Advice on R/O units

The main thing to remember about RO units is to move them with water in them so that your membrane does not dry out.  If you know you're going to be moving around, pick up a few extra valves for it (three - one for water in, one for clean water our and one for waste water out) and you can just turn them off and disconnect them when you move.   It depends on how you're going to do your water production on how you hook it up.  You can buy attachments that allow you to hook it right up to your sink faucet.  In an apartment, you need to figure out how to hook it up without modifying the plumbing.  In that case, you could put a float valve on a 5 gallon bucket and attach that to your clean water out line.  Then get a faucet adapter to attach to your water in line.  Finally, just get put your waste water out line into the sink, maybe rig up a magnetic holder, assuming steel sink, to keep the waste water line in the sink.  Then it will fill until the 5 gallon bucket is filled up and automatically turn itself off.  If 5 gallons is not enough, you can have multiple 5 gallon buckets hooked up the same way, just T off the line.  Get some extra on/off valves and you're set.  That would be totally portable system that would not require modifying your plumbing.
Here's another option to think about...sell your saltwaterfish.com gift card on the forums and buy something like this:  http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1COMPACT/Compact_75_GPD_Reefkeeper_RODI.html   It's a 5 stage unit for $140.  If you call them and explain what additional connectors you're needing, I'm sure they can work with you on customizing what comes with it.  Also, club members get a 10% discount.  There's another promo where you can get a free set of filters (for when it comes time to change them) instead of the 10% discount so you can choose which promo is better for you.  For $10 more, you can get a 100 GPD unit.  http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1TYPHOO/Typhoon_5_stage_RODI_Reefkeeper_75_GPD.html
Anyway, that's what I would do.  I hope that helps.
--AJ

 

The eBay option does not include a DI stage.

--AJ

 

If you are interested in ordering from Air, Water and Ice get a hold of me. I can help you get a good price. I am currently running the 5 stage unit AJ posted about and have no complaints. Very nice quality unit!

 

In a perfect world with perfect water temp, pressure and other variables yes you would get 75 gallon per day.
This will help you get started  http://www.airwaterice.com/category/z/

 

Just putting in my 2 cents here... you can "modify" the plumbing in your apartment if it is NOT all welded (ie it is all screwed together). There are fitting for that (wish I knew what they were called). The only reason I know they existed was because it came with mine when I bought my typhoon III used on eBay. It is sort of like a T fitting. IMO much more convenient "set it and forget it" than something for the faucet.

 

or if your apartment has hookups for washer and drier, I've got mine plumbed in there with a y hose fitting to hook both the RO/DI and washer up.

 

what I'll be doing.

 

About the water temp. If the water is too hot it can burn up the membrane and ruin it. If the water is cold it just takes the efficiency down of the RO unit and your production will be slow. I have heard of people in winter months having it take forever to make RO water.

 

Correct. I believe the faucet adaptors have a bypass to let water flow out so if you want to use the sink at the same time. What you can do is let it bypass in to a cup or something and check the temps. I am not sure off the top of my head what the recommended temp is but most RO instructions will tell you.

 

Most ratings from manufacturers are based at 75-76 I believe, so anything in that range would be fine

 

Does anyone have any concern about the higher likelihood of mineral deposits coming from the hot water heater if you use heated water? Just curious. I know many of us have our RO units plumbed directly into the cold water resulting in lower output. This would especially be the case in an apartment since I doubt any of the property management folks properly maintain their water heaters.

--AJ

 

I really doubt it's anything to worry about, the only real drawback would be burning through filters faster if there is a higher tds. I've used the sink method for years.

 

So the only filter that would be impacted would be your sediment filter, right? Good to know. Thanks!

--AJ