I don't like how my ro throws out so much water just to make up a fourth of what it consumes. :irked: are there anyways to use more of this water and reduce waste water???
booster pumps and a secondary membrane help. But it still wastes alot. I reclame the waste water to water plants and for my freshwater fish tanks. Look to Bulk reef supply for Ideas.
I still have more than enough left over after filling up my freshwater and watering plants. I could probably water the lawns of all the people in my community!
The waste of all the water is one reason I got rid of my RO membrane and just use DI. With NYC tap water being so low in TDS to begin with (30-40TDS) I easily get 0 from my unit with just DI.
Buying the DI resin in bulk saves some serious cash. If you buy the disposable carts, it's about $40 per change. With the bulk DI it's about $7.
You may reduce the waste water further by using a valve instead of a flow restrictor with your RO unit. The unit need to have a pressure gauge. I adjust the valve to make the pressure to 40+ psi. My RO unit's waste water ratio is about 3 to 1.
yeah it's so wasteful but what can you do. I recently started using R/O water and I was surprised at how much waste there is. I get about 1 gallon of r/o for every 5 gallons out of the tap. Good thing water on LI is cheap haha
Bulkreefsupply has a kit that passes RO reject water through a membrane again. It cuts down on waste but you need good water pressure or a booster pump.
My setup is hooked up to my sink. Does it matter how much water I make come out of the faucet? Because I can make it run slowly or turn it up so theres alot of water running
Bottom line - you want to deliver as much pressure as possible (to a max of 90 psi) to your RO system. If you have your RO system attached to a faucet adapter - open the faucet all the way when you run the RO or RODI system.