Check this out.

http://www.spectrapure.com/email/customer-...eciation.html#1

wow what a rip off! I got a 100GPD 6stage for $99.

No comparison in quality of performance though, its what's in the stages that counts.

I beg to differ. It matters what the TDS meter reads.

But for how long will your TDS meter read 0

I have read a lot of AZDesertRat's posts, The man really knows his stuff when it comes to water quality.

You hit the nail on the head. ANY RO/DI should deliver 0 TDS, at least for a little while. The difference is for how long which equates to long term cost of ownership. Pay me now or pay me later is what it comes down to, higher initial cost and lower operating cost or lower initial cost and higher operating costs. In the long run the better unit wins every time. Ask someone like Randy Homes Farley who is a long time Spectrapure user with his last membrane lasting 10 years, there must be something to it. I know for me when my DI usage went from 150 gallons per 20 oz cartridge to over 900 gallons per cartridge I was an instant convert!

im venturing into buying my own RO/DI would the $149 suffice?

Its a very good unit. one thing Spectrapure does unlike any other vendor is give all their membranes a proprietary treatment that improves both their GPD and their rejection or TDS numbers. On the MaxCap they go a step further and individually hand test and guarantee the membranes to be 98+% efficient but they tell me even in batch testing which the normal membranes receive, they all do 98% but no written guarantee and test report. At $149 with batch tested membrane, dual inline TDS meter and pressure gauge plus their hand blended SilicaBuster DI resin its a steal.

Does Spectra carry any membranes that can be used with a Mighty Mite?

All their membranes are standard sized 1812 series so will fit in just about any system. A few exceptions include Whirlpool systems from Lowes, some Sears and some Watts Premier systems but most of these are drinking water type systems anyway and use an 1810 series membrane which is slightly different.

Just make sure to get a matched $4 capillary tube type flow restrictor and spend the couple minutes required to trim it correctly so you get an exact 4:1 waste ratio.

For a complete RO/DI noob who needs about 20gallons per week and who wants to capture and reuse the waste water for laundry and plants, which of the models below offers better quality/value. Thanks in advance for your expertise.


The $149 Spectra Pure Pro Plus• SpectraPure™ 98% Plus-Rejection TFC membrane
Dual-probe TDS Monitor (monitors RO and DI performance)
• 1.0 µm MicroTec™ High Efficiency Sediment Pre-Filter for best protection of the carbon block filter
• 1.0 µm High-Capacity Carbon Block Pre-Filter Treats over 9,000 Gal of water
• 33% larger capacity SilicaBuster™ 10" DI cartridge

Also includes standard pressure gauge and clear filter housings, filter wrench and a 3/4" garden hose adapter.


Or

The $199 75 GPD RO/DI Plus system from BRS (currently on special with five free sediment filters)

4 stage RO unit with a 75 GPD Dow Filmtec membrane (Click for Specs)
Single stage DI unit
Deluxe quick connect MUR-LOK fittings featuring dual O-rings for complete safety (Click for Specs)
5 micron depth sediment filter (Click for Specs)
5 micron MATRIKX CTO/2 carbon block (Click for Specs)
0.6 micron MATRIKX+1 carbon block (Click for Specs)
Refillable DI cartridge filled with color changing DI resin
Auto shut-off valve
1/4" quick connect drain clamp
Chrome faucet adapter
One MUR-LOK Ball Valve (Click for Specs)
Filter wrench
Self piercing saddle valve
One garden hose and laundry tub adaptor .
Dual TDS Meter
Pressure Gauge
Membrane Flush Kit

Kind of a toss up but I would give the Spectrapure a slight advantage. For one it has a beter membrane since it is treated with Spectrapures proprietary treatment process abd should give you a slightly better rejection rate thus lower TDS and longer DI life out of any resin. Next it has a better 1 micron prefilter which does a better job of protecting the downstream carbon block. Finally it uses their custom blended SilicaBuster DI resin which by itself should last at least 30% longer than normal mixed bed resins.
The BRS unit on the other hand uses a better final carbon block but without the smaller micron prefilter in front of it its lmost meaningless, the pores can be fouled or plugged with everything up to 5 microns in size.
It also includes a faucet adapter and self piercing valve although you only need one or the other not both and a drain saddle if you choose to hook it up permanent. Spectrapure like lots of others in the industry, Buckeye Field Supply is another, chooses to not include all those items and instead have you specify hpw you intend to hook it up and supply only those parts at a reasonable charge. I for one have several self piercing valves and drain saddles laying around I never used.
Add it up and the costs would be similar but the Spectrapure will give you longer filter and DI life.

Thanks, Rat. I appreciate your input. I hope to meet you sometime at a fragswap of LFS.

Love your screen name by the way, only an Arizonan would get the significance though!

Damn good prices there!! I see the filters/membranes sale is still going on as well.

For the price for an entry level user, the $150 model really can't be beat for what it includes.

Just got mine the other day, already made 30 gallons, the thing is GREAT! has a digital TDS and pressure gauge.....amazing buy. the date of manufacture of my unit was 9-9-09....the same date as my purchase. so they pretty much build them to your order. completely plug and play. +++++

on a side note, yucaipa california tap water is only 002/3 tds.... amazing quality for tap!

Noticed that this sale is trickling to the websites. You can get the maxcap 90 at marineandreef.com for the same price with free shipping. Called spectrapure and let them know this and they reduced my shipping from 27 bucks to 6.50. Figured I would rather get it direct from the manufacturer then second hand, glad to hear your experence caps, it confirms that the extra 6.50 over free shipping will be worth it.

go team spectrapure!

I was at Spectrapure recently. Gibbs has been an awesome help! And their product and customer service is top notch!

The sale is still going on. I just ordered all new filters and a new flow restrictor for $97.62 shipped.

Thanks for the link AZ

Can i add a valve or connector to make this unit portable?

If you plan to hook any unit to a kitchen faucet all you need is a faucet adapter, the RO/DI does not need any modifications at all. Many come with a hose bib adapter standard as does the Spectrapure units, it can be connected to any hose bib thread like outside for the garden hose or to the washing machine cold water faucet, or the bib adapter screws right to a standard faucet adapter.
Attach the inlet to the faucet, stick the waste line in the sink, the good line in a bucket or jug and let er rip. When you have enough water, shut the supply off, disconnect it from the faucet and stick it in the closet until next time. Its that easy.

Man, I cant decide between the maxcap or the proplus.

AZdesertrat can you tell me why should I pick the maxcap over the proplus? Thanks

my tds is 216 out of the faucet. Does the maxcap make more water longer lasting filters?

I'll defer to others as to the quaality of the unit - but for a RO/DI with a Dual inline TDS meter - those prices are pretty much rock bottom. The TDS meter is 50 bucks at many online retailers - sells for $25 on ebay.

Looks like a hot deal to me.

The long term cost of ownership will be much less with the MaxCap.

Hey Rat,
Is there anyway you can use the ProPlus for drinking water as well (RO only)? I plan on ordering this but also need to find a way to justify the buy with the wife if you know what I mean

Sure, all it takes is a tee, check valve and ball valve between the membrane and DI if you want to do it manually or an ASOV and the same to do it automatically with a pressure tank. I did the same to my MaxCap system and it worked great.

Great that's just the ticket..now off to place the order

By the way, would it be easier if I just get a 3-way valve in place of the tea/check valve/ball valve? It ends up costing the same but less fittings to play with I'm thinking.

Watch out for very slow service from Spectra Pure. I ordered a ProPlus system over 10 days ago and they have still no shipped it out. When I called to check on the status they told me the systems were "built to order" and that mine was in the queue to be built last week. Still no word from them on when it will finally ship. Didn't realize this was such a slow process....!

They are correct. Its not really slow service, its just you are getting personal service. They are built by hand, one at a time in Tempe AZ and the person who built it will put his initials right on the unit for quality control. No mass produced Chinese imports that come over by the ship load there! Its worth the wait.

^Good to know! I ordered one myself and I patiently wait...

I ordered one too. I got the proplus because I have a Kinetico whole house filtration and softener already, So my water gets treated before it even goes into my RODI unit. I should be good for a while with the included membrane

RO membranes love water softeners, they do much of the work for them! Its kind of like pretreatment.

which of these filters would fit and be best for my 5 stage BRS plus unit? it pushes 75 gpd but i don't see any filters that fit that usage.

The Spectrapure 90 GPD membrane starts out life as a 75 GPD Dow Filmtec but gets treated and tested so it produces more and at a higher rejection rate. Same physical size and fits in the same housing. The prefilters and carbons as well as DI cartridges are all standard 10" size so any will fit what you have.

For best performance, carbon life, membrane life and DI life I would go with the 0.2 or 0.5 micron prefilter, 0.5 micron carbon block. 90 GPD Select series hand tested membrane, MaxCap DI and SilicaBuster DI.
You can now buy the MaxCap DI in bilk which is a new thing.

AZ, I need a .2 micron prefilter and a standard housing (broke the input on my last one dangit). What should I be looking at on that site?

They call their 0.2 micron filter a ZetaZorb prefilter. I don't see housings in the sale flyer but you can always call them on their toll free number and ask about pricing and availability. I think you ask for JR if I remember right.

I finally got my ProPlus and installed it this weekend. All seems well. I do notice a very slight off taste when tasting the water (though the meter reads tds=0). I suspect this is the reference on the website about the resin giving a tiny off taste which they described as fishy. I'm not sure I would call it fish, but more just "off." Are there any worries about putting this off tasting water in my reef? Should I flush it out more?





One other question. The manual says not to restrict the flow of the waste line. I just want to confirm that it's okay that the waste line is flowing "up hill'. As the unit is under my sink it has to flow up to the P trap. I'm assuming this isn't restricted in the sense they warn about....?

Hey All, I have a few noob questions that I hope you can help me with.

Our house is on a well and had very bad water. hard, and very high ph. So we spent a bundle and put a beast of a whole house system on. We have a neutralizer and softener on the house, and RO unit at the kitchen sink.

Question 1. Would the system we have on the sink be the equivalent of one of these RO units? It has 3 cartriges and a 4gal storage tank.

Question 2. We also had tannins. Would the house system take care of that, if not would the RO/DI do the trick?

thanks in advance

RO/DI will have a very blah, bland taste and is not appealing. If you want to drink it put a tee and ball valve between the RO membrane and the DI so you can drink RO only which tastes great,

You are good. By restricting the waste they mean adding a valve or fittings to further reduce the waste ratio which will shorten the membranes life since its the waste that flushes the membrane.
Hopefully you took the time to check and adjust the capillary tube flow restrictor which will keep things at their optimum perfomance.

Generally drinking water type RO systems have a lower GPD RO membrane since 75 GPD is not needed for drinking. Many systems will accept the industry standard 75 GPD 1812-xxx series replacement membranes though with a few exceptions. It may also use lower end granular activated carbon which has a relatively short useful life in higher capacity systems. Again though it probably uses the standard 10" size filters and these can be upgraded. You would also have to add a DI filter on the end for reef use.

Tannins are usually taken out or lowered by the water softener using special resins designed for that purpose. The RO should remove the rest.

Pulled the trigger on the Maxcap.. I got the faucet adaptor as well.. My tap water is coming out @ about 500 tds.. Should I get a prefilter or do you think it will be ok?

The MaxCap comes with a 0.5 micron absolute prefilter, they don't come much better. If you find you hav problems with the 0.5 try their 0.2 ZetaZorb prefilter, its pleated and has 10x the surface area so lasts longer, filters better and has less pressure drop in my experience. Thats what I use on my MaxCap UHE system.

I wish I would have found this thread earlier I just ordered the mighty mite.

Thanks for the info...Do you have any pics of how you tee'd the system before the DI section for drinking water? Still not a hundred percent sure on how to do this.. Can I find the required peices at the local hardware store?..Or should I just ask JR to build my unit a certain way to acheive this...

http://www.spectrapure.com/manuals/DWK.pdf

Page 8 shows how to plumb unit

Nice!! Looks like a tee will work before the Di filter.. I'm not going to go all out and get a storage tank unless they are cheap.. We'll see..

thanks Rat! you're our H20 Go2

When I use my filter my water seems to have a slight amount of floating foam. This is super minimal but it does seem to have something floating on the surface. Is this normal. Wondering if this is related to the off taste.