My filterdirect Ro/DI unit is messed up

[robpardee]

I got the filterdirect ro/di unit off ebay from you guy's recommendation and it is a good unit but Im having some confusion. My TDS from the unit right now is 45. not good I know. It has been 9 months and it's time to replace my filters which I will do once my order to arrives with my new filters.

 

What i'm confused about is my lfs told me that the ro membrane alone should drop the tds to 20 on average obviously depending on your area but for our area they said it should be around 20. Since, the tds is at 45 that would mean my membrane is bad, but it's only 9 months old. so I don't know what to think.

 

The other thing Im confused about is when I called filter direct to ask they said that the ro membrane should only drop the tds by 10% but that seems really low, is it?

 

Thanks all

[AZDesertRat]

There is no such thing as an average TDS number from a RO membrane. It is entirely dependent on your tap water TDS and the effficiency of the membrane. Also are you measuring RO only TDS or RO/DI TDS at 45? Its possible the membrane is fine and the DI is probably way past needing to be changed. Use your TDS meter and measure your tap water TDS, RO only TDS and finally the RO/DI TDS. It takes these three numbers at a minimum to troubleshoot a RO/DI unit. We should also add your water pressure both incoming to your home and available at the RO membrane after the prefilter and carbon(s), your water temperature and your true waste ratio (should be 4:1 waste to good).

 

You are not using the post RO taste and odor carbon filter are you??? I certainly hope not as it will add TDS back into your treated water and should only be used for RO only drinking water and never for RO/DI.

 

Prefilters and carbons should be changed every 6 months like clockwork and more often if you have high sediment or particulates in your tap water. If your utility uses chloramines as a residual disinfectant you will want to switch to a much higher quality carbon block such as the Matrikx+1 0.6 micron 20,000 gallon Chlorine Guzzler series. Only one carbon is necessary if and only if you also use a much higher quality prefilter of at least 1 micron or less, preferrably 0.5 or 0.2 microns so it protects the carbon block and allows it to do its job of adsorbing chlorine and VOCs, not acting as a secondary prefilter like yours now does.

 

Do you know which membrane your unit was supplied with? It could be a GE, Applied or Dow Filmtec if its a name brand or any of a number of Chinese knockoffs which are not approved by the ANSI/NSF for drinking water systems in the USA. Its important to know what membrane you have as some have very different filtering capabilities. Hopefully its not the Dow Filmtec 100 GPD (worst of the bunch) or a knockoff and it should be a Dow Filmtec 75 GPD (the most popular by far) or a GE 100 GPD equal to the 75 GPD Dow in every way.

 

Personally I'm not sure who recommended this unit but they did you a disservice in my opinion. There are much better units for only sligtly more money. Since you already own it you can upgrade it so it works well though by using better filters and either reconfiguring the DI orientation or beter yet using the second un- needed carbon canister and replumbing it as a true 20 oz vertical DI filter for less than $10 and about 20 minutes time.

 

If I might suggest something here, one of the best RO/DI suppliers is right next to you there in Ohio and he reworks hundreds of Filter Direct units every year to make them actually work. Talk to Russ at www.buckeyefieldsupply.com . I know lots of Ohio people like to stick together and buy local, I know, I have been married to someone from Ohio for 31 years myself!

[robpardee]

Wow, that's alot of info, i'll do some testing and looking at that website and then get back in a bit.

 

Thanks for the help though!

 

I will say i'm surprised as alot of people on here have recommened that unit.

[Phixion]

Rob, pardon AZ, but he's a WaterGeneral nazi. There is NO disservice in recommending this unit as it's served everyone I know that's gotten one, very well including myself and it indeed comes with quality components despite what AZ might tell you.. If you got the Reef oriented model with the dual DI conisters, then it came with a GE/Desal membrane which is one of the industry standards along with FilmTec.

 

AZ, have you ever OWNED or even seen a WaterGeneral RO/DI in person? If not, it's probably most wise you not slander their product, thanks.

[AZDesertRat]

Yes I have disassembled several of them on the bench side by side with real reef quality systems. You can argue all you want but they are not the same quality. Let me now ask you, have you owned or even had the opprotunity to see a quality system like the others? I would most certainly think not otherwise you would not swear by them like you do. There is a difference and you get what you pay for.

 

Find some friends with other systems and all of you get together in a room with them. The very first indication is sheer weight alone. The better quality ANSI/NSF 42 approved housings weigh more due to the structural integrity. You will also find better brackets, better fittings, and easily better filters in the higer quality systems. Try it and then get back to me.

[John_A]

I got a Water general from advice here And I love it! had not problems what so ever with it all I did was rerun the hoses to the di chamber to get more contact time and put them vertical other then that awsome filter would recommend to anyone

[Phixion]

I'll tell you one thing AZ, I get together with friend withother systems, and we'll all find out that we're ALL getting 0 TDS water. That's what the ultimate end result is, right? I paid for a 0 TDS system, and 0 TDS is what I get. You can argue against that till the cows come home, but 0 TDS is 0 TDS, PERIOD! YOU of all people should know and understand that.

 

So what's a better filter than Matrikx?? That's what my WG came with. What's a better membrane than GE (which you also recommend), as again my WG came with one. Housing mean NOTHING to me nor should they for most of us unless you start getting into areas of extreme temperatures, because I sure as heck have NEVER heard of housing failures in standard installation of any RO/DI system any of us on here would have. I guarantee you that WG uses the same housings as Bulkreefsupply, Airwaterice and others. If they used these "fancier" housings you elude to, then their prices would certainly be much higher. Testing ain't cheap and we all know that.

 

And YES, I've used other systems, they all work the SAME, that is producing the same 0 TDS water end result. Look, you can't fool anyone otherwise here. And FWIW, I know fellow reefers that have traded up a Mighty Mite for a WG system and haven't looked back since! Now THAT oughta tell you something considering how good AWI systems are.

 

I got a Water general from advice here And I love it! had not problems what so ever with it all I did was rerun the hoses to the di chamber to get more contact time and put them vertical other then that awsome filter would recommend to anyone

 

John, don't sweat AZ, he's just a WaterGeneral nazi and hater for no legimate reason.

[AZDesertRat]

Be careful who you call Nazi pinhead. I just call them like I see them. The WG units I witnessed disassembled were not the same quality as the others on the very same workbench. The others also included instructions written in clear precise american english, not poorly translated Chinese or Taiwanese or whatever it is, poor by all accounts. I would be ashamed to publish a document worded like that.

[John_A]

Oh Im not worried about what anyones *opnion* Phix Thats What Ya get on here But Like You said and I couldnt have put it better I paid for a 0tds water filter thats what I got I dont care about manuals or none of the other things listed above What it boils down to is this Whats coming out at the end 0tds water and thats what I want Yeah I am sure I could have spent more on some bigger more heavy unit but why? When all thats gonna be coming out of the hose at the end is 0tds water Water General filters work just fine for alot of people Your gonna have some who dont like them for whatever reason much like anything else in this world A old saying used to say You can please everybody all the time

[er1c_the_reefer]

Be careful who you call Nazi pinhead. I just call them like I see them. The WG units I witnessed disassembled were not the same quality as the others on the very same workbench. The others also included instructions written in clear precise american english, not poorly translated Chinese or Taiwanese or whatever it is, poor by all accounts. I would be ashamed to publish a document worded like that.

 

 

poor translations in product manual equates to poor product quality? come on now. have you read tunze manuals? they're not that great on translation either but tunzes are without a doubt superior products.

 

i have a water general too. granted i don't get 0 TDS, it's still a pretty good RO/DI unit for the price. i'm lucky to get TDS <20, but granted i haven't changed any of the stages in over a 10 months, it's pretty damn good.

[Phixion]

Be careful who you call Nazi pinhead. I just call them like I see them. The WG units I witnessed disassembled were not the same quality as the others on the very same workbench. The others also included instructions written in clear precise american english, not poorly translated Chinese or Taiwanese or whatever it is, poor by all accounts. I would be ashamed to publish a document worded like that.

 

You honestly have no room to speak on WG, considering in a previous post you seemed to elude to that WG and FilterDirect are the SAME company, and also related to PureWaterClub. Who would even begin to think about believing you when your statements are so skewed and jaded. WG is made in the USA and is an AMERICAN company. WG is it's OWN company and FilterDirect is merely just a retailer for WG and in no other way associated with them. PureWaterClub has NO affiliation with WG either. If they buy WG components, then that's a whole other issue. WG ain't a Taiwanese or Chinese product either. Chinese components maybe, but I assure you ANY RO/DI system YOU would recommend would have at least one Chinese or Orient manufactured part on it, that's just the facts of life today whether we like it or not. As Eric said, bad instructions DO NOT mean bad product. Tunze is a wonderful example of this and there's others I've seen as well. The more you make statements about that like you did, the more foolish you look and become. And you hit it right on the head, you call them as YOU see them through that tunnel vision of your's. I'd venture to say a WG has never graced your banch, after all your knocking on it, it would be unorthadox for one to have been in your possession, am I right? I know many here will agree with me on that.

 

Anyways, WG are great units and mine as well as others keep on producing 0 TDS even a year after purchase. You as well as I know that if they had crappy filters, 0 TDS would have been loooong gone! Sorry to burst your bubble, but your assumption of bad filters in WG units is just that, ASSumptions.

[AZDesertRat]

If that's what you believe then thats great. I guarantee you though if you purchased a true reef quality unit and ran the two side by side with identical water conditions the reef quality unit will produce more 0 TDS water per cartridge than the one you presently own. Guaranteed. Look at long term cost of ownership and something like a Buckeye Premium, PurelyH2o Optima, AWI Typhoon III, Filter Guys Ocean Reef or the Cadillac the Spectrapure MaxCap will win every single time period, if not they would not all be in business, some for 25 years or more. Its pay me now or pay me later. I choose to pay more up front to save from then on.

 

Try purchasing another unit and compare them side by side sometime, you will be very disappointed in your old unit if you do. Take your blinders off.

[Phixion]

Every single time, huh? I don't need to compare, I know people with said name brand units and around the same tap TDS as I have, their RO/DI end result lost it's 0 touch before mine did. Numbers on paper only go so far. Myabe they just had bad DI or something, but facts are facts, and that's exactly what that is. You WON'T win this battle against FACTS, that's just the way it is. Deal with it and move on! Anyways I can pay later, Spectrapure is having a massive sale on filters right now. And BRS filters are always pretty dirt cheap, with my club discount they are anyways and they sell Matrikx filters which we know are some of better ones on the market.

[121a]

you guys scared the op away

 

a filter is a filter and zero TDS is zero TDS. Yes they may be made of higher quality materials but it is not like we are flinging them around our houses or anything...well you might be at....

[The Propagator]

I own a Kent Maxima ( reef model 75gpd ? ), a Coral life 50gpd reef model, two water general 110gpd dual DI reef models, and 1 Pure water club 110gpd unit with dual DI.

The brackets are the same weight and thickness ( little different mounting orientations of course )

The Filter cartridge housings are the same weight and thickness for their respective sizes ( clear of white makes no difference in structural integrity ). The only discernable differences are in the DI mounting orientations, the DI resins used stock, the DI housings, The auto shut off valves, and the flow restrictors.

By and large it is better to buy a cheaper unit like the Water general units and upgrade the membrane and DI resin while re-orientating the DI housing the vertical versus horizontal mounting as they come in stock form versus buying and expensive unit out of the box. They all use the same coconut fiber pre filters, same GFC carbon filters, and they pretty much all accept any membrane as they are pretty much all standardized now. I purchased my latest RO/DI unit ( the pure water club unit ) off of Ebay about a year ago for $75 shipped ( and change ). I replaced the DI resin when I got it, as well as the membrane ( ordered it all at the same time ) and it was still well over $125 CHEAPER then any other "quality" brand out there available at the time and it still performs identically.

 

Funny you mention Buckeye Field supply.

I have spoken with Russ over at Buckeye Field Supply many times about this very subject.

He purchases all the parts and assembles his own for resale here in Cincinnati. His are a tad heavier built but that is due to him using industrial strength materials to start with ( meaning housings only mind you. the brackets are all the same. But you are never going to see a housing fail in home use other then the occasional worn seal. There simply will never, ever, EVER be enough back pressure to blow one out). During my discussions with Russ he openly told me ( because he is one hell of an honest guy ! ) The only differences in the Chinese/ebay models and what is considered a major quality brand here in the states are membranes, and resins. The units them selves are completely fine in just about all cases.

So basically its an end user decision. Turnkey with every thing already in its place for a lot of $$ or a little DIY for less $$. Flow restrictors rarely fail, nor do auto shut off valves ( they can, don't get me wrong but its rare ). So seeing as these are the only real quality differences once you replace the resin and membrane why would a person go out and spend $300 plus on a "name brand" unit that does the same job as the one you can buy and fit for under $150 ? Makes no sense to me at all.

 

Gaskets fail on all of them over time. Thread tape springs leaks, and every once in a while a person will buy a unit of any brand with a little off set thread or mounting hole. Crap water to begin with or to low or high of starting pressure combined with to cold or to warm water temp will effect every unit in the same manner no matter how much it costs you or " how well its built" .

If that's the argument then that's not a very good one as they ALL suffer the same problems.

All those makers you named AZ are in business still because once upon a time they were the only option for reefing. They have a great reputation which obviously sprouts great word of mouth sales and trust. SO it only makes sense they will always have a core base. BUT that does NOT mean that they can not be matched by a cheaper unit simply based on how heavy duty the housings and brackets are. That is simply ridiculous IMO. From Russ's own mouth "it is possible to take a Chinese unit and make it perform on the same level as a brand name with a little modification".

THAT is why Russ gets good business. He does build a quality product but its more because he is an honest guy who will bend over backwards for you no mater what filter you have to help you achieve your goal while saving money how ever possible. NOT because nothing made can match his systems, or be made to. That is why I give my business to Russ when it comes time to replace membranes, filters and resins.

 

My suggestions and recommendations will remain the same because they to are based on real world comparison and fact. Buy that cheaper unit, replace the membrane, DI resin, and relocate the Di chambers to vertical versus horizontal and you will have a fine unit.

 

 

Now for the original poster........

try back flushing your system for 10 -15 minutes. It sounds to me like you just have funky water to start with and your membrane may be funking up. Check your resin as well. they do use cheap DI resins that deplete rapidly compared to other better quality brands. I would upgrade to color changing ( possibly nuclear grade ) if I were you. If you haven't already done so re mount your DI cartridges to a vertical position versus the stock horizontal position. In the stock position they will channel out and not fully utilize all of the resin available. Just make sure the in lets are on the bottom, and the out lets are on the top when you remount them and you are good to go.

( You can get all the tubing you need form HD or Lowes for about $6.00 where they keep the fridge ice maker/ water tubing.)

[Phixion]

Prop, very well written for one! You do know that AZ WILL find fault with your post and still argue the filters aside, the Ebay units still suck!! Remember, he's RO/DI God and has 35 years experience...

 

And 121a, he'll never admit to the obvious that you and I have so well pointed out. The day that AZ says "yes you're right, 0 TDS IS in fact 0 TDS no matter the unit used" will be the day I rest my case with him. Since we're in a current trend of global warming, I don't see h3ll freezing over anytime soon though.

 

This all said, from your post Prop I have a better appreciation for Russ now, and an even lesser one for AZ. In fact, I really even doubt his evaluation abilities from his test bed cusidering the false info I've seen him spew since he's been on here and made his initial NR post as a flame to me about WaterGeneral.

[AZDesertRat]

Quality costs money plain and simple. You can argue till you are blue in the face but they are not the same.

 

The brackets are not the same. Ask Russ how many he has had to modify or replace on the cheaper units to get them to accept vertical housings. The holes are not there and on some they are plastic vs better aluminum of powder coated or painted steel. The filter cartridge housings are not the same on all of them. better vendors use ANSI/NSF 42 housings which have higher pressure ratings and have been tested to receive that certification. The materials of construction between a clear and opaque housings are completely different. Opaque are actually much stronger. Housings break all the time, I wish I had pictures of the pile we had where I used to work.

The filter cartridges are nnot the same by a big stretch. A 10 micron filter is not anywhere near the same as a 1 micron or beter yet a 0.2 or 0.5 micron absloute rated prefilter. Look up the definition of nominal and absolute. The carbons again are not the same. Yes Matrikx carbons are the industry standard but a 10 micron carbon is not the same as a 0.6 micron carbon in any way shape or form. Just because its a brand name does not mean its the same filter. Prefilters are not coconut fiber, most are spun poly. Carbons are formed blocks in better units and some cheaper ones still use very inexpensive and very inefficient granular products.

Membranes can be all over the place in quality. Its best to stick with GE Water, Applied Membranes or Dow Filmtec. Most of the off brands do not meet NSF certification criteria and for a good reason, they do not meet the removal or rejection rates required. Better companies like Spectrapure go several steps further and use a proprietary treatment process on all their membranes which enhances both production and quality. On their Select membranes they go even further and individually hand test and guarantee their production rates and water quality in writing. I know of no other company that offers this service or guarantee today.

DI resins for the most part are bought from a supplier and dumped in a cartridge. Again Spectrapure batch tests all their resin then the custom blend them for optimum results. They have a long term resin test project going in their shop that has literally thousands of hours of test results logged. They will only sell the best.

Russ sells a 75 GPD RO/DI for $169 that is extremely hard to beat by anyone. Does your $75 unit have a 1 micron prefilter, a 0.6 micron carbon block, a Dow Filmtec 75 GPD membrane, a 20 oz vertical refillable DI, an inline pressure gauge, a RO bypass valve, a capillary tube flow restrictor, a TDS-3 handheld TDS meter.....? You really do get what you pay for. Add those things to your and you probably exceed Russes price.

 

Describe how you "backflush" a system. There is no such thing with a home type RO system. Some vendors will sell you a flush valve which has absolutely no proven value other than profit in their pocket. Why recommend color changing resin when a TDS meter is the only reliable way to gauge resin condition?

 

Your recommendation to turn the DI housings vertical is a good call and I always recommend that. Also make sure the housings are packed full. Resin actually shrinks with usage so voids will happen over time and short circuiting can still happen. Pack them tightly so water has to change directions to get around the resin for best treatment.

 

The mark of a good system is how long you can make 0 TDS water. ANY RO/DI worth its salt should make 0 TDS water for at least a little while, its the good ones that make it the longest.

[r20crazy]

FWIW,

 

spectrpure is having a sale right now, just click the link in the RC sponsors section for the special page [20-50% off]. I got 4 new filters (0.5 micron) and 90gpd membrane for under $100 for my WG unit. this will be the 1st service my unit has gotten in over a year [other than di change], and I bought it used.

[hcsceo]

I agree with Phix and Prop on this one. 0 TDS is 0 TDS whether it came out of a gold plated, diamond encrusted faucet or the drain of a toilet. I bet an industrious DIYer could make one out of mason jars and some tubing to put out 0 TDS that was plenty reliable. Throwing good money at an expensive unit is a luxury many of us don't have. There really is very little that can go wrong with a RO system. ALL the technology is in the media.

[nanoty]

Holy hell I am not reading all of that. Just popped in to say I'm still getting 0ppm TDS from my WG unit over a year after installation and all I've done is add some more DI resin about a month ago. I don't even have the DI canisters mounted vertically like I should. I could pay a lot more for a lot of the stuff I buy but why? Contrary to what everyone says budget reefing is possible.

[Phixion]

Quality costs money plain and simple. You can argue till you are blue in the face but they are not the same.

 

Russ sells a 75 GPD RO/DI for $169 that is extremely hard to beat by anyone. Does your $75 unit have a 1 micron prefilter, a 0.6 micron carbon block, a Dow Filmtec 75 GPD membrane, a 20 oz vertical refillable DI, an inline pressure gauge, a RO bypass valve, a capillary tube flow restrictor, a TDS-3 handheld TDS meter.....? You really do get what you pay for. Add those things to your and you probably exceed Russes price.

 

 

The mark of a good system is how long you can make 0 TDS water. ANY RO/DI worth its salt should make 0 TDS water for at least a little while, its the good ones that make it the longest.

 

You really don't read, do you? Don't post up something as long as the post you chose NOT to read. Prop specifically says you can buy a cheap $75 Ebay unit, throw on a DOW membrane and Matrikx filters from BFS and still spend less than you would for a brand name same number of stages unit with those components already installed. He also clarified on brackets. Russ is either telling you something different than he told Prop, or you're still finding smoke to blow out of your arse. Eitherway, I'm gonna take what Prop says to the bank over you since you're a one-way stubburn know-it-all. That's exactly how you're attitude is and comes off as to most of us on here frankly. The housing topic was also gotten into. Those "certified" ones you speak of are INDUSTRIAL strength and are NOT necessary in a home use application as our units will NEVER EVER see the pressures those are rated for. You want an argument for housings, talk about seals like Prop did which is more real world for our applications that high pressure ratings our plumbing couldn't even handle. The housings on my WG are pretty damn thick, enough so that I'm pretty certain I could chuck it from 12 feet high onto concrete below and it wouldn't shatter into pieces or possibly even crack. The housings that you've seen break, are ANY of them from HOME USE applications, as in mounted under a sink in a residential house?? I highly doubt it. The only housing failure I ever heard of was someone that had their RO/DI outside in a place that gets down to 0 degrees in the winter.

 

Also quality does NOT always cost more money. You want a good example of this?? Sure I got one, more fact than your off the paper examples. Nike, best shoes in the business, right? At least the most expensive. Money = Quality by your statement. The ONLY pair of Nikes I've have ever owned lasted me LESS than one year (9 months to be exact). And I'm not hard on shoes by any means. Way back when I was kid, I'd get Pay-Less shoes all the time and they'd literally last YEARS and you know how hard kids are on shoes and things. If $15 shoes can last that long, then there's NO reason why $70 shoes shouldn't last as long. So there's a great example of quality= money fail as the clear quality shoe cost a fraction of the price of a "better" competitor. Is a BMW or Mercedes better than a Honda? Absolutely not. Sure it costs 3 times as much, but you're going to be taking that Bimmer or Benz into the garage for repairs far sooner than you will be with the Honda. I do not consider the more expensive car better quality when it's half as reliable. Something you probably forget is only a few manufactures even make housings. They then sell them to all the companies that distribute RO/DI systems. This applies to filters as well, only a few companies make them. This means that even Matrikx makes ones that even chaper systems might include but they are sold to the companies like PureWaterClub unbranded in generic packing, thus they cost less but are actually the SAME thing as you'd get from BFS or even BRS (BulkReefSupply). Sony was notorious for selling their Trinitron tubes to generic TV companies years ago. So you could essentially get a Sony quality TV without actually buying a true Sony brand since the tube used is what makes the TV what it is in the first place. You definitely don't know much about business, marketing and merchandising if you've failed to over look this.

 

Let's get into the mark of a good system is how long it retains 0 TDS... Mine went for over a year at 0 TDS, WITH verticle DI canisters and WITH your claims of horrible filters (which I know are really Matrikx brand) and it outlasted people with Typhoon III and comparable "brand" name systems and you still want to say WG are terrible systems?? I thought you oughta go back to school with rationale like that. But I know you're too good to fess up and say maybe you were wrong, maybe you under estimated them. FACTS ARE FACTS, they will not go anywhere. Why ignore them when they prove what you refuse to ackowledge or want to hear. Your ignorance and lack of being a man and owning up to maybe some false or misled info on your part become more prevelant everytime you reply further on this topic. Experience in the field only gets you so far. Unless you have the real-world experience with the subjects at hand, then you have no factual info to speak off of. Prop and myself DO having owned and delt with various other RO/DI systems besides WG.

[Pickle010]

My eyes hurt.

 

I luv my WG.

 

0 = 0

[The Propagator]

Russ wouldn't tell you anything I said was incorrect frankly. So if you repeated my words verbatim or at least in the right context Russ would have said something like " yeah man that's about right but you can just buy a turnkey with all that already on it " and that would have only came out that way because lets face it Russ is a business owner and needs to sell some damn product like any other business owner ( I would have too ! ). Hell Russ's are great quality for that matter. His also come with pressure gauges, TDS meters and the works for the price though. ( certain ones do I think any way ? ) I am not and will never diss Russ or his products. I think they are fine. But you can achieve the same results for a little less money by piecing a cheaper unit together your self. How do you think I know what I know about this stuff ?

I asked Russ. Like I said before that's why he will get my business for membranes and resins, and why so many like to buy from him. Its hard to find honest sellers now days in this hobby. When you find them you appreciate them and give them repeat business. It's not simply that Russ has the best out there. Its because the type of guy he is that makes him money. Ask any one out there.

 

Aluminum brackets versus steel ? Why is that even a deciding factor with any unit on the market ?

They are ALL heavily painted to begin with because they are wet use appliances. as well they all use SS screws to hold the housings on ( well MOST do any way ).

I specifically addressed the whole bracket, membrane and cartridge deal in great detail already so I am not going back and repeating it even though you chose to ignore it for some reason and then state almost exactly what I already have like ti was new and I completely left it out. I'm sure you are a perfectly nice guy, and I am sure your RO/DI units are great but that dosen't give you license to thrash all others and make false accusations about their quality or performance. I feel I need to repeat this little detail again though........

You will never see pressures more then 80-90 PSI in your home unless your taping into the freaking fire hydrant out side directly off the main and reducing it down to your unit. Even with a pump you would never run it high enough to blow out a canister, housing, or DI cartridge. Just wouldn't happen. Thread tape, gasket..Jacko fitting, auto shut off valve ? Sure. Just as you would ANY unit using extremely high pressure over time though. I find it ridiculous to say cheaper units will crack under pressure with an 80 - 110 PSI pump OR under normal home service pressure though.

I have a feeling you are speaking form experience only from your work who more then likely use an emulsion system or some other extremely high pressure ( well a lot higher then your average RO/DI for home use any way ) system to filter water cooled machinery, or large batches of product of some sort. In which case the two are not even comparable. Not even the cost of the membranes are the same because industrial membranes for high out put systems are on average about 15"-24" long ( and up ) as well as twice as large in diameter. The filter canisters on an industrial RO/DI unit are even from 15" - 24" long. They have ss or brass fittings as well. Not plastic ( in an industrial set up ).

The comparison is like comparing a CAT DC10 and a Tonka toy. There is no comparison.

 

That's all assuming you are ( which I tend to think you are ) using industrial set ups at work and comparing them for home use. and for the records YES mine does have a 1 micron prefilter ( .5 - 1 actually). As I said before and I will say it again...........you can add any thing in place of the stock components you want to because they are virtually all standardized sizes now for home use.

[er1c_the_reefer]

if i build a bass pond in my backyard do i need an industrial sized RO unit?

[The Propagator]

As long as you have a stream feeding or a barley filter and at least a perforated stand pipe I reckon you could fill it with what ever you wanted Eric LOL!