House-wide RO filter

[Scoot]

The new home I'm building is going to have an RO filter for the entire house.

Does anyone else use one of these, and are there any suggestions/instructions I should give the builder as to how it should be setup? Are these efficient enough to really produce "pure" water? Are they as efficient as the small units (Like the water general system I have now).

I currently have a 100gpd RODI filter with a 3G tank and was planning on using it in the new home until I found out about this.

[austinsdad]

If a new house and opportunity exists, maybe consider a whole house water softener too. Clothes are whiter, we use less soap, less dry skin (removes chlorine), and it just plain old tastes better without the chlorine. We love ours. Just gotta replace those salt blocks (every 2 months maybe) and flush it weekly. No big deal. Still had phosphates.

Then, I use the RO/DI after that for the reef tank. No phosphates there, but we do rely on the whole house system and the fridge filter for drinking and cooking.

Is your water source maybe that bad to consider RO/DIing the whole house?

[Scoot]

There is a water softener too in the package. Of course, I'm guessing that we wouldn't want the softener to be feeding my own smaller RO/DI system?

Our water in Omaha runs around 350-400ppm solids (according to my meter on my RODI system). The builder installs an RO system by default.

[Zagz]

Moved to General Hardware/Equipment.

[Scoot]

Yeah - sure to get lots of help down here, with a whopping 759 topics.

This setup is for a reef tank. Isn't it appropriate for the reef forum?

Otherwise I might as well go ask on another forum where it might get noticed.

[Lepomis]

RO for an entire house is just a wast of resources. Are you really wanting to use RO water for laundry, dishes, watering the lawn, showers, etc...? I think a softner would be the way to go for most water needs and save the RO for the tanks, etc...

[EJS4]

Not to mention all the water you would flush down the drain so you could flush the toilet with ro water.
I agree with lepomis ro for entire house wastes to much water.

[Scoot]

Its not my idea - the home builder is doing it in all his new homes (in the $1 million plus range). I've seen his unit - its massive, about 3 feet tall. Its part of the plumbing package, and isn't really costing that much.

I think the RO unit is stricly feeding drinking water sources - probably not for showers/baths/etc. There is also a water softener that will probably feed those areas.

I'll ask about this. I know RO systems drain waste water, I don't want to be paying for all that, plus, its just a waste.

[Scoot]

Confirmed - the "house" RO system only feeds 3 faucets. Of course I'll use one of these to feed my own RO/DI unit, unless I'm getting 0ppb from the house system.

[Scoot]

Turns out I won't be using one of RO feeds for the aquarium water - there isn't enough pressure for one thing, and the water softener system which feeds the rest of the house has a pretty high end carbon filter, which will get TDS down pretty well, and remove chloramines and phosphates. That should still take a big load off my RO/DI system.

[BillD]

Are you sure about a carbon filter removeing phospahate, and reducing TDS? That is the first time I have heard of carbon doing either of those.

[Ziggy953]

Usually those systems are put on houses that have wells. Usually it is because the well water has something in it that is harmfull to humans. A friend of mine at work has a system like that for his whole house...cost him over $10K but if he didn't put it on the house they wouldn't be able to use the water that came from the well. If I were you I would do a bit of research on where your million dollar plus house is going to be built!!

Oh yeah...and FWIW...an entire house RO system is a General Hardware/Equipment Discussions topic.

[Scoot]

The water provider will be the same plant as the house I'm in now (I'm only moving a few miles). We do have a relatively high TDS reading - I researched the water quality prior to moving to a mini-reef. Nitrates and PO4 is fairly high, as are chloromines.

[Toirtis]

Originally Posted by Scoot

Confirmed - the "house" RO system only feeds 3 faucets.

Good thing, too....a good-quality system that would produce enough to feed all the household needs would have to produce at least 400-500 gpd, and would be painfully expensive and waste a ton of water.

[Scoot]

Originally Posted by BillD

Are you sure about a carbon filter removeing phospahate, and reducing TDS? That is the first time I have heard of carbon doing either of those.

Yes, in fact - most carbon filters for homes are specifically to reduce chlorine/chloromine - any filtration will reduce TDS. I'm not sure specifically about phosphate.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by Scoot

Yes, in fact - most carbon filters for homes are specifically to reduce chlorine/chloromine - any filtration will reduce TDS. I'm not sure specifically about phosphate.

The carbon will remove chlorine, but many carbon "blocks" won't really remove chloramines. Just pointing out that "all" carbon filters won't take care of both. If it's an important thing for you, make sure you specifically ask the question of your filter supplier.

Filtration itself may not necessarily reduce TDS. It all depends on the level of filtration. For example, running 88ppm tap water through my three stage filtration unit gets me 83ppm at the outlet. I guess it IS reduced, but for all practical purposes it's not.

Also - carbon won't get rid of phosphates.

[Scoot]

I did - I talked to the guy installing the carbon filter, water softener, and RO systems. I'm still going to use my own RO/DI unit, so ANY filtering before that will extend the life of my DI resin and RO membranes.