RO/DI Unit?

Some people have fairly soft water from the tap but not most of us unfortunately. many also do not know the benefits of a softener, not only for your RO membrane but for your plumbing and your soap consumption in general. I grew up with very hard Colorado River water and resisted getting a softener for years as it always made me feel slimy after a shower, now I am used to it and hate to use hard water!

 

I have a well water and of course we have hard water. I have a Water General RO/DI system that I had built to my specs. These guys are great!! Any questions I have had, they have been right on the money with it. They are based in Cali.

My only problem is I have a 100GPD system & currently getting less than half of that right now. I know the membrain needs to break in, but my problem is since it's well water. My cold water is like 57 degrees!!!

 

Wow that is really cold. Maybe Desert Rat can answer that question?

 

Our water in Phoenix gets as cold as 58 degrees sometimes when they are drawing out of the lower portions of the storage reservoirs and lakes. Its wierd to actually have cold water since for years all our water was blazing hot. They have gates at several different depths so they can mix or blend the water to get the best dissolved oxygen, temperature and hopefully low algae levels for MIB and geosmin which can cause taste and odor problems in the parts per billion range. They didn't use to have that option so out water would get pretty rank at times and was always hot.

57 degrees by itself, if you still have 65 psi, will lower the 100 GPD GE Water RO membranes production from 100 GPD down to about 68 GPD. I believe WG uses the GE membranes. If your pressure is lower, say 50 psi, that drops to 51 GPD. You might be a good candidate for a booster pump since most domestic well systems run at lower pressures than municipal systems.

 

My water pressure is about 60psi & my whole house is PEX plumbing, except 10' of 1 1/4" copper in the beginning. I was thinking of designed a system, that will raise the temp, without the fear of a failure that could cook the membrane.

 

What most people find is the cost to heat the water exceeds the benefit of additional GPD. The BTU's required to heat one gallon of water 1 degree is tremendous so the power or watts consumed is quite significant in time. Another drawback is warmer water does not treat as well so RO only TDS will be higher and DI life will be shorter.
It is far cheaper to boost RO pressure with a 24v DC pump such as the Aquatec 8800 than it is to either raise the pressure of a domestic well pressure switch or to heat the water. Having a RO/DI storage container offsets lower production since it can run all night if need be.

 

Well I have a 3gal pressure storage tank on my RO/DI system so it's not that crucial, plus a 32 & 66gal tanks. Just right now when I need to make 130 gal of water, it's taking a bit of time. I have one 32gal of saltwater made already & I just finished topping off my 66gal storage tank that I need to mix some more salt. So, I'm at 98gal right now.

 

Using a small pressure or bladder tank with an RO/Di system is not advised. You will have TDS problems which result from TDS creep or constant starting and stopping due to the size of the pressure tank. The TDS builds up and concentrates in the bladder tank.
RO membranes like less frequent long filter runs so they can flush themselves of accumulated TDS. Years ago I started with a modified pressurized drinking water system and added the DI but my DI life was much shorter since the TDS in the tank was higher. I made it a point to completely evacuate the pressure tank every week to 10 days and that helped but it was still a problem. I later added a second 5G pressure tank so I got 6.6 gallons of pressurized water which helped a little but later still added a 14 gallon pressure tank. Eventually I scrapped the pressurized RO/DI altogether and use a Rubbermaid trash can with a solenoid valve and float switches so it has to drop a minimum of 11 gallons before switching on. no more TDS problems or short DI life.

With my MaxCap UHE set at 100 psi I can make 130 gallons of RO/DI a day but can only store 50 gallons right now.