RO water Waste water problems

[KipperSarnie]

I finally got to plumb my RO unit into the fish room with a storage tank & a float valve. no problems... Till yesterday when my wife informed me that there was water leaking from a red pipe (Waste) into the garden.
We're on a water meter & the unit has been set up a couple of months now!!!

So some questions:

Is there a way to have a fully automated system or do I have to switch the water supply on & off when I draw RO water at water changes, so that the Float valve will only prevent the storage tank over flowing?
Anyone had the same problem?
If so how have you overcome it?

 

[ian_m]

Ouch ouch ouch.

Your waste will typically be at least x5 the rating of your RO unit, even more maybe x10 if not using a booster pump !!!. At about £3 per 1000litres in UK for domestic water that can be ouch.

My brother put a hose pipe down the mole hills in his lawn one Friday night and forgot until Sunday afternoon.....that cost £250 in water....expensive moles who ignored the water and dug his lawn up even more....

Anyway you can get auto shut off valves the cut off the inlet when no water is being drawn from the RO outlet.

http://www.ro-man.com/shop/accessories-and-extras/auto-shut-off-kit.html
http://www.ro-man.com/shop/accessories-and-extras/auto-shut-off-valve.html

If on a meter I would get a booster pump that will bring the RO unit up to its rated capacity. Most RO units and pumps are rated at 8bar, most domestic water you will be lucky if you get 2bar, thus will be running at least 1/4 efficiency, usually much worse.

http://www.ro-man.com/shop/pumps/reverse-osmosis-system-pump-only.html

Remember to test your RO water as RO units are not guaranteed to remove chlorine and chloramine, unless a kept up to date dechlor pre-filter is used. This manifests itself as chlorine in the RO water (and destroyed membrane) or ammonia (from chloramine). If you can't be bothered to test, just aerate 24hours before use to gas off chlorine/ammonia or dose Prime. Done.

 

[KipperSarnie]

Thanks Ian, I've ordered a shut off.
Luckily my wife goes to Australia for a month 3 times a year, so nothing ever said when I get it wrong & I can live with the "Looks"

 

[Chrispowell]

If you were getting your water from an outside tap you could also use a timer to turn on and off once you knew how long it took to fill your container