Waterboy

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I just got the waterboy R.O unit... the waste water outlet pipe, is there no way of recirculating the water back into the machine. cause it wastes a ton of water right?
 
There are people who have recirculating units of some sort but it would use the membrane a lot faster as the waste water has a TDS even higher than the tap water usually. The "zero waste" RO units usually pipe the waste back into the main household supply.

How much is the unit wasting as a ratio to what it's producing? It shouldn't waste that much more than what it's producing.
 
The waste depends on the tds of your water I think
 
It takes me a full day to fill up a 150lt Container with Ro water, and believe me if I say that I can fill a couple(more than a couple) of 150lt Containers in the same day with the "Waste water"
 
Your waste water is generally 2 or 3 to 1 depending on the restriction on the overflow. I collect the waste water and use it to keep my pool topped up.
 
yea mine makes about 300l and waste about 650l...but my TDS is 0 so i'm happy..
 
Mine is about 80 or so. It takes about 2 hours to fill a 25L container, never really need more than that for my tank so haven't ever left it on for a whole day. Twice as much waste as RO is still "normal". Did you flush the prefilters first before using the RO membrane?
 
well its not new... its second hand, no i didn't flush. is that bad? whats the max TDS count thats suitable for marines?
 
well its not new... its second hand, no i didn't flush. is that bad? whats the max TDS count thats suitable for marines?
Some say under 10.

I say 0, as if you have a value you will never know what is getting through, it could be the dreaded PO4.
 
3/4 waste water and 1/4 of ro water.
if tds goes above 8 you need to change sediment and carbon
if tds then stays above 5ppm after you changed s & c, then you need to change the membrane.

remember to rinse the (new)sediment and carbon out before ot goes threw the membrane.(let it bypass the membrane)

i wont let my tds go above 5ppm
 
Even if your TDS is 1 (very low), it could be made up entirely of PO4, and 1 ppm of phosphate in "pure" water would give a TDS reading of 1 as TDS is also per million. 1ppm of phosphate in your tank would be extremely bad though.
 
So how do you guys test your Ro water and with what thingie, maybe this is where my problem lies....

TDS meter, great investment. Most sponsors supply. Soon as my reading is above 0, I order new filter inserts and resin.

I used to buy RO from an LFS with a TDS of 5, and I had serious algae and cyano issues. So I don't trust any reading over 0.
 
My RO Unit drips a few drops a second of good water. Is this normal and how can you increase it?
 
My RO Unit drips a few drops a second of good water. Is this normal and how can you increase it?

Sounds about right. What RO unit do you have ? The flow can depend on if you have the resin compartment or not.
 
I have the RO + one. There is a resin compartment but there is nothing in there yet.

So basically you have to leave the tap on the whole day to get a few litres of water?
 
I have the RO + one. There is a resin compartment but there is nothing in there yet.

So basically you have to leave the tap on the whole day to get a few litres of water?

My unit uses the resin and it does seem to "slow" down the flow, but I normally get around 25L in 8 hours.

If it is only doing a few litres some part of the unit is not working 100%.

Search through some of the other threads and do some checks before sending it to an LFS.

Waterboy RO unit - Pumps and Waterflow

Waterboy R.O unit - Hardware For Sale/Swop/Wanted

RO Unit - Other Forms of Filtration

Slow RO - Beginner Discussions

RO systems - All Other Hardware

RO questions - All Other Hardware
 
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