Caprichoso Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) As the title says, are there any RO units that don't waste water? Someone told me that it's a 1 to 4 RO water to waste ratio! Is this true? Can anyone suggest an efficient brand? Thanks for your help Edited July 11, 2011 by Caprichoso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 I picked up one from another member that has a close to 1:1 ratio, and it's suggested to use the waste to fill the hot water tank - does 50 gpd, I believe. I'll look up the brand when I get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 no such thing as one that doesnt waste water..... i think the most efficient is 3:1 ratio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJay Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 I fill the washing machine with the waste water and then do a load of laundry. I've only flooded the laundry room once when I forgot about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caprichoso Posted July 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 no such thing as one that doesnt waste water..... i think the most efficient is 3:1 ratio So that's 3 parts RO water to only 1 part waste? That sounds better than what I originally heard. For those of you that use the RO water for the washing machine, does it affect the clothes in any way? Would you use less soap then too because of extra sudsing? Can anyone recommend a good quality unit for me? Thanks for answering! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJay Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 I have an AquaFX 4 Stage RO/DI unit which I got from a fellow dart frog/fish keeper. So far the water doesn't seem to affect the clothes in any way and I just add the normal amount of soap. Everything seems to be clean and still smells good too I'd have to say that the volume of waste water to "good water" is the other way around ... for every 3 gallons of waste, I get 1 gallon of "good" (or so). It was because of this that I started to use it for the wash, it didn't seem right to just send the waste water down the drain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 I have a BWI 4-stage RO/DI (SRZ-4) unit that has instructions on how to plumb the waste into the hot water tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caprichoso Posted July 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Ok thanks for the info guys, I've been considering getting a unit but the water waste was putting me off. I like the hot water tank idea too, that would be great! I'll look into those brands further, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scuba_Guy Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Ok thanks for the info guys, I've been considering getting a unit but the water waste was putting me off. I like the hot water tank idea too, that would be great! I'll look into those brands further, thank you. I have the Watts zero waste RO system from Costo. It works by putting the "waste" back into the hot water line under the sink. Works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caprichoso Posted July 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Ok thanks for the info guys, I've been considering getting a unit but the water waste was putting me off. I like the hot water tank idea too, that would be great! I'll look into those brands further, thank you. I have the Watts zero waste RO system from Costo. It works by putting the "waste" back into the hot water line under the sink. Works great. Oh really? That sounds great! Looking into that one as well, thanks:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scuba_Guy Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Oh really? That sounds great! Looking into that one as well, thanks:) It was really easy to install too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BooUrns! Posted July 25, 2011 Report Share Posted July 25, 2011 So where does your waste water end up if you're not running the how water at the time? How does this affect your drinking water quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanGofCalgary Posted July 25, 2011 Report Share Posted July 25, 2011 (edited) So where does your waste water end up if you're not running the how water at the time? How does this affect your drinking water quality? it would push back in to the hot water heater I would think, as there is typically no check valve on a home water system. It's an interesting questions because what if you are are running a lot of RO and for some random reason NOT using the hot water system. Eventually it would overpressure and the hot water system psv would release till it depressures I think. As to drinking water, I suspect most people don't use the hot water for drinking, so it would only be used in that part of the system. I don't think you could overpressureand push back in to the cold water feed to your hot water tank before the psv on your hot water system releases? However, if you were using hot water for drinking, it's going to be very mineral concentrated while the system is running. These are just a laymans guess on this, a plumber could probably answer these questions a lot better. Just one comment on the 'waste' part of this. The waste involved is load on the water processing system of your city or town. The 'waste' water from RO units are not destroyed or changed. It's still water that is returned to the environment as water. It just adds load to the cities purification system. Edit:: forgot to add - personally I use a steam distillation unit. They're fairly pricey new, but the waste is greatly minimized. It auto flushes on a regular basis though or the tank would just fill up with minerals till it was completely caked. However, when not in use, the auto flush doesn't activate, so minimizes waste. Edited July 25, 2011 by DanGofCalgary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scuba_Guy Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 So where does your waste water end up if you're not running the how water at the time? How does this affect your drinking water quality? it would push back in to the hot water heater I would think, as there is typically no check valve on a home water system. As to drinking water, I suspect most people don't use the hot water for drinking, so it would only be used in that part of the system. It does push back into the hot water line. No need to have the hot water running. It has a little pump that pushed the waste water back into the hot water line. I have tried drinking some of the "hot" water but no real difference in taste but as BooUrns said I don't drink the hot water to often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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