R.O. Water from the back of shower ...

[Dreamscape]

Hola amigos

Its been around a month or so since my last post but you know how life goes ...

I had to totally re-strategize for my situation , change rooms , electrical , the whole nine yards ya know ... So I was sitting around thinking the other day , literally I was on the shitter thinking ...

The grow room will be next to the bathroom on the second floor ... So I was thinking "I wonder if I could route my R.O. water system upstairs somehow ..."

Then it hit me ... what about hooking it up to the piping behind the back of the shower ... this way I could just drill a hole in the wall between the growroom and bathroom and have the R.O. water on tap right in the room instead of having to lug everything up stairs ...

Does this seem possible ??

I have never hooked up my R.O. system its still sitting in the box but i'm assuming this should be managable , right ??

somehow , someway ??

 

[Guest]

I dont see why you can't, before I go on lets see if this posts,I've been having problems.

 

[Guest]

OK this is what I did,I dont know how many plants you have so it may not be for you.I mounted my unit and spigot,and clamped clear plastic tubing to the spigot running it about 6 ft to a 50 ft rainbarrel.I can just leave it on for 15 hours or so and have a full rainbarrell.Or I can just turn it on when I need a few.Whatever you do bro if growing in soil use R/O water,you're going to see a difference you wont believe

 

[EZB581]

Dreamscape, Depending on how the bathroom is laid out. You may be able to use the coldwater supply to the sink,or maybe the toilet to supply your water purifier. Might be easier then getting to the shower supply. However you supply water to the filter, make sure you don't forget it's on & overflow the container! For me at least it's easy to do,LOL

 

[Guest]

Excellent advice,mount your spigot right on the bathroom sink coming from the cold water pipe beneath,someone's thinking rather clearly this morning lol.Is that from lack of,or massive amounts of the hoochie coochie lol.In reality piping to showerheads are inaccessable anyway unless you knock the wall down..The rainbarrel is a beautiful thing though people,I looked at 40-50 milkjugs full of water evaporating chlorine for years and years in my kitchen.My entire stovetop and countertop along with some floorspace with those fugly assed jugs...Rainbarrels.com I believe.Clamp clear plastic tubing to the R/O spigot and run it to a 50 gal rainbarrel and you cant help but walk around with a big ole smile..

 

[EZB581]

Thanks soilman, Every so often the Ole synapses still snap!
Dreamscape, Again It all depends on how the bathroom is laid out if you can supply water from the sink or toilet. You can use small diameter plastic tubing and run it thru the wall.
This pict I used the supply to the clothes washer & ran the red tubing thru the wall. This one had a fitting for a garden hose.

Remember if you tap off the water supply to the sink it will have constant water pressure to the filter. So You need ball valve to turn the water on and off. Note the valve on the red line.

The tubing just slides into these fittings. Home Depot will have the tubing and any fittings you need. Don't forget you need somewhere for the waste water to drain. "Most important" especially if the filter is on the second floor. Don't forget it's on! I have forgotten & I'm sure others have done the same. It can & will overflow the holding container. You can DIY a float switch to turn off the water. I have a link for the Diy float switch around here somewhere if you want to take a look.
You can setup the filter on the 1st floor. (I bet the 1st floor bath is directly bellow the 2nd floor bath). You will need two holding tanks, A pump strong enough to push the water up to the 2nd floor & more tubing. A 2nd floor install is the more practical choice but again you always have that chance of flooding. May I ask what type of RO unit you have & it's GPD(gallons per day) rate is?

 

[Guest]

Come home to 50 gallons of water in my rainbarrel and 20 gallons on my kitchen floor??Never....

 

[EZB581]

Dude I don't even want to think about it! One time I thought the porch roof has leaking where it meets the house. Nope it was flowing under the threshold of the sliding glass door & flooding the patio.

Green grass & high tides forever!

 

[EZB581]

Hey soilman, speaking of ro water. Why do You think moving to ro water worked so well for You? I just replaced all the cartridges in my ro/di unit sediment ,charcoal, ro membrane & new di resin. TDS is 4ppm with a ph around 6.8 to 7.0 I use city water. What type of unit do you have? Do you have well water?

"there's a gator in the bushes he's calling my name" LOL

 

[Guest]

No I have the worst tapwater imaginable,450PPM mostly calcium.Our water table rests on limestone,need I say more lol?I use a combination of dehumidifier water(about 5 PPM)and 5 stage R/O about 8-10 PPM.My R/o PH is always perfect,my dehumid PH though cleaner is always lower,sometimes 5.5.I'll pull 3-4 gallons per 24 hour period out of my flower room.I got a co2 controller and raised my temps to the proper level at the same time I started using R/O during flower,I know its mainly the R/o making the difference.I can visually see the plantys shoot up during the stretch much quicker than I was used to,thats a result of the co2.The plants finishing basically the same size and structure,the only difference being they must be supported and weight 25-30% more,I'm convinced is mainly from the R/O water.I could be dead wrong,its probably a combination of both.Believe it or not,its a real pain in the ass having plants wanting to fall all over themselves at 30-40 days with some snapping at the "wishbone",but its a blessing come harvest time!I'll never look at a pic of an unsupported finished beautiful trich covered plant in the same way lol.If its standing firm and high,it can use improvement!

 

[EZB581]

450 ppms I see what You mean! I was using tap water. I think the tds was 128 ppm's. This round I'm using the ro'di water I will have to see if there is any difference, thats why I was asking.
Dreamscape ,I never really thought about setting up on the 2nd floor, got me thinking.Also thanks or letting me butt in on your thread.


"You know and I know, I ain't the one,.never hurt you sweetheart, never pulled my gun"

 

[Dreamscape]

Hey EZ and Soilman

thanks for the responses ...

To start off ... the way my bathroom is setup (I only have one) ... you walk in the sink is about a foot or two in front of you on your right hand side and its facing the left wall ... about a foot after the sink is the toilet , directly facing the door and on the left hand wall is where the shower is - it runs perpendicular to the door - so its running along the wall the long way ... Then directly behind the shower/tub wall there is about a 2-3 sq. feet worth of empty space between the back of the shower and the other wall which is the end of the house ... but also attached is the wall to where the grow room would be ... And since I recently had a leak the wood panel/wall that was attached to the back of the shower has been removed exposing the piping so it wouldn't be too difficult to get to ...

The R.O. system I have I got off of ebay a LONG LONG time ago , probably around a year or so and its just been sitting around. Another member had got the same one and posted the auction link and I snatched it up ...

It says "dvoneb aqua" ... then "reverse osmosis water purification system" ...

I just went through the paper work and the only things I can seem to find that indicate some type of performance ratings are on one of the top most filters and it says "taste and odor reduction" then next to that it says:

Maximum flow = .50 GPM
Maximum pressure = 125 psi
Maximum temperature = 100 degrees F
Service Life = 1500 GAL

so i'm not sure if this is only for this top filter or for the system as a whole ...

 

[Dreamscape]

Ok ... after inspecting the back of my shower there doesn't seem to be any type of valve's available on the second floor ... and then with the sink and toilet they both each only have one valve ...

so i'm thinking I could hook some type of splitter up to the valve and then hook up the RO to one of the outlets on the splitter ???

 

[Dreamscape]

bumper cars

 

[EZB581]

hmmm You should be able to find a T/splitter fitting.
What You will need depends on the type of fitting the RO unit has on the water supply?
Does it screw onto a sink faucet or maybe a garden hose like mine?
Do you have a place for a washer & dryer? Where is it in relation to the room? You have several optins, here!

Maybe something like this,
http://www.ro-man.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=165

 

[Erin Kerrik]

RO purification is powered by the water pressure going in. Seems to me it would work much less efficiently (if at all) if the water on the other side of the membranes was pushing back on the side of the membranes that are supposed to have negative pressure relative to the supply.

Something to think about.

 

[SacredBreh]

Great idea guy but don't forget......

Great idea guy but don't forget......

A RO unit will need to drain the waste water also so there will have to be a receptacle that the waste water can constantly drain off into and then into the plumbing.

Peace

 

[Dreamscape]

Um ... can someone elaborate on the second to last post??

I dont quite understand why there would be water pushing back on the membranes ... is it because it would be hooked up to a bathroom sink or toilet as opposed to a kitchen sink ??

As far as the waste water goes - is it common to have the waste water line plumbed directing back into a drainage pipe as opposed to having a collection barrel that is plumbed into some type of drainage ??

Could I just run the waste water line into my tub since this is going to be set up in the bathroom ??

thanks
~ Dream

PS. I'll have some pictures up soon as well and I may end up duplicating this post in the hydro forum seeing as it gets more hits ...

 

[Dreamscape]

speed bumps

 

[Erin Kerrik]

Um ... can someone elaborate on the second to last post??

I dont quite understand why there would be water pushing back on the membranes ... is it because it would be hooked up to a bathroom sink or toilet as opposed to a kitchen sink ??

I misread your post - thought you were going to have the RO unit in the basement and run the output along your in-wall plumbing. Apologies!

As far as the waste water goes - is it common to have the waste water line plumbed directing back into a drainage pipe as opposed to having a collection barrel that is plumbed into some type of drainage ??

The unit will produce A LOT of waste water. If you could figure out a way to direct it into the toilet reservoir, you'd make up some of it. I try to reclaim some of it by using it on in-the-ground tomatoes, who don't seem to mind.

All in all, if it was my project, I'd get a many-gallon tub from Home Depot and set up the whole contraption in the bathtub/shower.