unit below these levels for just the reasons above, you give up important features or compromise water quality when you go any less.

[kysard1]

It all depends on what contaminates are in your water. Filters Guy's Filmtech 75GPD membrane only got me 94% rejection, the same I got with a cheap ebay unit both with 80 psi supply.

Filter Guys said that some contaminates have poor rejection with the Filmtec. Its all on the filmtec datasheet which I can email to anyone interested.

[hypertech]

Must depend on what your input water is like. I have the filter guys unit with horizontal DI. I get better than 99% rejection through the unit.

I bought the horizontal DI on purpose because I don't make a lot of water. I'm glad they offered that option because it fits my needs perfectly.

[AZDesertRat]

The 75 GPD Dow Filmtec membrane is the industry standard all others are compared against. When buying a unit from anyone no matter who it is the efficiency or rejection rate can vary by up to 15%, this is true of GE Water, Applied Membranes or anyone else. Its no secret and their data sheets are public knowledge, I have linked to them hundreds of times. The vendor may or may not replace it but it is not guaranteed. It is hit or miss and you get what you get. None of the vendors here is going to intentionally shortchange you but it happens. Imagine the failure rate with the cheap e-bay Chinese imports!
If you buy a Spectrapure unit with a Select series 100% individually hand tested RO membrane you get a guarantee that it is 98+% efficient and tested in their facility. You pay for this service but in most cases it is well worth the price difference in DI resin replacement savings alone.

All membranes regardless of manufacturer are good at some things and not as good at others, thats the nature of the beast, It all has to do with the physical size of the ions the substances contain. Thye are quite good at almost everything though and what they don't get is why you have a good vertical 20 oz DI cartridge on the tail end and prefferably a high quality 0.5 micron carbon block up front. It takes the whole combination to work well. particulate prefiltratrion, carbon adsorption, reverse osmosis and deionization.

[Macimage]

How do you test the rejection rate of your membrane?

Thank you,
Joyce

[AZDesertRat]

Using your TDS meter and a squeaky clean clear drinking water glass, first take the TDS reading of the tap water and write it down. Triple rinse the meter and glass in DI water the take the RO only TDS before DI treatment, again write it down and triple rinse the meter and glass. Finally take the RO/DI TDS and do a final rinse and you arew done.
Now subtract the RO only TDS from the tap water TDS then divide that number by the tap water TDS.

A simple example would be if you have a tap water TDS of 100 and a RO only TDS of 3. 100-3=97. 97divided by 100 = 97.00% rejection.
Using my water as another example:
Tap TDS = 835
RO only TDS = 6.2
835-6.2=828.8
828.8 divided by 835=99.25% rejection

[2farNorth]

WooHoo! I'm running around 99.5%!!:D

Filterguys rock!! (actually its just the membrane.. but still) Remember, it's whats inside the filter that counts!!!

[dendro982]

People, please, slow down and throw down some basic (enough and sufficient) information for us, considering the first RO/DI unit on a budget! If more expensive units provide much better quality - what you will consider as a threshold, name and cost.

Users feedback, not a vendor information...

Please:
- what you tried and found it good, it's name and cost,
- what additional supplies are necessary to run it, month after month: name, brand, amount/year, cost/year,
- how the unit is connected to the house/apartment piping;
- any pitfalls, and what else we should know.

Would really appreciate this!

[kysard1]

Real World Data both with $120 booster pump:

Ebay RO with GE 75GPD Membrane $60 had 94% rejection

FilterGuys RO with Filmtec 75GPD Membrane $240 has 94% rejection

So 8x the price for the same performance. It all depends on the water you start with. You may get 98% with Filter Guys RO. An RO effeciency is dependant on the contaminates.

[Macimage]

Thanks Desert Rat!

Joyce

[Nano Chris]

I paid about $300 for mine, including the parts to set it up and float valve. Little expensive IMO but works.