Measuring Water Quality

pnichols wrote:

Mex wrote:
The issue where I live is Pb, Selenium, and Cadmium levels (arsenic, and trace amounts of mercury). Only a GOOD RO system is guaranteed to remove all of these deadly elements. The RO is fed with ion exchange water. I even have a diatomaceous earth filter if the pueblo well should suck cloudy water, before las aguas May through July. I am not going to boil potatoes or spaghetti in Hazmat Grade water - thank you very much.

Mex,

If they're ions, it looks like there may be better technology than RO out there now for folks who can't afford to throw away water to get good water:

http://www.raynewater.com/water_purifiers.php

http://www.linxwater.com/benefits/nitrate-removal/

http://www.linxwater.com/products/wqa-certified/

P.S. Until the End of Time, eventually everything becomes ancient.

watched the linx presentation and she sort of skipped thru the part of how much was wasted back flushing the resin per ? gallons of treated water.
bumpy

Mex wrote:
The issue where I live is Pb, Selenium, and Cadmium levels (arsenic, and trace amounts of mercury). Only a GOOD RO system is guaranteed to remove all of these deadly elements. The RO is fed with ion exchange water. I even have a diatomaceous earth filter if the pueblo well should suck cloudy water, before las aguas May through July. I am not going to boil potatoes or spaghetti in Hazmat Grade water - thank you very much.

Mex,

If they're ions, it looks like there may be better technology than RO out there now for folks who can't afford to throw away water to get good water:

http://www.raynewater.com/water_purifiers.php

http://www.linxwater.com/benefits/nitrate-removal/

http://www.linxwater.com/products/wqa-certified/

P.S. Until the End of Time, eventually everything becomes ancient.

Bumpyroad wrote:

If the filters take out these impurities, why is the RO system required? If they do keep returning waste water to the holding tank, eventually it will end up with some highly contaminated water which lessens the efficiency of the RO system.

There are filters and then there are filters. This is better shown in an example. Here's my setup:

Sediment Filter > Carbon Block filter > Water Softener > UV Filter > Water Tank

Water Tank > Undersink RO System (drinking water) > RO Waste Water (back to water tank)

I'm not worried about my water tank turning into "highly contaminated water" with RO waste water. Here are some sample TDS readings I took a while back:

242 ppm = Tap Water
202 ppm = RO Waste Water
34 ppm = RO Water

Bumpyroad wrote:

A whole house system won't without tremendous waste.
You could of course install a separate "dirty" water tank and have it supply the toilet and outside shower or some such by redoing the entire water system of your RV.

I don't think a whole-RV RO system like Vagabond's is for most RVers -- it takes too long to fill the water tank and wastes a lot of water.

The issue where I live is Pb, Selenium, and Cadmium levels (arsenic, and trace amounts of mercury). Only a GOOD RO system is guaranteed to remove all of these deadly elements. The RO is fed with ion exchange water. I even have a diatomaceous earth filter if the pueblo well should suck cloudy water, before las aguas May through July. I am not going to boil potatoes or spaghetti in Hazmat Grade water - thank you very much.

westend wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:

TechWriter wrote:

pnichols wrote:
RO units waste water, which I can't afford to do in CA. About the best RO there is wastes around a gallon per gallon yielded.

Not for an RV -- RO waste can just be plumbed into the water holding tank. Zero waste.

I've asked it before when this "solution" is posed. exactly how would you re-plumb a separate holding tank for the recovered water under these conditions? If you keep dumping "dirty" water back into the one holding tank what is the efficiency?
bumpy

AFAIK, most of the reverse osmosis filtering systems are returning the same water that came out of the tank, back into it. The elements that are removed in the filtration process are captured in the media of the filters.

if the filters take out these impurities, why is the RO system required. if they do keep returning waste water to the holding tank, eventually it will end up with some highly contaminated water which lessens the efficiency of the RO system. this is one of those "helpful hints' that various speakers at RV clinics recommend which fail under close scrutiny. yes, a small one for drinking water at the faucet with the waste water dumped back to the fresh water tank would work. a whole house system won't without tremendous waste.
you could of course install a separate "dirty" water tank and have it supply the toilet and outside shower or some such by redoing the entire water system of your RV.
bumpy

Bumpyroad wrote:

TechWriter wrote:

pnichols wrote:
RO units waste water, which I can't afford to do in CA. About the best RO there is wastes around a gallon per gallon yielded.

Not for an RV -- RO waste can just be plumbed into the water holding tank. Zero waste.

I've asked it before when this "solution" is posed. exactly how would you re-plumb a separate holding tank for the recovered water under these conditions? If you keep dumping "dirty" water back into the one holding tank what is the efficiency?
bumpy

AFAIK, most of the reverse osmosis filtering systems are returning the same water that came out of the tank, back into it. The elements that are removed in the filtration process are captured in the media of the filters.

TechWriter wrote:

pnichols wrote:
RO units waste water, which I can't afford to do in CA. About the best RO there is wastes around a gallon per gallon yielded.

Not for an RV -- RO waste can just be plumbed into the water holding tank. Zero waste.

I've asked it before when this "solution" is posed. exactly how would you re-plumb a separate holding tank for the recovered water under these conditions? If you keep dumping "dirty" water back into the one holding tank what is the efficiency?
bumpy

TechWriter wrote:
"Water holding tank" was a bad term.

I have an under sink RO unit in the RV. Water from the water tank feeds the RO unit and waste water from the RO goes back into the water tank.

No wasted water.

Here's a clip from Wikipedia explaining the big wasted water disadvantage with household RO systems (probably includes RV RO systems). This is the reason why I will not use one in our home under drought conditions or in our RV that we drycamp in:

"Household reverse osmosis units use a lot of water because they have low back pressure. As a result, they recover only 5 to 15% of the water entering the system. The remainder is discharged as waste water. Because waste water carries with it the rejected contaminants, methods to recover this water are not practical for household systems. Wastewater is typically connected to the house drains and will add to the load on the household septic system. A reverse osmosis unit delivering five gallons of treated water per day may discharge between 20 and 90 gallons of waste water per day."

As a side note, here's a unit using another technology that accomplishes nearly all of what an RO unit does, while wasting up to 90% less water:

http://www.linxwater.com/products/linx-160-drinking-water-systems/

For what it's worth:

Even assuming the very hottest, dryest conditions, the average Human Person needs approximately a gallon a day of water that's clean enough to go down the gullet. All other water used (bathing, dishwashing, whatever) can be less than "pure". A splash of bleach in the washwater followed by air drying is all the protection one really needs from lingering bad guys.

But per this thread topic:

Machinery really dislikes mineral deposits/crud/sediments, so testing for solids is probably a good idea.

Water purification and water sterilization are two different subjects with appropriate Q&A.

The "Joker in The Deck" with your situation is lack of water. My system has a high fe count ion exchange softener, followed by 20 ppm RO followed by ozone for contained storage for drinking and cooking. The effluent goes to the garden. But I practice strict water conservation. The citrus and garden get straight well water. Floors get mopped with well water. Windows get cleaned with softened water. I bathe in softened water use it in the hot water heater (extremely limited run times a few days in winter), and ozone water is for consumption. The pump and the ozone unit only function to keep a 20 gallon ABS drum filled. We get water 11 hours twice a week. This has to fill two "tinacas". A 40PSI booster pump pushes well water for domestic use and for further processing as needed. My dishes get washed with chlorinated well water and Axion Tri Cloro dish detergent. 55 gallon drums. Mold, mildew, a million and eleven different bacteria and virus in a tropical climate. Now you may understand why that Rolls battery bank and Kubota genset are so important. The RO system is a Village brand and puts out around 8 gallons an hour with 1,100 PSI pressure. it's for use on the sea.