[neil100]

I'm going wfp.

I like the idea of a static tank in my garage.

But  who should I choose to supply me with an ro sysem?

wwwro-man.com.  Their prices look very good. In fact the cheapest I have seen on the web. But are they any good?

Is anyone useing their products, how do you rate them?

200 gpd system for under £200.thats less then the cost of 3 bags of resin.

Does anyone know what 200 of us gallons are in uk liters?

Any replies, I would be thankfull.

Nel.

[Sarah Sarill]

Hiya Nel,

We purchased a shed based 300gpd RO-Man system in July and other than a few small leaking problems (which we sorted out with plumbers tape) we have had no problems.

It was fairly easy to install and the instructions were quite straightforward.

Have not yet replaced any of the resins and use about 450 ltrs a day.

It is normal to get readings of between 10-20 at output so we polish up to 000 in the van when actually cleaning.

The waste on the RO is much less than the waste on the Merlin if you are considering that system, but Roy Harding has a system that produces less waste than ours does so perhaps he will post later.

Sarah

[neil100]

Thanks Sarah,  Whats your tds reading beore it goes in your ro unit?

Is it with or without pump?

I have a presure reading of 3bar and 14ltrs a minute flow rate,

My tds averages 110.

Thanks,

Is it raining where you are because its pouring cats and dogs outside here.

Nel.

[Sarah Sarill]

Thankfully its dry today here.

Our in reading is approx 157 and usually 14 out before polishing.


Our 300gpd came with a pump clicking away as we speak !!!

No idea what flow rate we have as I dont venture in the shed but will ask the master water maker when he comes home later   :

Sarah

 

[Andrew McCann]

Hi Nel

RO man stuff is very good for the job and great value.

I use a non pumped 200 gpd one and at 50 PSI water pressure I get around 600 ltrs per day ( 24 hr day ) from it. You could probably get more with higher water pressure though.

My TDS in is usually just over 400..  YUK!!!  but I get output at 8 to 10 depending on the day. One thing I would make sure you do is REGULARLY flush it. It's built in to be able to do it so its real easy. That makes sure you get the best TDS out of it.

Hope this helps

Andrew

[neil100]

Thanks again Andy and sarah,

Do you use a Submersible pump from your static tank to your van tank?

I know they are very fast at trasfering the water.

Nel

[Roy Harding]

Hi Neil


R/o man is very cheap and it will produce 200 us agl per day for £200 all in.

As Sarah said I have a pentair 4 x 40 R/o with 20" fillters ect and 25" D/i colum 1,000 ltrs = 200 gal in 3 hours.

My tds is 234 at tap and 0.1 before polishing and a waste ratio of 1 to 1.

But cost not much change out of a thousand quid.

The merlin will produce a large amount of water but the waste is far higher and from posts I have seen 40 tds before polishing.

If your having a static tank system R/o mans system will suite most, as you can leave it running as long as you require.

I have been wfp for 2yrs and use about 450ltrs max in a day.

Regards Roy

[Sarah Sarill]

Hi again Nel,

We have a sub pump and a 2" dia hose to transferre the water made in the shed to the van approx 20ft away.  It fllls the 1000 ltr van tank in about 10 mins or so.

Sarah

[neil100]

Thanks Sarah,

Are submersible pumps a standerd size? width wise I mean. I'm going to buy a 1000ltr ibc  storage tank. I take it the pump would fit through the hole at the top or should I wait till I get the tank, measure the opening and then buy the pump?

Pump for sale on ebay, ref no below.

Item number: 4416054198

Regards Nel.

[Sarah Sarill]

Dont know if they are a standard size Nel.

We had to take a small hack saw to ours to make the opening bigger.

Would assume though different tank manufacturers make tanks with different size holes and likewise the diameter of the sub.

Either way as long as you cover the top and no debris gets into the tank you should be ok -  we haven't had any problems with contamination with ours.

Gave fun shoping - its a minefield.

Sarah

[neil100]

Umm had an intresting conversation late this afternoon with a company who is in with a shout of supplying me with a van mount system.

He said ro- mans ro units are designed basicly for domestic drinking supply use only.
Their not designed for w/cleaners who want a 1000 ltrs a day. The ro units wont stand up over a period of time to that kind of use. There designed for use in a warm country like Calaforina. The units are a lot more effective over there because the water is warmmer when it comes out of the ground and the air tempreture is warmer so they are more effective. Because the water is colder over here it tends to be thicker so the membrenes are not as effective. So as the temp drops through winter these systems are going to struggle to produce water.

Is that right?Do you have to change the filters a lot more then an industrial ro machine?

If you use a pump with them they make a lot of noise, especially at night when its working all the time to produce enough water. true or false?

Because their so much cheaper then a dedicated ro system I wonder if hes right, or is he giving me speel to try and get a sale?

Not that easy trying to decide what to buy and who from.

Thanks if you reply, Nel.

[matt]

ive had my RO MAN unit for 15 months now

it produces 50 - 60 Gallons a day, 4 days a week

now the guy might be right, mine isnt designed to produce 1000 L's of water, thats why its a 50 or 60 Gall unit

if you get a 100 Gall unit, it will produce 100 Gall's of water (give or take)

keep in mind i use between 100 and 150 L's a day, doing tops only, so the unit produces EXACTLY what i need, i have a 210 L rain water butt in the garage and all is fine and dandy

IF i needed more water, i would get a bigger water storage container (or link TWO rain water butts together ) and leave the RO on for the whole week

in my humble opinion, the RO unit is where people get OVER SOLD the most

as i allways say

Pure water  -- Pump -- Pole -- Brush -- glass

it doesnt matter if its DIY built or a 5 K system, it still does the same job

[pjulk]

I have a pumped 200 GPD Ro-Man filter.
I does more than enough for what i need.
I have it on for about 12 hours at a time and produce 400 ltrs of water and that does me fine.

And the pump makes hardly any noice at all.

Paul

[Morph]

Ironic ain't it?

[Kinver_Clean]

We have been carpet cleaning for 25 yrs and now have got a wfp system using a ro-man ro unit. Our normal water pressure is 40 psi (takes ages to fill a kettle) so we have put a pump on the inlet. This gives us 140 psi as it is a 100 psi pump ( off a cc mc) Everything seems to be working ok with 450 lts produced in about 9 hrs with about 30-40% waste.

The question is-- will this pressure damage the unit or do we need to cut it down.

The reason we started wfp is that we had so many ask us as we cc'd. One month marketing and 92 customers already.

Trevor

[Roy Harding]

Hi Trevor

I purchased a small R/O from pete its the same as R/O mans and it had a sticker on it saying do not exced 70 psi as it will damage membrains. But my preasure was 80 psi and it did no harm.

My new R/O says dont exced 400 psi, I wish.

Roy

[neil100]

How do you work out your psi pressure?

United utiliets called round yesterday and tested the preesure of our tap water.

Pressure was 3bar.

Flow rate 14 liters per minute.

I've also been informed to get a LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM. IF JUST USEING MAINS PRESSURE.

Are Ro-mans ro systems low or high pressure?

Thanks Nel.

[Kinver_Clean]

You need a pressure guage (similar to a tyre pressure guage) Put it on the tap via a hose or hose connector and turn the tap on. Youll probably get soaked but will end up with a reading. My unit has a guage on that normally says 40 psi. I have a pressure pump off a carpet cleaning mc that is governed to 100 psi from an inlet of zero (out of a tank) so if you put 40 psi in and switch the pump on it will give 140 approx.
1 bar is 15 psi near enough so you have 45 psi. As a newby I thought that a RO unit runs best at 70-80 and at room temp or slightly above. Our water comes from an above ground tank at the top of the hill, being in the country, and it is now cold , about 10-11 deg C. Overnight the TDS meter has changed from zero to 1 ppm and the green light has started to flash- does this mean the battery is going or that I have 1ppm? Our inlet is about 140 ppm normally but is reading 125-7 at the moment. I have been thinking whether to run the mains into a small tank and heat this slightly and then use the pump to give 100 instead of 140 psi.
Other than that the round is beginning to build we put 150 leaflets out yest pm and had 3 calls this am.

What a lot of questions!

Trevor

[g_griffin]

I`ll try my question here  :.
 I`m thinking of getting a small RO system for trad. work.
  Are they easy to fit and use?

             Gerry.

[g_griffin]

Should I ask under a new topic?

[matt]

yes, they come with a self cutting tap, you just cut into a 15mm pipe

personally i dont like this idea

so i just whack a bit of hosepipe and a jubilee clip on it, then connect it up to a tap with a hoselock connection

then you just run the waste to a drain or garden

its all very easy

[g_griffin]

Thank you Matt.

              Gerry.

[Kinver_Clean]

Having dug around a bit I have found that the flashing green light tells that v=everything is OK :

G Griffin--Try looking on www.osmotics.co.uk there is every thing you need. Perhaps I teaching Granny to suck eggs--- It all clips togther.

Trevor

[g_griffin]

Thanks Trevor.
 I know v.little about RO systems so any advice is appreciated.
 I think even I can manage clipping together.
   Thanks again.

             Gerry.

[neil100]

Thanks for all the posts on this subject.

Made my decision today not to go with ro-man systems. Having searched the web their systems do seem to be targeted for domestic use, or for people who keep tropical fish.
Not slagging anyone off who's got one, if it works for you great.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        But had a look at a lads static system today who as been wfp for 5 years and he encourged me to buy from here,  wwwgapswater.co.uk. They have an industrial ro system for £595.00 incl vat. More money but if I expand I know it will be up to the job.

Allso He answered my other question should I go for 1/2" hose or microbore.He had 2 reels of 8mm air hose, He says its the best thing hes done since he went wfp. Its so much easier,really light, As no problem with plant pots etc because it is so light. He cant understand why more wfp dont use it. He runs both reels off 1 shureflow psi 100 pump and the water gets up his 80' pole with no problems.

Plus you get 100 mtrs on a 50 mtr reel and its a wiss to wind up.

Thanks Nel.

[Ian_Giles]

I think you might find the reason the smaller bore hose isn't used as much on big reels (50m or more) is that most of us have 60 psi pumps.
When you get up to 50m of the air hose the flow rate is almost non existant for cleaning  windows.
You need the 100psi pumps.
From what I now gather, these pumps cope with the smaller bore hose very effectively.
I too have the same type of system as ro man supplies, it works fine, and if someone is trying to say that water gets thicker as it gets colder...er, well, they are the thick ones, very unusual stuff is water, and it has many properties that make it an incredible substance, getting thicker in the cold isn't one of them!
When it gets thicker you will know about it...its called ice
The cold does affect R/O membranes though, their efficiency drops a little apparently.

The expensive R/O setups are top stuff, and if you are a two man operation then you may well need one that will produce more pure water in a given time.

If your work is all domestic (or mostly) and a large percentage of that work is on housing estates, for a rough guide, if you allow 18l of water per house that should give you an idea of your water needs.
If you are cleaning....say 20 houses a day (or the equivalent) then you could need as much as 370l of pure water a day.
Even on a really heavy usage day I haven't got near that yet, so that would be enough for the average days work I would have thought.
And that is doing all of the windows, and not just the upstairs with the WFP.

18l of water per house is a very generous allowance too.

The small systems will cope fine with producing this much water, if funds are an issue, the cost of buying the smaller unit might make sense, and you can always upgrade to a bigger system in a couple of years time when your work has increased to the point where you actually need to go bigger.
It isn't just the cost of the R/O system you have to consider, the pre filters and DI tank you will need are also larger and far more expensive too.

You can end out spending an awful lot of money you don't need to, at least in the start up phase.

Regards,

Ian