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RODI In an apartment, questions galore!


Gooburz

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Ok so I live in an apartment and will be in one for a few more years. Some questions may be dumb so please be kind :)

 

- Is it difficult to install a RO/DI unit in an apartment, has anyone done this before, and my plumbing skills are lets put em at novice/tard lol

- Will I need a holding tank for the water it produces or is it filter as it goes?

- I don't need a high output RODI unit, could you provide a link where I can purchase one?

- How often would I need to change out filters and are they pricey?

 

Thank you so much in advance!

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I'm moving to an apartment soon and when i lived in one before we had our RODI unit split in with the water line for the Laundry machine, we kept our spare RODI water in a giant Rubbermaid tub.

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here fishy fishy

I had a rodi in an apartment. I used a hose splitter off the washing machine line. Yes I had a holding tank. I also invested in a timer because I would forget I was making water and leave.i got mine from bulk reef supply. How fast you need to swap out filters depends on the water quality in your area, no they aren't pricey.

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BuckeyeFieldSupply

Ok so I live in an apartment and will be in one for a few more years. Some questions may be dumb so please be kind :)

 

- Is it difficult to install a RO/DI unit in an apartment, has anyone done this before, and my plumbing skills are lets put em at novice/tard lol

Nope. If you can screw a garden hose on you can do it w/o much trouble.

 

- Will I need a holding tank for the water it produces or is it filter as it goes?

A holding tank is a good approach if you'll have the room for it. Depending upon the size of your tank, the holding reservoir may not need to be bigger than a 5 gallon bucket.

 

- I don't need a high output RODI unit, could you provide a link where I can purchase one?

Would love to, but these bulletin boards don't care much for commercial posts!

 

- How often would I need to change out filters and are they pricey?

Assuming you get a 4 stage unit, sediment filter, carbon block, and DI resin you'd likely change every 6 months. A replacement kit is less than $30. RO membrane is good for 2 to 5'ish years.

 

Russ

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Yep, and it's easy as pie.

 

post-73301-0-72196900-1363557985_thumb.jpg

 

Right side is obviously the SpectraPure RO/DI. There is a y valve from my cold water line. One line goes to the washer and Is always open. The other line I keep closed until I need to make some ro water. The black tubing (against the wall) is the cold water line, the blue tubing is RO/DI output, and lastly the yellow line is the waste water.

 

This is easy, quick, and out of my roommates way :D.

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Didn't even think about hooking it up to the washer line with a splitter, genius idea!

 

And I've heard that you can buy a refurb unit, are they worth checking out?

 

And I understand you can't advertise companies on the forum, my bad.

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I had a rodi in an apartment. I used a hose splitter off the washing machine line. Yes I had a holding tank. I also invested in a timer because I would forget I was making water and leave.i got mine from bulk reef supply. How fast you need to swap out filters depends on the water quality in your area, no they aren't pricey.

+1 I did the same exact thing

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Didn't even think about hooking it up to the washer line with a splitter, genius idea!

 

And I've heard that you can buy a refurb unit, are they worth checking out?

 

And I understand you can't advertise companies on the forum, my bad.

 

Unit in my pic is a SpectraPure refurb. Love it. It has a few physical knicks on the plastic but who cares? It lives in a closet. Long as the filters are good.

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Yep, and it's easy as pie.

 

attachicon.gifhttp://www.nano-reef.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=121031'>photo.jpg

 

Right side is obviously the SpectraPure RO/DI. There is a y valve from my cold water line. One line goes to the washer and Is always open. The other line I keep closed until I need to make some ro water. The black tubing (against the wall) is the cold water line, the blue tubing is RO/DI output, and lastly the yellow line is the waste water.

 

This is easy, quick, and out of my roommates way :D.

This is what I want to do in my condo, I went to turn the cold water off and that freakin thing doesn't even budge!

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BuckeyeFieldSupply

This is what I want to do in my condo, I went to turn the cold water off and that freakin thing doesn't even budge!

Just had this same issue on a RODI system install we did. Because that valve hadn't been closed in years, we had to use some brute force to get the shut off to turn. But then it wouldn't shut off. The rubber washer inside the faucet needed to be replaced as well. If worse comes to worse, replacing the entire valve is very easy:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202369984?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051&N=5yc1vZbbl6&R=202369984

 

Just remember to turn off the water at the main valve before you remove the bad hose bib.

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Mine is with the washing machine, too. If you're bad about leaving the water on creating floods sit your bucket/jug on the lid of the washing machine, that way if it overflows it goes into the washer instead of on the floor.

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AZDesertRat

I use a brass garden hose Wye with individual shut offs on the washing machine cold water line. Before I automated the process I also used a digital kitchen timer which I could clip on like a pager so I would not forget I had water running and flood the wifes kitchen......not that I ever did that more than once... or six times!

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JediL1C1OUS

You can get a brand new BRS 5 stage for $144. I love mine. Here's a testimony... I didn't use the unit for over 3 years and after hooking it up again, it STILL produced 0 TDS.

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theplatypus

I made a little adapter out of pvc parts and hooked it up to the shower stem. Remove the shower head, attach the ro/di unit and turn on the water. An unplanned advantage of doing this was if I forgot to turn off the water it wouldn't flood.

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I use a faucet adapter in my bathroom for the input line, ordered it with the Purely H2O RODI unit. Takes about 30 seconds to unscrew the faucet aerator and then just pop the included washer into the adapter and screw it on the sink faucet. Have plenty of line length to put the whole unit into the bathtub along with a five gallon bucket for the RODI water, the reject line just lays in the bathtub and the water goes down the drain. Granted, I only make 10 gallons every two weeks but it works very well for me.

 

They currently have it on sale, the Optima 4 stage Nano RODI unit for $119.00. I got mine a year ago for $139 but it included duo tds meters and a backflush valve.

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So obviously there are fifty different ways to do this, and none too difficult.

 

Now the second consideration begins of "Does your water line provide enough pressure!?". Desert Rat is here and can school all of us on the proper ways to fix your pressure. I'm sitting at 65psi which I believe is the minimum for keeping a healthy RO/DI. I'm also on the third floor and happy that I didn't have to also budget for a booster pump.

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AZDesertRat

A RO membrane will function down to 40 psi, thats as low as Dows graphs go though. More pressure is better and will give you a better rejection rate or removal efficiency but it wil work as designed at 40-50.

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  • 6 years later...
Matthew420

I'm about to start a saltwater tank and I'm on city water that comes from a lake reservoir and is treated with chloramine what type of RO/DI should I get and how many stages?

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On 6/2/2019 at 5:08 PM, Matthew420 said:

I'm about to start a saltwater tank and I'm on city water that comes from a lake reservoir and is treated with chloramine what type of RO/DI should I get and how many stages?

My water is hard with high tds, treated with chlorine and chloramine.

 

I have a 5 stage, use 2 carbons, 1 regular and 1 for chloramine. 

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I lived in NYC for 7 years in an apartment. I didn't have a washer to tap into so I just screwed it into the faucet but this is all personal. 

 

Just a few friendly thoughts on apartment living with an RO/DI though:

1)Always make your water with the buckets in a bath tub or sink in case you overflow it. No matter how good you think you are, time+the hobby will always prove you wrong.

2)Apartment's can often have hyper local water issues. Meaning that your building or even apartment may have a water issue but the one next to it doesn't. I learned this one from replacing my filters in my RO/DI via routine maintenance then the very first time I went to make water I came back into the bathroom to find the filter dark brown. Days later I found out the building had a liner go in a holding tank and it produced a TON of sediment. End result...new filters in trash

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1 hour ago, cityreefer said:

Just a few friendly thoughts on apartment living with an RO/DI though:

1)Always make your water with the buckets in a bath tub or sink in case you overflow it. No matter how good you think you are, time+the hobby will always prove you wrong.

 

Sage advice, and not just for apartment dwellers. My wood flooring near my furnace closet can attest to this.

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