Do I want 'Andesite' in my RO?

[Anonymous]

[Edited: Please see last post for question!]

So I just picked up a 5-stage RO unit, but it does not have DI. No DI unit was available here.

Just wondering what extra stuff DI takes out that RO alone does not. Any info on this? Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

5 stages and no DI chambers?? - Wow! - Thats a heck of a lot of prefiltration going on I guess.

If it were ME... - I'd knock off 2 of the prefilters, move the RO to the middle and use the 2 after the RO for DI. - I'd go with refillable DI cartridges too as bulk DI resin is quite a bit cheaper than replacing the whole cartridge every time. (And Buckeye Field Supply is a great place to get DI resin from..)

As for what "stuff" DI usually gets that the RO doesn't.. - Without going and googling it up I don't recall exactly, but typically the RO outflow will have a TDS of around 3-5.. - DI resin typically polish that off to give a nice TDS of 0.

I usually get cyano slowly creeping in if my DI gets exhausted and I have to run without it for a while.

 

[Anonymous]

Sweet, thanks!~

Not sure I follow your 'If it were me...' part though.

Mine has three large prefilters hanging down the bottom vertically.
These lead up to the RO unit, and the RO unit leads to two other horizontal filters on the top. The last of which is carbon.

 

[Anonymous]

Carbon should go before the RO.

RO membranes usually remove 95% of the bad solids.

Have you measured your TDS of your water? If you still are reading a level of TDS after the RO then you should add a DI.

I second adding a DI cartridge after the RO and to buy refillable cartriges/resin from buckeye field supply.

 

[Anonymous]

Ahh.. - Yeah, any carbon / poly filters after the RO is really fairly pointless as the water has generally already been scrubbed down to the level that those can remove anyway.

Do the filter housings up top look like this??

If so, you're in luck.. - Just unscrew them.. (You have a wrench that looks like this.. right??)

Then you can add in these refillable DI resin cartridges:


Just click on that last filter cartridge and it'll take you to the Buckeye page I mentioned..


I just wasn't sure where your RO fell into place in that.. - Now that you say the RO is in the middle, the bulk of any real "work" with it is done, you just need to replace the cartridges.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, mine's set up like this:

The Three Bottom Filters
1st = 5 Mu filter
2nd = Carbon
3rd = 1 Mu filter

This joins to RO

Then RO goes up to:

1st = something unknown (still need translation)
2nd = final carbon.

So there are two carbon stages. The first one after the RO I'm unsure of, as it's written in Chinese.

But yes, GD, the bottom filters look like that. Should I shop around here (Taiwan) and see if I can find the resin you mentioned?

Any other advice?

Many, many thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Are you sure its carbon and not DI? DI Resin is a dark substance.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you sure its carbon and not DI? DI Resin is a dark substance.

Yeah, it's labled as carbon.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a typical house drinking water RO unit, you can knock off the final carbon stage since it's there to add stuff back to the water so it doesn't taste too "stale"

You can always add a DI unit to the end. Basically it grabs whatever the RO didn't flush out.

 

[Anonymous]

Sweet guys, thanks for the help.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, I just figured out what the unidentified stage is.

It is Andesite!

I'm not really sure what it does, but it's a kind of volcanic rock. That doesn't sound good to me, as far as adding stuff to the water.

Anyone know? Andesite??

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Bumpedty- bump!