[p1w1]

hi,

was just wondering if there is anything on the market that will able you to divert the waste water that is made from an ro unit and put it back through the filters again.

Think that makes sense
would that be possible?

Paul

[[GQC] Tim]

Ionics have a system that does that, I still haven't figured out what that extra filter is though.

[p1w1]

do you have a link if possible although if its ionics its gonna cost I was thinking there must me some kind of add on i could put on my ro unit or something along those lines. or maybe someone has made a diy way of doing this.

thanks.

[[GQC] Tim]

I'm sorry, apparently it's not on their website, it's in their catalogue though.

[p1w1]

ok thanks anyway,
If anyone has any ideas or any products that can be brought i would be very interested in what you have to say.

thanks

[daveappleby]

just a word of caution..... the waste has all the dissolved solids in it and so putting in through the filters a second time, you will have twice the amount of solids to filter.

i am guessing that the filters wouldn't last that long as the ro waste would be re-filtered time and time again so getting dirtier every time??

[jewelcleaning]

You could try storing the waste water in another tank to be refiltered.  On my system, the ro waste pipe has a tap on it so you can restrict the flow.  I've played around with this a bit, if you have it closed right up, so the waste is just trickling out, the waste comes out about 800ppm, and you get a lot less wastage.

My water going in is 160ish, so even if the waste was about 300-400, its still better than the tap water in some areas, and could in theory be re filtered.

[p1w1]

Good point dave! i didn't really think of that I suppose it would have to go through a filter or 2 first to get it back to say tap water tds readings although it would save alot of water so it could work out cheaper to replace the filters instead of bigger water bills but not that straight forward to do i guess.

[p1w1]

Hi Jewel,

I was thinking that there could be some way of just running the waste pipe straight back into the main system but by the sounds of it, it's not that straight forward and some carefull thinking is needed.

[daveappleby]

just another idea.....how about getting a di vessel and filling it with spent resin, passing the ro waste through that and then through the filters???

[p1w1]

I think i need to do some figures to see if it is all worth the hassle and the money to try and do it.

Thanks peeps

[MJH]

hi,

was just wondering if there is anything on the market that will able you to divert the waste water that is made from an ro unit and put it back through the filters again.

Think that makes sense
would that be possible?

Paul

It would be excellent if a cost effective way of using waste water is available, i hate throwing all that water away, it seams a big waste!

[windowwashers]

just another idea.....how about getting a di vessel and filling it with spent resin, passing the ro waste through that and then through the filters???

tried that. lasts a day if that, to much hassle IMHO

[p1w1]

I too think it would be alot of hassle by the looks of it, i'm kind of looking to the future as there seems to be more and more  talk of water shortage and water boards cracking down on wfp users although i have had no problems yet but it does seem such a waste and with more people making the switch over to wfp it's only going to highlight the problem even more i feel.
oh well maybe one day there will be someone on dragons den who is going to solve the problem lol!

[welmac]

i know a supplier of RO units that contacted a company with regards to "wasteless systems". this person knows everything there is to know about ro units, and as ones have said, if you constantly refilter your waste water you will end up with very clogged/ruined filters.
he made this point to the company in question, and after many questions he finally got an answer.....the waste water was going through RESIN!!!! hence no waste. why you would bother with this i dont know? you may as well have no filters and just use resin from the start. 

[p1w1]

Not sure what your trying to say there. But the reason i would want to bother with it is as i have already stated the amount of waste water my ro unit produces I brought my system about 4 1/2 years ago and was advised to choose an ro system instead of a di system because i live in a very hard water area and i would be spending alot of money on resin all the time. So basically i was wondering as things have progressed alot in wfp equipment since i first started out and that maybe something was out there that could help with re useing the waste water.

[welmac]

Not sure what your trying to say there. But the reason i would want to bother with it is as i have already stated the amount of waste water my ro unit produces I brought my system about 4 1/2 years ago and was advised to choose an ro system instead of a di system because i live in a very hard water area and i would be spending alot of money on resin all the time. So basically i was wondering as things have progressed alot in wfp equipment since i first started out and that maybe something was out there that could help with re useing the waste water.

what i was saying is theres no point having an RO unit that puts the waste water through a resin vessal. its false economy to do this. you would be putting a higher tds through the resin than if you just used tap water, plus you would be having the running costs of an RO unit. it would be cheaper just to use resin from the start.

it can be done that waste water is put back through the membranes, but obviously the more waste water you put back through the quicker your filters will clog.

the Reverse Osmosis process  has to have waste water, this is how it works.

[[GQC] Tim]

Maybe running the water through a water softener, and some cheap pre filters before returning the waste back to the RO. Maybe use a splitter coming out of the RO that let's through only half of the waste to the water softener.

Hey I don't know much about it, but I'm just using logic here.

[Jago]

what if you run the waste water with say rain water would that not drop the ppm and also dilute again and therefore be better on the filters? or am I really missing the point?
J

[AJ]

Could you not have a splitter going into the filters, one running tap water other waste water. This would depend on your tap water  tds, but having the two flowing in together will drop the tds of the waste but raise the tap water tds. My tap water is about 470 so probably not a solution for me, but anyone with about 200 tds might work especially If you only had the waste linked up for every other tankful so that it wasn't constantly circulating high tds waste water. mmm [scratches chin]
Feel free to tell me if I'm being a bit dim.