Reverse osmosis - sodium and waste question

[myredracer]

We are thinking about the idea of installing a reverse osmosis system. Am finding so far that some say they are great while others say they are garbage and a waste of money.

First of all, and most importantly, DW cannot have sodium (salt) in her diet and I think one of the filters in a multistage system may have salt in it? I even read somewhere that some campgrounds prohibit RO systems because of the salt content.

Secondly, it seems to me that there are systems available that do not produce waste water in the filtering process. Is this correct? Is the volume of waste water a concern or is it minor in comparison to the volume of other gray water produced in an RV?

It sure would be nice not to have to buy bottled water all the time and use up storage space in our TT.

[grege]

We have a RO system that I installed at home. Never thought about installing one in the camper. They do have a countertop unit so I think I may look into it.

I think my water at home is the best tasting water there is. I bring a Klean Kanteen to work and after I drank that and then filled with the water fountain my desire for water was gone. I've since started carrying a blue 1 gallon water bottle with me to work and refill my Klean Kanteen from it.

I sent them an email to ask about the waste water and sodium and will let you know. If you are interested, I can PM you there info. If you decided to buy one, if you listed me as a referer then they will send me filters for my current system.

Greg

[myredracer]

grege, if you happen to locate any info. regarding the sodium, that would be greatly appreciated if you could let us know.

We spent almost 2 grand on a water softener for our well water a few years back before DW came down with an inner ear disorder that requires a sodium restricted diet. We had a new deeper well put in for other reasons and fortunately then we didn't require the softener. DW has to read the ingredients label on everything she buys first. Can't even eat celery because of the natural salt in it.

It just occured to me - I wonder if the filtered water they sell at the bottling stations in stores uses filters that introduce sodium to the filtration process? She gets "off" days which that might partially explain...

[lindy]

The main issue with using an RO unit in a camper is that about 50% of the water run into the RO unit comes out the waste tube and will quickly fill your grey tank, this is the reason why campground don't want RO units. It's not the salt but the water waste. We had an RO unit here at the house for a while and yes it take all contaminates out of the water leaving behind pure water, it will even turn ocean salt water into pure drinkable water. I'm sure there's not a filter with salt in it, 1 is a charcoal unit another is the membrane filter, and I forget what the 3rd filter was.

[myredracer]

grege, if you happen to locate any info. regarding the sodium, that would be greatly appreciated if you could let us know.

So it sounds like no sodium is added, only removed. We bought a water softener years ago for our well and couldn't install it when DW learned she had to restrict sodium. But then, softeners are different.

I thought I was reading the other day that some RO don't produce waste water, or perhaps they are just clever to hide that fact.

[grege]

I pm'd you myredracer

[grege]

Here is what the company where I got my home system said in response to my questions.

Thank you for taking interest in APEC’s RO-CTOP water system. My answers to your questions are as follows:
Do you just hook it up when you want to make water?
Yes, the RO-CTOP unitis designed to connect to most standard sink faucets when the desired drinking water is demanded. Once connected it is automatically drinkable and recommended to store water in a container for later use. It comes completely pre-installed and everything you need to enjoy pure clean drinking water. We do include 2 separate adapters rings along with our standard faucet connector that will help connect to most sink faucets and additional adapter sizes are available if it’s needed.
Does it create waste water that would need to be handled?
The drain water to RO water ratio is to 2:1. This means every 1 gallon of filtered water produces 2 gallons of drain water will be used to expel the unwanted contaminants. The waste water flow output is connected to the faucet adapter and will drain out into the sink. The waste water does not need to be handled necessarily as the bypass water from RO systems is cleaner than tap water, because chlorine and sediment is removed.
Would this work if somebody could not have sodium in their diet or would one of the filters use salt so add that to the water.
All of our RO filters do not use salt, so no salt is added to the water. Our Reverse Osmosis systems are designedto remove 90-99%of contaminants in your water including sodium. The Filmtec Reverse Osmosis membranes on our systems have passed NSF certification for removing and reducing over 30 most commonly found contaminants in the water. To see more contaminants that our systems can remove, please visit: http://freedrinkingwater.com/rejection-wqa.htm

So myredracer you are good on the sodium.

The system I was looking at sounds good for camping other than the fact it has 2 gallons of waster water for every gallon of water it makes. If I did it, I would probably run it outside so the waste water would just go on the ground.

If anybody wants to get one of their systems, let me know so I can give you my info as the referer. They have a referal system where I can get replacement filters and that would be nice.

[BarryD0706]

This sounds very interesting. Is it the RO-45 system that you have? (Currently about $300.)

[Twisty]

This might be worth some time researching;
http://www.lumasun.com/sites/default...xUnder_QRS.pdf