Reverse Osmosis Unit

[Salt Must Flow]

I've been looking at this Reverse Osmosis unit for at least one year now and finally ordered it today. For $98 free shipping it seems like a great deal to me. I just thought I'd share the link in case anyone else is considering one. I have a digital TDS meter so I will see how pure the water is once I get it fired up. Hopefully it's not a piece of junk. I'll give updates once I get it put together and get it running.

I already have a really high quality RO unit, but it's in my crawlspace. I have it plumbed to my refrigerator water dispenser & ice maker as well as a small faucet at the kitchen sink. It's really a pain to go down there, disconnect it and set it up in my garage to make water for my large ferments. Once I'm done, I have to reinstall it back in crawlspace. I'm really looking forward to having one dedicated to the garage so hopefully it works well.

[CopperFiend]

Interesting, do you know how greedy these are for consumables?

Copper

[HDNB]

you don't want RO for a ferment, the yeast benefit from the minerals in water. RO is great for dilution of finished spirits tho.

[BrewinBrian44]

you don't want RO for a ferment, the yeast benefit from the minerals in water. RO is great for dilution of finished spirits tho.

For what’s it’s worth, I’ve used RO water with good success with minerals added in. It’s more for when your source water is nasty.

[Salt Must Flow]

Interesting, do you know how greedy these are for consumables?

Copper

Pretty much only the sediment filter and two carbon filters. I usually only change mine out maybe twice per year. Once per year if I'm lazy. This is one of the cheapest units I recall ever seeing. I've owned RO units most of my life and never had one expire on me. This one only has one mechanical piece, the auto-shutoff. I've had one auto-shutoff crap out on me once before, but they're cheap and easily installed.

I also purchased another 75 gpd membrane and houseing for $25. That will make this a 150 gpd unit. On average RO units waste 3-4 parts water to make 1 part water. With the extra membrane it will make twice the amount of water with the same waste.

[Salt Must Flow]

you don't want RO for a ferment, the yeast benefit from the minerals in water. RO is great for dilution of finished spirits tho.

I've always used RO water for all of my ferments. I never had any issues that I'm aware of.

[NormandieStill]

I looked into smaller RO units a while back. I ran away when I saw the amount of reject water from backwashing the membranes. Some of the cheaper small units throw away at least 50% of the total water used.

[still_stirrin]

you don't want RO for a ferment, the yeast benefit from the minerals in water. RO is great for dilution of finished spirits tho.

Use the RO for dilution and drinking water (it makes great ice cubes too), and collect the waste water in jugs for brewing. It’ll be a double benefit all the way around.

However, if you have excessively “hard water”, you’ll be best with a water softener too as the hard water can plug up the RO filter. But, the RO filter will clean out chlorine, if you’ve got that in your water supply.

I very much like my RO water system. It makes very consumable drinking water.
ss

[Salt Must Flow]

I received the RO unit on Friday. It shipped from California. It was fully assembled. In order to install the 2nd membrane I had to pull it apart and reconnect the tubes. It came with a LOT of extra tubing and the faucet & tank is better quality than I was expecting. I ran it for a good while and the TDS was 2. One thing to note is to test the TDS of the water pre-carbon filter, not post carbon filter because the TDS will be higher (likely due to released carbon particles). It came with a lot of extra fittings to suite different types of water source connections. Overall it's a really good deal. The filter elements are surprisingly good quality. I was expecting cheap crap. The three main filter housings are a softer plastic than the top quality housings, but I don't see this ever being an issue. The frame is plastic where more expensive frames are painted/coated steel.

I'll be on the lookout for a decent deal on a booster pump kit now. They're not a must have, but they sure boost performance & output.

[Salt Must Flow]

This is the diagram I used to re-plumb it to use 2 membranes. The final carbon filter connects to the output (pure out).

[Oystercracker123]

SMF, the link no longer works, but gets you to the vendors site. Can you provide the model of filter you went with? The prices seem very reasonable.

[Salt Must Flow]

SMF, the link no longer works, but gets you to the vendors site. Can you provide the model of filter you went with? The prices seem very reasonable.

Yeah that exact model apparently isn't available anymore. It looks like this one has replaced the one I bought. It comes with the RO unit, a bladder tank and a faucet. There are other units listed on this page. One comes with a bladder tank and no faucet. There's another one that doesn't come with a tank or a faucet.

I got the one with tank & faucet so I could rig it up to a counter top I have in my stilling area. A tank & faucet isn't necessary if you have no intention of using a faucet at all.

[Oystercracker123]

Fantastic!! Thank you!

[Salt Must Flow]

I just realized that I never updated this thread. When I first tested this RO unit after installing the 2nd 75 GPD RO membrane, it produced 3 gph. Notice that's 74 gallons per day and MUCH slower than advertised. That's because all advertising is based on 'ideal parameters' like ideal water pressure and temperature.

I then installed this booster pump and it now produces 7 gph. That's 168 gallons per day now. Huge difference. Here is a plumbing diagram including a booster pump.

[samwell]

Sorry to hijack an old thread… As my tap water has chlorine and fluoride, I’ve used only store bought distilled water for my ferments with great results but I feel like it’s getting costly to buy water ever time I need to ferment.

For that reason, I’ve been investigating reverse osmosis units as I feel like the investment would quickly pay itself off for me and I would remove the fluoride that’s so hard to remove from my municipal tap water. To my understanding, chlorine isn’t the issue because it evaporates when left in open air? But the fluoride is the one that I would have trouble removing.

Do you have this set up under your kitchen sink going at all times? Or is this something that you selectively hook up and run?

Cheers,
Samwell.

[Salt Must Flow]

Sorry to hijack an old thread… As my tap water has chlorine and fluoride, I’ve used only store bought distilled water for my ferments with great results but I feel like it’s getting costly to buy water ever time I need to ferment.

For that reason, I’ve been investigating reverse osmosis units as I feel like the investment would quickly pay itself off for me and I would remove the fluoride that’s so hard to remove from my municipal tap water. To my understanding, chlorine isn’t the issue because it evaporates when left in open air? But the fluoride is the one that I would have trouble removing.

Do you have this set up under your kitchen sink going at all times? Or is this something that you selectively hook up and run?

Cheers,
Samwell.

An RO unit can be set up different ways. You can connect it to a RO bladder tank which can be connected to a RO faucet. Once the tank is fully pressurized, the RO unit will shut off automatically. The tank stores pressurized RO water so you will have a good deal of filtered water on demand. Once the tank depressurizes, the RO unit will turn back on automatically, fill the tank and shut down again. I have an RO unit connected to one of these tanks, to a faucet and to my refrigerator/freezer which dispenses ice & water.

You can also connect an RO unit to a float valve in a reservoir. The reservoir fills, the float valve closes and the RO unit will shut down automatically.

[samwell]

Sorry to hijack an old thread… As my tap water has chlorine and fluoride, I’ve used only store bought distilled water for my ferments with great results but I feel like it’s getting costly to buy water ever time I need to ferment.

For that reason, I’ve been investigating reverse osmosis units as I feel like the investment would quickly pay itself off for me and I would remove the fluoride that’s so hard to remove from my municipal tap water. To my understanding, chlorine isn’t the issue because it evaporates when left in open air? But the fluoride is the one that I would have trouble removing.

Do you have this set up under your kitchen sink going at all times? Or is this something that you selectively hook up and run?

Cheers,
Samwell.

An RO unit can be set up different ways. You can connect it to a RO bladder tank which can be connected to a RO faucet. Once the tank is fully pressurized, the RO unit will shut off automatically. The tank stores pressurized RO water so you will have a good deal of filtered water on demand. Once the tank depressurizes, the RO unit will turn back on automatically, fill the tank and shut down again. I have an RO unit connected to one of these tanks, to a faucet and to my refrigerator/freezer which dispenses ice & water.

You can also connect an RO unit to a float valve in a reservoir. The reservoir fills, the float valve closes and the RO unit will shut down automatically.

I see... So the volume of water available is dictated by your RO bladder tank. For example, if I wanted say 20 gallons and had a 4 gallon bladder, I'd have 4 gallons available immediately and have to wait until the tank was replenished (an hour or so depending on the RO system and other variables)?

That's not bad at all. Just would require some early preparation in collecting the water.

Are the systems very challenging to hookup under a kitchen sink?

Thanks for the detailed reply and dumbing down RO systems for me.

[Salt Must Flow]

Sorry to hijack an old thread… As my tap water has chlorine and fluoride, I’ve used only store bought distilled water for my ferments with great results but I feel like it’s getting costly to buy water ever time I need to ferment.

For that reason, I’ve been investigating reverse osmosis units as I feel like the investment would quickly pay itself off for me and I would remove the fluoride that’s so hard to remove from my municipal tap water. To my understanding, chlorine isn’t the issue because it evaporates when left in open air? But the fluoride is the one that I would have trouble removing.

Do you have this set up under your kitchen sink going at all times? Or is this something that you selectively hook up and run?

Cheers,
Samwell.

An RO unit can be set up different ways. You can connect it to a RO bladder tank which can be connected to a RO faucet. Once the tank is fully pressurized, the RO unit will shut off automatically. The tank stores pressurized RO water so you will have a good deal of filtered water on demand. Once the tank depressurizes, the RO unit will turn back on automatically, fill the tank and shut down again. I have an RO unit connected to one of these tanks, to a faucet and to my refrigerator/freezer which dispenses ice & water.

You can also connect an RO unit to a float valve in a reservoir. The reservoir fills, the float valve closes and the RO unit will shut down automatically.

I see... So the volume of water available is dictated by your RO bladder tank. For example, if I wanted say 20 gallons and had a 4 gallon bladder, I'd have 4 gallons available immediately and have to wait until the tank was replenished (an hour or so depending on the RO system and other variables)?

That's not bad at all. Just would require some early preparation in collecting the water.

Are the systems very challenging to hookup under a kitchen sink?

Thanks for the detailed reply and dumbing down RO systems for me.

You are correct. BUT ... if you want 20 gallons, but still want it set up on a bladder tank ... you could pull out a 20 gal reservoir, connect a line temporarily to the reservoir and it will be filled within a couple hours.

All an RO unit needs is a water input line and a drain to run the waste water. If you want it under a sink, just tap into the cold water line and tap into the drain for the waste water to go. If you want the RO unit set up to produce water at an optimal rate, you would need 120V to operate a booster pump.

For my kitchen, I put the RO unit and the bladder tank in my crawl space beneath the kitchen that way it doesn't take up any space. You could do the same if you have a basement. I have another RO unit with a booster pump in my garage connected to a bladder tank, to a faucet and to a 55 gal reservoir with a float valve.

[quadra]

Samwell, Do you know that your municipal water source uses Chlorine? There are a lot of municipalities that have adopted Chloramine as a treatment process and it is not reduced in the same way.

[samwell]

Do you know that your municipal water source uses Chlorine? There are a lot of municipalities that have adopted Chloramine as a treatment process and it is not reduced in the same way.

Yes. There's multiple reddit posts in my municipal subreddit and there were also government webpages with information stating that chlorine is used and chloramine isn't. At least this is the case in my specific municipality.

[samwell]

You are correct. BUT ... if you want 20 gallons, but still want it set up on a bladder tank ... you could pull out a 20 gal reservoir, connect a line temporarily to the reservoir and it will be filled within a couple hours.

That sounds like the route I'll likely take. Thanks again Salt.

[Salt Must Flow]

You are correct. BUT ... if you want 20 gallons, but still want it set up on a bladder tank ... you could pull out a 20 gal reservoir, connect a line temporarily to the reservoir and it will be filled within a couple hours.

That sounds like the route I'll likely take. Thanks again Salt.

Oh, by the way. On this forum you've probably read where people say that a healthy fermentation prefers minerals in the water and that RO water isn't ideal. Well you could install a bypass valve, a flow restrictor and now the RO unit just makes carbon filtered water. Basically it would filter out sediment and all the chemicals the carbon block filters can remove without removing all the minerals. The flow restrictor is important because you need to slow the water's flow rate to allow enough contact time with the carbon for them to do their job. Carbon block filters typically list what their optimal flow rate is (or at least a range) so it's not difficult to obtain the correct flow restrictor.

[samwell]

You are correct. BUT ... if you want 20 gallons, but still want it set up on a bladder tank ... you could pull out a 20 gal reservoir, connect a line temporarily to the reservoir and it will be filled within a couple hours.

That sounds like the route I'll likely take. Thanks again Salt.

Oh, by the way. On this forum you've probably read where people say that a healthy fermentation prefers minerals in the water and that RO water isn't ideal. Well you could install a bypass valve, a flow restrictor and now the RO unit just makes carbon filtered water. Basically it would filter out sediment and all the chemicals the carbon block filters can remove without removing all the minerals. The flow restrictor is important because you need to slow the water's flow rate to allow enough contact time with the carbon for them to do their job. Carbon block filters typically list what their optimal flow rate is (or at least a range) so it's not difficult to obtain the correct flow restrictor.

Hey Salt,

Are you suggesting that I skip the “post-filter” in a three filter system? Would you be able to show me a schematic or maybe share a link where I could see what that looks like?

I’ve attached my schematic for my RO system.

Cheers,
Samwell

[Salt Must Flow]

You are correct. BUT ... if you want 20 gallons, but still want it set up on a bladder tank ... you could pull out a 20 gal reservoir, connect a line temporarily to the reservoir and it will be filled within a couple hours.

That sounds like the route I'll likely take. Thanks again Salt.

Oh, by the way. On this forum you've probably read where people say that a healthy fermentation prefers minerals in the water and that RO water isn't ideal. Well you could install a bypass valve, a flow restrictor and now the RO unit just makes carbon filtered water. Basically it would filter out sediment and all the chemicals the carbon block filters can remove without removing all the minerals. The flow restrictor is important because you need to slow the water's flow rate to allow enough contact time with the carbon for them to do their job. Carbon block filters typically list what their optimal flow rate is (or at least a range) so it's not difficult to obtain the correct flow restrictor.

Hey Salt,

Are you suggesting that I skip the “post-filter” in a three filter system? Would you be able to show me a schematic or maybe share a link where I could see what that looks like?

I’ve attached my schematic for my RO system.
603AEEEC-A4FD-47BE-A376-B2E421BE0FD1.jpeg

Cheers,
Samwell

This is a basic RO unit with 2 RO membranes. The 1st stage canister houses a sediment filter. The 2nd and 3rd canister houses a carbon block. Water that exits the 3rd canister is carbon filtered water BUT you need a flow restrictor to slow it down to allow enough contact time with the carbon block filters for them to do their job.

The drawing you posted shows a proprietary type of RO unit, not a standard RO unit. Each of the drawings I listed are standard RO units. The filters, the filter housings/canisters, etc... are all standardized.

[Reefer1]

Just to chuck my experience in for what its worth, i must agree with the team on the use of RO water for ferments, in my limited experience i used to use RO for ferments, i had no end of stalled ferments, PH drops like a stone after the first couple of days, this is due to there being no buffer system left in the RO water, so any acids produced throughout the first few days cannot be absorbed and neutralised so you get a build up of acid in the ferment, and a drop in Ph, so unless you put a shit load of buffer and the likes to build the buffer its likely to crash. Also there is very little dissolved oxygen in RO water so vigorous aeration is necessary, and to compound this there are no minerals at all.
I now only use my RO now just for topping up my boiler and for dilution of spirit.
I have used a RO for 30+ years for my Marine aquarium, maintenance wise, i strip the unit once a year as it sits outside connected to my outside water supply, i rinse out the sediment filter pod 1 which is 1-3 micron spun rayon and is normally bright orange due to iron in our supply, it can be washed swap out the granular carbon in pod 2 and 3, It's worth investing in a TDS meter just to keep an eye on the dissolved solids, the membrane dosn't need changing for around 5 years+ if you keep up to the 3 pods maintenance yearly, what damages the membrane is Chlorine the carbon strips it out.
I think filtering the water through the pre and carbon pods as SMF say's for the ferments is a bloody good idea, i think i will tap into the line and add a bypass and use that for my ferments. This info regarding maintenance was given to me from "Clearwater products" who supplied my unit years back.
Hope my info is of some use.
Reefer1

[samwell]

That sounds like the route I'll likely take. Thanks again Salt.

Oh, by the way. On this forum you've probably read where people say that a healthy fermentation prefers minerals in the water and that RO water isn't ideal. Well you could install a bypass valve, a flow restrictor and now the RO unit just makes carbon filtered water. Basically it would filter out sediment and all the chemicals the carbon block filters can remove without removing all the minerals. The flow restrictor is important because you need to slow the water's flow rate to allow enough contact time with the carbon for them to do their job. Carbon block filters typically list what their optimal flow rate is (or at least a range) so it's not difficult to obtain the correct flow restrictor.

Hey Salt,

Are you suggesting that I skip the “post-filter” in a three filter system? Would you be able to show me a schematic or maybe share a link where I could see what that looks like?

I’ve attached my schematic for my RO system.
603AEEEC-A4FD-47BE-A376-B2E421BE0FD1.jpeg

Cheers,
Samwell

This is a basic RO unit with 2 RO membranes. The 1st stage canister houses a sediment filter. The 2nd and 3rd canister houses a carbon block. Water that exits the 3rd canister is carbon filtered water BUT you need a flow restrictor to slow it down to allow enough contact time with the carbon block filters for them to do their job.


RO 2 Membranes.jpg


The drawing you posted shows a proprietary type of RO unit, not a standard RO unit. Each of the drawings I listed are standard RO units. The filters, the filter housings/canisters, etc... are all standardized.

Thanks for the detailed info. Did I make a mistake buying the RO system I bought based on the schematic I sent?


I’m sure I can make use of it, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to do what you suggested.

[Salt Must Flow]

Oh, by the way. On this forum you've probably read where people say that a healthy fermentation prefers minerals in the water and that RO water isn't ideal. Well you could install a bypass valve, a flow restrictor and now the RO unit just makes carbon filtered water. Basically it would filter out sediment and all the chemicals the carbon block filters can remove without removing all the minerals. The flow restrictor is important because you need to slow the water's flow rate to allow enough contact time with the carbon for them to do their job. Carbon block filters typically list what their optimal flow rate is (or at least a range) so it's not difficult to obtain the correct flow restrictor.

Hey Salt,

Are you suggesting that I skip the “post-filter” in a three filter system? Would you be able to show me a schematic or maybe share a link where I could see what that looks like?

I’ve attached my schematic for my RO system.
603AEEEC-A4FD-47BE-A376-B2E421BE0FD1.jpeg

Cheers,
Samwell

This is a basic RO unit with 2 RO membranes. The 1st stage canister houses a sediment filter. The 2nd and 3rd canister houses a carbon block. Water that exits the 3rd canister is carbon filtered water BUT you need a flow restrictor to slow it down to allow enough contact time with the carbon block filters for them to do their job.


RO 2 Membranes.jpg


The drawing you posted shows a proprietary type of RO unit, not a standard RO unit. Each of the drawings I listed are standard RO units. The filters, the filter housings/canisters, etc... are all standardized.

Thanks for the detailed info. Did I make a mistake buying the RO system I bought based on the schematic I sent?


I’m sure I can make use of it, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to do what you suggested.

Do you have a link to that RO unit you bought? I'd need to see what the prefilter and the postfilter actually is.

[samwell]

Here’s a link: https://ecopure.com/product/reverse-osm ... em-ecop30/

[Salt Must Flow]

Here’s a link: https://ecopure.com/product/reverse-osm ... em-ecop30/

Nope, there's no bypassing any of that stuff. Nothing about it is standard.

[samwell]

Here’s a link: https://ecopure.com/product/reverse-osm ... em-ecop30/

Nope, there's no bypassing any of that stuff. Nothing about it is standard.

No worries. I appreciate the concrete answer though! I’ll come up with a solution to my water LOL