Ro filter question

[ozorowsky]

Hi all,

Stupid question here; I have a portable cheapo RO unit;

The little piece that is labeled flow is where the "bad" water flows out of right?

I'm sure my waters right but I'm trying to track down a leak in my house due to sudden large water bills and am ruling out that its not my RO unit...


Is it normal when the RO water is filtering it is about 2.5x waste? For a 5 gallon bucket of "good water" my system dumps about 12 gallons.

[Utah Fatman]

If your water is right you are correct in the the flow being the waste water. I don't know about your specific system, but I believe the normal rejection rate should be 4 - 6 to 1 not 2.5 to 1. Given that, you should be getting 4 to 6 gallons of waste for each gallon of RO water. Less waste water means you are plugging up your membrane and it won't last as long.

[ozorowsky]

Originally Posted by Utah Fatman

If your water is right you are correct in the the flow being the waste water. I don't know about your specific system, but I believe the normal rejection rate should be 4 - 6 to 1 not 2.5 to 1. Given that, you should be getting 4 to 6 gallons of waste for each gallon of RO water. Less waste water means you are plugging up your membrane and it won't last as long.

Ok, so it is a lot of waste per gallon per the norm right? If so I'm ok with that.

My water bills went from $60 a month to $400 a month for past 2 months. Water company says too bad and won't help.

So figured I'd dig into this to see if somehow this is causing me to use 50,000 gallons a month haha. My answer apparently is no.

Thank you

[Rookieofsalt]

Replace your auto shut-off valve. I think is bad and it keeps running. Since RO unit drain line is connect directly to the pipe and you are unable to tell if it's runing.