A good advice for a RO unit ?

I have some questions -

1. If I can I will go vertical but -

How bad is it to leave it horizontal?

2. Forgive my ignorance - I have three horizontal filters. From the top - Which is which?
Then I'll get back to this question later.

3. (4.) Can this be switched around? I only use this faucet for the aquarium. We don't use it for drinking or cooking - In that case - Does it matter?

 

While we're at it - My TDS has always tested between 6-11.

Is that normal?

Does it matter?

 

Re horizontal DI stages, from our FAQ's: Horizontal DI housings are a design intended to minimize the original cost of the system - you should be prepared for the tradeoffs. Horizontal DI units typically contain 8 oz. to 16 oz. of resin. Typical vertical DI cartridges contain 20 oz of resin. Obviously the more resin contained in the housing the longer it will last and the better treatment it will provide.

Some horizontal DI housings are not refillable - you'll therefore have to pay for a new housing every time you need to replace the DI resin. The cost of repeatedly replacing the horizontal housing will far outweigh any money saved up-front in purchasing the unit.

Perhaps most importantly, horizontal DI housings are a less than ideal arrangement for water treatment. DI resin beds shrink through normal use over their life span. You'll note that a cartridge that was full when new can sometimes have a ¼ inch of empty space in it when fully expended. When DI resin settles in a horizontal housing, it leaves a pathway (of least resistance) along the top of the housing where water can flow while coming into minimal contact with the DI resin.

You’ll note that the output from the DI housing is at the center of the end of the housing. Depending upon how your system is configured, RO water may enter the DI housing in port, fill up the housing until the water level reaches the out port (i.e., fill up the bottom half of housing), and then exit the DI housing. Your RO water has been in contact only with half the resin in the housing.

On your system the horizontal filters are:

• RO membrane on the bottom
• Clear DI stage with blue caps
• inline

GAC (carbon) stage on top.

If you just use the system for your aquarium the fix is pretty easy.
1. remove the faucet.
2. remove the pressure tank
3. remove the horizontal GAC stage after the DI
4. orient the DI stage vertically

You're done. Should take all of about 5 minutes.

Russ

 

Right - this makes sense. Your water was as clean as the system could make it after it goes through the DI stage - then you have metal contact at the tank, and run it through GAC - so its reasonable to expect that it wouldn't be down at 0 TDS.

I don't think you want the metal making its way into your aquarium.

The horizontal GAC stage is counter-productive. You'll spend $ on DI resin to get the TDS as low as possible - there is nothing in the DI water that needs to be treated with carbon.

Russ

 

First, Thank you for putting this info here. I would definately want to know all this before I bought a system.

O.K. You need to be more specific with me. I'm a dolt. ;D

After I remove the faucet, the tank and the carbon filter and I orient the DI filter vertically -

Do I put the tank back on?

I know I put the faucet back on. ;D

 

You sure don't want any metal contact with the DI water - so no - don't put the tank back on, nor the faucet. So you'll have DI water coming out of 1/4"
tubing - if you want a way to stop that other than turning off the feed water to the system, you could put something as simple as a small ball valve at the end of the tube (you could use the valve that is now screwed on the top of your tank).

Your system has an automatic shut off valve (ASOV) on it. So if the ASOV is working right, when you stop the flow of DI water, the ASOV should stop the flow of waste water.

Russ

 

Got it.