What RO/DI unit to buy

Dustin75 · 11-12-2005, 11:15 PM

I'm looking to purchase a RO/DI unit from one of our sponsors, Air Water & Ice, but I was wondering what unit worked better, IYO. The typhoon, typhoon III, or the Eskimo. I live in Ohio where it gets very cold in the winter which leads me to purchase the Eskimo, but I wanted to see what other people thought of these three units before i did. It has just gotten too expensive to keep buying Tap Water DI Filters, at 17.99 for 30 gallons of water.

Any response would be appreciated.

Dustin

Diver_1298 · 11-13-2005, 05:01 AM

I like the looks of all of them. The prices are competitive also.
I remember my first trip up north and drinking water from the tap. It was colder than the water cooler water here in in Florida...brrrr
Hey Birdlady you live in the great white north how is your ro/di machine doing??

Jim

Dustin75 · 11-14-2005, 11:54 PM

Is a straight DI unit as efficient as an RO/DI?

mirosh · 11-15-2005, 08:02 AM

I bought my RO/DI from filterdirect via e-bay. http://www.filterdirect-water.com or ebay is where you can find them. I am very pleased with my purchase!

Matt Rogers · 11-15-2005, 08:21 AM

I'll send a PM to Birdlady to post here.. she has a model from Air, Water & Ice and likes it a lot.. I know others here do but I don't recally who they were.. you might find them with a search.

If memory serves, I think the 'DI' models help keep things like silicates down.

Diver_1298 · 11-15-2005, 08:29 AM

Dustin,
The DI units are not as efficient as the ro/di units. The DI is an ion exchanger without the benefits of the reverse osmosis removal of impurities.
Combine the two and you have a good system that will serve your reef tank well.

Jim

kb.bear · 11-15-2005, 11:32 AM

I have made 2 purchases from air water ice They are good units and were cheap, the typhoon III would be my choice

Birdlady · 11-15-2005, 04:49 PM

Sorry for the late reply! I was camping! hehe!

I have the Air, water, ice Typhoon. It is inside my house so the cold is not a big deal. I just replaced all the cartridges (excluding the membrane) for a sweet under $40 deal.

I have not had any problems getting 0 TDS water in the winter, and it did not seem to be overly slow, but I never realized that could be an issue, so I never measured.

DI is not as efficient as RO/DI...the DI would exhaust very quickly without the RO membrane. You would spend a fortune on DI resin. Good units have the DI resin after the RO membrane for efficiency.

I have had my filters up and running for about a year and I still don't think they were exhausted completely (except for the sediment filter...ewwwww yuck!) but I figured a year's worth of use was good enough and replaced them for good measure.

Any of their units are good IMHO! If I were to get a new one, I would go with the Typhoon III for the ability to flush the membrane and for the DI bypass. (plus , I think you get the TDS meter free with that, I paid $29 for mine!)

Dustin75 · 11-15-2005, 11:01 PM

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I will go with the typhoon III, I just was not sure how much slower it would run with the cold Ohio water. Also when I reviewed the information on the Eskimo it did not include a pressure gauge, DI bypass, or the TDS meter, but still very nice for the price.

Matt Rogers · 11-15-2005, 11:22 PM

Walter at Air, Water, Ice is a good guy and will answer questions if you ask... let me know what he says about temp. I caught on to the whole pressure thing eventually (40-60 psi for mine), but I hadn't thought much about temp. Please let me know what you find out.