Reverse Osmosis Filters

[theroadwarrior]

I am trying to find a reliable reverse osmosis machine for a reasonable price. Anyone have any suggestions?

While this one is more than I want to pay I could save the cash and put it on my sears card.http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04238156000P?keyword=reverse+osmosis

I am not sure why it has a tank as I don't see any tanks with the RO systems on all the hydro sites. Would it serve the purpose?

 

[biz]

i got mine at home depot; and i use it all the time. RO water for my baby'zzz <3

 

[jamrockjay]

I have seen some on ebay today and some start from £36.99 here is the desription

100 US Gallon Per Day Reverse Osmosis System
This Superb Compact System is Supplied with a 378 Litres (100 US Gallons) per day Rated T.F.C. R O Membrane For the Production of Purified Water.

Supplied With a Self Piercing Water Supply Connector and 2 Metres of Connection Tubing, This Easy to Install Compact System Is Ideal For Supplying Purified Water For Your Aquarium.

Extra Connection Tubing is Available on Request.

The 3 Stages of Filtration are :

1. A 5 Micron Sediment Filter.
This Pre Filter Effectively Removes Dirt, Sand And Rust, Protecting The Rest of The System From This Type of Contamination.

2. A Granular Activated Carbon Filter.
This Pre Filter Removes Chlorine, Organic Contaminants And Pesticides.

Both These Pre Filters Have a Service Life of Approx 5000 Litres or 6 Months of Use.

3. A High Rejection 378 Litres (100 US Gallons) Per Day Thin Film Composite Reverse Osmosis Membrane.
This Membrane Effectively Removes Dissolved Salts, Lead, Copper, Barium, Oestrogen, Silica And Bacterial By-products.

I have also seen for £69 a 5 stage filteration system this is the description

100 US Gallon Per Day 5 Stage Reverse Osmosis Water Purification System

with Clear First Housing.
The 5 Stages of Filtration Are:

1. A 5 - Micron Sediment Filter Made of 100% Pure Polypropylene Fibres. Removes Dirt, Sand and Rust.

2. A Granular Activated Carbon Filter Composed of High - Performance Activated Carbon. Removes Free Chlorine, Odour, Organic Contaminants, Pesticides and Chemicals.

3. A Carbon Block Filter Composed of High Performance Carbon. Removes Trihalomethanes, Pesticides, Volatile Organic Chemicals and 99.95% of Giardia and Cryptosporidium Cysts.

4. A High Rejection Thin Film Composite Reverse Osmosis Membrane with the Capacity to Produce up to 378 Litres of Purified Water per day . This Membrane Removes Contaminants Present in your Water Including, up to 99% of Dissolved Salts, Lead, Copper, Barium, Bacterial By-Products, Oestrogen and Silica to Mention but a few.

5. A Post Carbon Filter Designed to Improve Taste. It Removes any Residual Impurities and Odours from the Tank and Provides a Finer Conditioning of the Purified Water.

we Carry a Supply of all Parts, Components, and Filters.

I must point out i dont know anything about these but after reading up on them they look simple to use, however i dont know if these would be suitable for our needs, maybe someone else with greater knowledge would help with this. For the price they look a good buy compared to some i have seen online (£450+) for what looks like the same product... I would be interested to know what peeps think about these systems, the one down side it seems is the life of the filters but this seems to effect all the filters from various 'brands' of system...

I hope this is some help to u..........

 

[snowkitty]

I'm new to all of those reverse osmosis business. The two names at hydroponics stores seem to be SpecturePure and HydroLogic.

Can anyone educate me...what is the difference between home depot/sears systems and the ones sold at hydro stores? Am I overpaying at the hydro store or is it offering me something ??

If you are using one from home depot or an aquarium supply store, I would be interesting in know the name/info/features...

 

[FaderVader]

I'm new to all of those reverse osmosis business. The two names at hydroponics stores seem to be SpecturePure and HydroLogic.

Can anyone educate me...what is the difference between home depot/sears systems and the ones sold at hydro stores? Am I overpaying at the hydro store or is it offering me something ??

If you are using one from home depot or an aquarium supply store, I would be interesting in know the name/info/features...

Two common types of household RO membranes are the Thin Film Composite (TFC or TFM) membrane and the Cellulose Triacetate (CTA) membrane. The main differences between the two types are filtration ability and chlorine tolerance. The CTA membrane is chlorine tolerant, but is more susceptible to fouling from bacteria, and it only rejects 93% of standard contaminants. The TFC/TFM membranes reject 98% of standard contaminants on average, are less susceptible to organic fouling, but it can only treat chlorine free water. Carbon pre-treatment must be used with a TFC/TFM membrane when purifying chlorinated municipal water supplies.

Commonly fish and hydo stores carry tfc/tfm due to quality for life. Cta's are generally regarded as good for drinking but not as pure (cheaper systems) You will have to double check the type of system offered at your locations.

 

[snowkitty]

FaderVader, thanks for the RO membrane 101!!

I my case, I have chlorinated municipal water (and I know my muncipality is fighting a switch to a chloramine-treated source). This means I am going to need to use carbon pre-treatment if I chose TFC/TFM. TFC/TFM sounds like the better choice over CTA based on the contaminant rejection rate and the and issue of bacterial fouling.

My next question is what cautions I need to use with RO water before feeding it to my plants. Is it true that I can rob my water of nutrients to the point where I need supplements other than my normal A/B and nutrients? I'm all ready to get the most pure water possible for my little babies but I don't want to go overboard and harm them...

 

[tokinsmokin]

Shop on ebay, by far cheapest prices there. RO units have actually gone up in price quite a bit since I bought mine 5 year ago. I have a 6 stage RO unit that cost me $70 bucks. You'll be lucky to find a 6 stage now a days for around $150. There's no need for a tank, unless you don't want to wait for drinking water. RO was a great investment in my mind and is nice to be able to adjust PH with ease.

 

[snowkitty]

A lot of people have been mentioning ebay systems...I don't know why I have a desire to go with a name brand but I'll have to check it out.

Tokinsmokin, you mentioned that there's no need for a tank so I am guessing you buy one system and install it near your water supply? Right now I have three different rooms with their own faucets in them and I am used to using each of those water supplies in each room. So I am just trying to figure out how I would hook reverse osmosis up if I decide to go that way. I am almost thinking I need a tank in the middle of my living room...LOL...not sure how to go to a centralized r/o water supply...

 

[sparkjumper]

You really should google the apec R/O 45 which is what I use.I was running 25-30 plants in flower and 25 in veg with the 45 GPD,but they make um bigger of course.I like the fact it was a five stage unit and they sent extra prefilters which I just changed after about a year.There customer service is excellent.I was about to blow 80 on a new membrane but he just told me to replace the prefilters and he was right.It comes with a 3 gal tank that takes maybe 1 1/2 hours to fill with my R/O 45.I leave the unit on running 1/2 inch plastic tubing from the spigot to a 50 gal water barrel.I just leave it on and it takes maybe 20 hours to fill it.Its the bomb man.You can just dip your one gallon water planter into the barrel,set it down and take care of nutritional business lol.I love my R/O filter and 50 gal rainbarrel

 

[tokinsmokin]

Theres no need to go with a name brand. I bought a system that they don't sell anymore but I can still get cheap replacement filters for my system off ebay and even at local stores I believe as well. Well the tanks are designed for drinking water and are usually pretty small (saw one that was 4 gallons). 4 gallons just doesn't cut it for me. A better way to go is to hook up a float valve to your reservoir and the RO can fill up whenever. Personally I installed my RO below my sink and have a lever to turn my RO on and just leave it on for several hours to fill my res up. The key is to get a membrane that has a higher output. I used to have a membrane that did probably 25-50 gpd (gallons per day). I just recently bought one that outputs 100 gpd, which makes filling up my res so much quicker. BTW my RO unit takes my tap water 200ppm down to 4ppm.

 

[BigGreen]

I have a 6 stage I got on ebay about a month ago my ppms were 500 now they are 0. Its very simple to hook up just get the garden hose adapter and hook it up like that. I got it for $130.00 plus a little extra for the extra hook up and float. Get the one with out the tank just use a big garbage can. Heres a link http://stores.ebay.com/Filter-Direct-store

 

[FreezerBoy]

Have we seen this DIY RO Filter?