# Another RO Newbie... can you help ?



## Christian Walker (23 Aug 2013)

Hi there, I have been reading a few peoples journals and posts since joining recently and one thing that I am quite keen to do is to get my water softer.  Mine is medium hard (apparently) and ideally I would like to both reduce the hardness, lower the pH and eliminate some of the rubbish that has been added to it.

From what I know (or it may be myth) about RO units from years ago, I do have a few concerns so here are some questions that hopefully some of you knowledgeable guys can help me with...

1) Can I connect an RO unit to an outside tap and run it outdoors ?  
2) Is it ok just to use the RO unit once or twice a week and then shut it off and put it away once you have made enough water ?
3) How long can you store RO water for before having to use it ? (IE does it go stale quickly ?)
4) Once I know how long it takes to make my desired amount of RO water, could I hook it up to a timer valve ?

and finally

5) What pH and hardness will the RO water come out and and what do I need to get it back to where I want it to be (soft water and about 6.2 pH)?

Thanks.


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## DrRob (23 Aug 2013)

1) Yes, although you get better quantities if the unit is warmer.
2) Yes, although you'll want to wash the membranes every so often and it mustn't dry out.
3) Properly sealed, in theory indefinitely, in practice it'll always leech in contaminants eventually, but it'll stay good for a long time in the right contained.
4) Yes, although there will always be some variability with temperature and pressure of the incoming water.
5) Hardness should be pretty much zero, acidity will be, in theory, around 7, but will in practice, not be, but with no hardness will be unstable anyway. Options are to cut it with tap water, which personally defeats the purpose for my way of thinking, or to add in chemicals, you can get pre-made or mix your own brew, depending on what you want to do.


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## Christian Walker (24 Aug 2013)

Thanks Dr Rob.  You said its ok to only use weekly but to keep the membrane from drying out.  How is that achieved ?  Does that mean you have to run water on it each day or something ?  I dont want to buy a unit then ruin it, but I dont want to produce water every day either.


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## sa80mark (24 Aug 2013)

The way your looking to use your ro unit is very similar to how I ran mine the easiest way to keep the membrane wet it to have isolation taps on the pipes, just shut these and leave the unit full with water then when you use it next just run the unit for half hour before starting to collect the water 

Hope that makes sense 

Mark


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## Christian Walker (24 Aug 2013)

sa80mark said:


> The way your looking to use your ro unit is very similar to how I ran mine the easiest way to keep the membrane wet it to have isolation taps on the pipes, just shut these and leave the unit full with water then when you use it next just run the unit for half hour before starting to collect the water
> 
> Hope that makes sense
> 
> Mark


 

Sounds perfect, thanks Mark.


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