Added RO water system

[SPCF]

Got tired of always running out of drinking water in the most inopportune times.
Now even the ice maker gets clean filtered water.




Water bay, right side.

7 stage RO system with UV light.
with small storage tank.



Drinking water at the sink.



Under the sink:

1- 1/4inch tube to the RO
2- Clean water from filter
3- to the ice maker (original feed from #1)
4- To the sink water spicket.

[nomad297]

Just make sure you keep your gray water dump valve open all of the time.

Bruce

[SPCF]

Originally Posted by nomad297

Just make sure you keep your gray water dump valve open all of the time.

Bruce

Not sure I understand that.

I see no reason the gray tank valve open or close has anything to do with the water filter. The RO system is a closed system, even the back flush goes back to the fresh water tank via the overflow pipe, the amount or impurity in the backwash water going back is negligible as it is assumed the fresh water to already be clean enough.

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by SPCF

Not sure I understand that.

I see no reason the gray tank valve open or close has anything to do with the water filter. The RO system is a closed system, even the back flush goes back to the fresh water tank via the overflow pipe, the amount or impurity in the backwash water going back is negligible as it is assumed the fresh water to already be clean enough.

This system doesn’t dump its waste water into the drain? That’s great if the waste water is routed to the fresh water tank — that would make for a RO system with zero waste.

Bruce

[SPCF]

Originally Posted by nomad297

This system doesn’t dump its waste water into the drain? That’s great if the waste water is routed to the fresh water tank — that would make for a RO system with zero waste.

Bruce

Bruce,
That is exactly what I did.
I connected the "waste" line back into the fresh water tank.

On the first picture, note the black 1/4 inch tubing going from the RO system into the valve on the fresh water tank overflow line to the right side of the picture.


The first time I ran it, I noticed that the pump ran a lot, come to find out that the new systems have some automatic valve for the backwash that is based o pressure, the pump pressure is not enough to trigger the automatic shutoff of the backwash valve.
The fix was to put a manual shutoff valve in the backwash line going back to the fresh water tank, and every time I am connected to shore water at 50+ pressure, I open the valve and let the backwash do its thing for a while, when it is done or I disconnect from shore water, I close the valve, just like the old manual system.

Usually a 10 to 15 minutes backwash is enough to clean the RO filter.

[nomad297]

How are you getting it to produce filtered water without constant pressure to force the water through the RO membrane? I would think you should need a secondary booster pump to draw water from your water tank if you aren’t using your standard pump or you aren’t on “city” water.

How are you achieving this?

Bruce

[SPCF]

Originally Posted by nomad297

How are you getting it to produce filtered water without constant pressure to force the water through the RO membrane? I would think you should need a secondary booster pump to draw water from your water tank if you aren’t using your standard pump or you aren’t on “city” water.

How are you achieving this?

Bruce

Feeding the system from the pump in the coach. 40# is enough to go thru and to keep the small holding tank full. I dont expect lots of water but enough to drink, cook, coffee etc..

Pict 3 under sink, the source (1) is the 1/4 in tube that was going to the icemaker into the RO system.
Works great.

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by SPCF

Feeding the system from the pump in the coach. 40# is enough to go thru and to keep the small holding tank full. I dont expect lots of water but enough to drink, cook, coffee etc..

Pict 3 under sink, the source (1) is the 1/4 in tube that was going to the icemaker into the RO system.
Works great.

Got it!

Now I understand what you were saying/describing about the manual valve.

Bruce

[Flybob]

Even with "clean water" in the FW tank, you will eventually build up to minerals in the FW tank making the RO element work harder..

[SPCF]

Originally Posted by Flybob

Even with "clean water" in the FW tank, you will eventually build up to minerals in the FW tank making the RO element work harder..

Perhaps, I figure that even with a small amount of unfiltered FW usage for amount of minerals back into the tank it will end up diluted every time you refill the tank, the worst is to have to replace the RO filter after a few years.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Flybob

Even with "clean water" in the FW tank, you will eventually build up to minerals in the FW tank making the RO element work harder..

Flybob, this depends on the ratio of

glasses of water drunk.
gallons of water used in showers and dishwashing

If they use enough unfiltered water, it won't be an issue.

Larry

[Philkaty]

Maybe I am reading this wrong: you put your Waste ( Gray) water back into your Fresh water tank?

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Philkaty

Maybe I am reading this wrong: you put your Waste ( Gray) water back into your Fresh water tank?

Yes, you are reading it wrong.

RO (Reverse Osmosis) is a kind of filtering. He is filtering the water as it comes out of the fresh water tank because he doesn't like the mineral taste.

In this scheme, some amount of the water, say 90%, goes through. The remaining 10%, with minerals concentrated from all 100% has to go somewhere.

His system dumps it back in the fresh water tank where it is diluted with all the remaining fresh water. The shower and dishwashing will have a little more minerals than before. Since they take more showers and dishwashing than they drink, there won't be a continual buildup of minerals in the fresh water tank.

A more elegant scheme would be to dump the concentrated minerals into the gray water tank, but that plays against extended boondocking.

Larry

[SPCF]

Originally Posted by Philkaty

Maybe I am reading this wrong: you put your Waste ( Gray) water back into your Fresh water tank?

Edited my post. Great answer Larry-NC. much better answer then mine.



The a 7 stage filter will also filter out Chlorine and the UV filter will kill bacteria.
The amount of water used in the backwash process is considerable, it could well use half of your Fresh water in one night if it is allowed to run unattended.


I am still learning how it all works under the different scenarios, Ill report as I lean on the day to day use.







thanks

[Flybob]

Originally Posted by Larry-NC

In this scheme, some amount of the water, say 90%, goes through. The remaining 10%, with minerals concentrated from all 100% has to go somewhere.

In a typical RO system, there is 3-4 gallons of waste water for every gallon of good water.

[Philkaty]

[QUOTE=SPCF;2067084]Edited my post. Great answer Larry-NC. much better answer then mine.



The a 7 stage filter will also filter out Chlorine and the UV filter will kill bacteria.
The amount of water used in the backwash process is considerable, it could well use half of your Fresh water in one night if it is allowed to run unattended.


So you are talking about the water in the lines that go back into the tank. that makes more sense. I have a ice maker and wonder if that is what happens when it doesn't run.


thanks

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Flybob

In a typical RO system, there is 3-4 gallons of waste water for every gallon of good water.

So my numbers need to be adjusted as follows:

In the RO system, 20-25% of the water goes through the filter, and 75-80% is returned to the fresh water tank (with a slightly higher concentration of mine

rals). The concentration would be much lower than my initial example.

Thanks, Flybob, for the information. I've stayed in places with an RO system, but they were plumbed, so I never knew how much went where. I just had to be sure to fill the pitcher for the refrigerator each morning.

Larry

[Larry-NC]

[QUOTE=Philkaty;2067204
So you are talking about the water in the lines that go back into the tank. that makes more sense. I have a ice maker and wonder if that is what happens when it doesn't run.

thanks[/QUOTE]
Icemakers (standalone or in residential refrigerators) are much simpler. They have a mechanical "timer" similar to those on a dishwasher or low-end washing machine.

There's no drain on an ice maker. The water only goes in, not out. As the timer goes through its cycle, in the fill phase it opens a solenoid-operated valve that lets water in to fill the ice cube mold. Under the plastic cover in front is an adjustment that controls how long the timer opens the valve, roughly 7 seconds. (This valve is located at the bottom on the back side. Your plumbing goes into it, and you will see tubing that goes up the back of the refrigerator to the icemaker.)

You can skip the rest--it's the other cycles of the icemaker.

After the fill phase, the timer cuts off power to itself (it doesn't advance) until a thermostat in the ice maker mold kicks on, indicating that the ice mold is down to 9 degrees F or so.

That starts the timer motor which advances to start a heating coil in the ice mold.

After a short, fixed warming time, the timer also starts the ejector shaft with the fixed paddles which scoop the ice from the mold.

As the ejector shaft rotates the cubes are ejected and a cam on the shaft lifts and drops the shut-off arm. If the arm doesn't drop all the way, power to the timer is cut off and it does not advance to the fill phase (see above). If the arm does drop all the way, the timer advances to the fill phase (see above) and starts over.

Larry

[captnrick3]

I put in an RO a couple years ago and we love it. No more water bottles rolling around. I too plumbed the RO drain to the water tank, however, I have a valve that I can change to dump it into the gray tank if I so desire. Our system has worked great, best thing I put in the coach.