Drinking Water

The City of Wichita Falls,Tx. has been recycling sewer water for a good many months now. Them claim they put the #2 in the H20. Works for them.

damntough wrote:


In the meantime, I would like to use existing technology to find a reliable way to make good clean great tasting water from any campground source. Ideally, it would be mounted under the kitchen sink. We would use it for cooking and drinking water for two people. I would think filters and reverse osmosis are required. The problem with reverse osmosis, from what I read, it wastes two gallons for every gallon of drinking water. My question is, can this wasted water be diverted into the fresh water tank or is it somehow not able to produce drinking water? 


Thanks for the help.

Paul

this set up would work for small amounts of drinking water where the return to the fresh water tank would be a small percentage of the total water supply but for whole house use would keep making the non-potable water more and more non-potable to diminishing ends.
bumpy

The waste water from the RO is salty with what every came threw when it was used. Since it use 1/4 tubing not sure of the 2 to 1. Also RO has to have no Chlorine water, to work. The Chlorine water will kill the RO membrane. We have a water softener before the RO system.
To do what you Thanking would take up a lot of room. You would need gravel, sand , some plant life and a big tanks per media going from one to another to filter it out. No chemicals are use in there system. There is a lot of info on this if you go to to New Zealand on the web,they do it a lot. We looked at it when we were there.



Where we live here we have very hard water. Sometimes up in the 100 grain per gallon , but almost always over 60. I use 9.5 lbs of salt per week to get right at 600 gallons of water. Not sure of what % is wasted but it back flushes for around 35 minutes. Our town is in the process of putting in a Very large RO for 70,000 people and the waste water is pump back into the ground down stream from the plant. A good ideal but you need the space to do it and a lot of weight to take along with you.

damntough wrote:

In the meantime, I would like to use existing technology to find a reliable way to make good clean great tasting water from any campground source.

A laudable goal.

damntough wrote:

I would think filters and reverse osmosis are required. The problem with reverse osmosis, from what I read, it wastes two gallons for every gallon of drinking water. My question is, can this wasted water be diverted into the fresh water tank or is it somehow not able to produce drinking water? 

Our RV's under-the-sink RO system is plumbed so that the RO waste water goes back to our water tank. Our tank water is only used for showers, dishes, etc.

If you want ever better filtration, then add a UV filter.

I have a 7 stage RO unit on the house with a final stage to add helpful minerals back in (a lack of calcium and magnesium will leech it from your bones as the water tries to neutralize PH, so adding them as a final stage PH balances it). I can't see how a good RO unit is practical in an RV. A "good" under the sink mount takes up a decent amount of space and requires 40 - 60 PSI to force it through the membranes. As others have said the waste ratio is usually anywhere from 1:1 up to 5:1 on inefficient units. Adding the FW tank is a good idea until it over fills. Also I have seen units that will handle chlorinated water.

If you're really worried about the quality of water that you drink I think the most practical solution is to buy a distiller. I have one that is about a ft cubed., they take up very little space. I haven't used it in years because most water sources today are safe.

RO is best, but cumbersome, wastes time, and water

PUR filter will get rid of cysts which is the biggest problem campers have. You can not take your water from a stream with a PUR filter, but CG water will work.

Biggest problem is not CG water but stuff growing in you fresh tank.

egh33 wrote:
The City of Wichita Falls,Tx. has been recycling sewer water for a good many months now. Them claim they put the #2 in the H20. Works for them.

Not sure I would want (#2) in my drinking water!!!! :D

Thanks Jeff. Your documentation is exactly what I was hoping to find. Can you give me a rough estimate of the costs for each component?

Paul

Here is an example of a pretty cost effective, single point of use, RO unit. It can handle Chlorine and has a stage to add beneficial minerals back in. An issue with a lot of RO units that when they strip everything, they mean it. Including helpful minerals which alters the PH. If PH remains unbalanced, water being water, will try to neutralize and your bones have a good source of minerals to do that. You don't want that. Also as I stated before, there is a lot to these units and space is a consideration in an RV. Another point, these units probably require 40PSI or more due to multi stages. That's a lot of PSI on RV plumbing and I am not sure how well it would travel or if it would be affected with constant movement. RO units typically can't handle small bacteria, so if there is coliform bacteria, (possible in recycled waste water) you would probably need a UV/germicidal in tandem. You would have to get the water tested to know this. Some RO units have a UV built in.

RO system