will RO/DI push through 80ft of tube?

My RO/DI is under the house in the laundy and i'll need to fill my new 90 soon. was considering filling 5 gal containers one at a time and carrying them upstairs, but have decided it may be easier to extend my RO/DI outlet and run the tube up to the tank in position.
i think it may be about 40ft, but i've order 80ft of tube to be safe. will also need to go up to the next level of the house and over the top of the tank, so ~10ft vertical difference? (i think thats a conservative guess, i'm not used to imperial units tho)
my RO/DI operates on about 50psi and would be runningn 1/4" the whole way.
does anyone know if this might work?
on a side note, if I fill it with water to add salt mix, should i do that before adding the sand substate?

thanks!

 

I don't think you are generating enough pressure to get there.

Mix the water before adding anything to the tank.

 

It might work. I run about 40' from my RO/DI to my storage containers. Although, I have about 5' up and 5' down though, so no vertical difference. It dosn't seem to have any problems though, I've been running it that way for about 3 years now.

 

thanks for the quick replys
think i'll give it a go, but will try not to expect much success lol.
will post back how it goes when i get a chance to try it

 

Cool, I'm interested to see how it works. Probably wouldn't be bad to have a few buckets in case though

 

Yes. It will work but you will need to check and adjust the waste ratio as it will change with that much head on the membrane.

When you think about it, its really no different than a drinking water system pumping into a pressurized bladder tank.

I would highly recommend using 3/8" tubing rather than 1/4" tubing as it will reduce the backpressure or head tremendously and increase your GPD significantly.

 

i was hoping you would see this one AZ, thanks for chiming in.
when you say adjust the waste ratio? how is that done?
i though my RO/DI only had an input and 2 outputs and that the ratio of the outputs would be determined soley by the performance of the filters?
have already put the order in for the pipe to be picked up tomorrow. will see if the person collecting for me can get some 3/8" and connector added to it.
i was worried that going to a bigger pipe would increase head by having to push through extra weight/more water but it seems i'm wrong again lol
Thanks AZ!

 

Larger diameter tubing means less resistance to flow and lower velocity, much better.

Most RO/DI systems cdome with a fixed flow restrictor which is not really the best for anyone, everyones conditions are different meaning different pressures, different water temperatures and different plumbing arrangements. Why would a vendor provide a fixed restrictor and expect it to fit every condition ? It won't is the answer.

You probably have a restrictor in your waste line which loks kind of like a miniature filter with something like 500mL or 750 mL stamped or printed on it. What you may need is called a capillary tube flow restrictor which looks like a piece of spaghetti about 9-12" long with a small flange on one end. This restrictor fits inside the waste line and you trim its length based on testing you do once the line is extended. You measure the treated flow and the waste flows for a period of time and calculate the ratio, it should be close to 4:1, waste to good. With the extra head pressure on the treated line it will probably be grater than 4:1 meaning you are wasting more than you need to plus the additional waste means your pressure to the membrane is less than it could be for optial performance so the rejection rate or efficiency could go down too.

Another way to do it is with a needle valve on the waste line but I haveexperienced problems with needle valves slowing down over time causing membrane failure so I recommend the capillary tube.

 

wow, that sounds intense.
the company i got the RO/DI from looks like they have different single rating flow restrictors available, and not sure what the availablility of capillary tube restrictors is like in aus. alot of things are hard work to find and usually require a weeks shipping.
the needle valve could possibly be easier, but getting a flow meter might still be an issue.
since i will only be using this method to fill the tank initially, and then go back to lugging containers up and down the stairs for my water, would it be ok just to extend the tube this one time and rely on the inline tds meter to tell if the water heading to my tank is pure?
if the biggest downside is that there will be extra waste water i can live with that, but if it means the water coming into the tank wont be 0 tds then will need to revise my plan

the bigger tubing makes sense now, thanks

 

Im going through 100ft not with no problem but im at 80ish psi. 11 ft of vertical. My waste ratio didn't change very much, I have a SpectraPure maxicap with dual membranes(180gpd total)