I live in a desert and my tap water is >400 PPM even when I use a boogie filter.
Been thinking about getting an R.O. system for a while, but since I started growing it seems to make a lot more sense.
I used to work for a city water dept and I can handle basic plumbing that includes soldering.
I think I’d rather get something hooked up to my pipes and use it to fill water jugs. My fridge doesn’t have water in the door and right now I buy R.O. water for drinking and ice (and now my plants) in those 5 gallon jugs. I think for my uses something I can plumb in to a hose spigot would work better for me than a kitchen unit.
I haven’t even really started shopping, so I don’t know if they even have something like that. Thought I’d ask you guys for ideas before I started looking around.
We’ve been buying RO for drinking and the plants too. 5 jugs/week or more depending on how many plants I’ve got going.
We get our tap water from a dugout on my property and it’s 400ppm+ and pH8+ depending on the time of year. Spring melt that fills it lowers both the pH and PPM.
As I need specialized filtration and sterilization I just bought all the parts from a company called The Water Guy. About $550 for all the parts. The filter housings were half the price and clear too so easy to see the filters.
We already filter down to 5µ so my RO unit will have a 1µ filter → standard carbon filter → 0.5µ carbon filter → RO filter → branch off for grow water → UV sterilizer → branch off for coffee maker water → then a Carbon/Calcite filter to ‘polish’ the water to make it tasty and add some minerals to the water for drinking. In 6 months or less it will pay for itself and the input water is free. It’s kind of stinky even when it’s clear and clean looking so that’s why there is 3 carbon filters altogether.
The filter housings take any standard 2x10" filter used in most housings.
Here’s the basic layout and I just have to get it together and hook it all up downstairs.
We did a major kitchen reno last year and opted for a tankless R/O under the sink: iSpring RO500
It’s rated for 500 gallons per day. I haven’t used it for the garden since that would require lugging water to a different level of the house. It sure is tasty for drinking with the addition of a few drops of trace minerals (and a squeeze of lime!).
WECO MX-350. Don’t bother with the MX-350ALK because you don’t want the alkali “addback” cartridge lol. WECO makes some very nice filters of all sizes. They use AXION membranes and those are quality.
I realize this is an old thread, but I wanted to ask about your water.
My FIL has a farm that has well water that stinks of sulphur. Harmless but not pleasant to drink.
Is this a similar situation to yours? If so does an RO filter do the job? I’m reading all this stuff on oxidizers and chlorine and hydrogen peroxide injections and I just can’t get a handle on it.
That sulphur smell can come from excess manganese. We had a deep well in BC and it was like that. A Brita water filter got the smell and taste out really well but does nothing for most of the minerals that RO gets rid of. An RO filter should fix it fine. Some of those other methods are for full house treatment as RO is pretty expensive for the whole house but would be nice.
Have they ever had the water tested for all the various minerals etc? The town water here still tastes like crap thru a Brita filter so we have been buying RO for 20 years.
Jeez, a whole year has passed since I posted about about the stuff I got and it’s still laid out on the coffin table where I took the pics. Wife just mentioned yesterday that it’s been over a year since I got that stuff and I said no way.
I imagine they’ve had the well tested but don’t know the details.
Good to know RO will fix it. Even if it’s just for drinking water from the kitchen sink/a shower and not the whole house it would be a big improvement. They use these kool aid type drops to hide the taste which I think is a bit over the top.
Hell even bottled water just for drinking would be a big improvement. The well is fine for doing dishes and the like.
Been using RO system made by Waterdrop. Super easy under the sink install. Drain line goes right into the main sink drain line. Faucet placed where a sprayer handle would be. I bought the one with the single filter and it’s lasted me almost a year and I use that thing. Faucet base has a readout display for TDS and I’ve checked it and it’s accurate. They have a couple models on amazon. Think I paid around $300 for it.
Looks like I got something else to do some research on now. 