A question from an RO novice

[bwdoz]

Further to the shock news in the "Dry Spring" thread that I've actually spent some money and bought a reverse osmosis setup I have a daft question regarding the output. Does it drain using simply gravity, or is it still under any sort of pressure - ie, do the entrances to my collection vessels for the product water and waste need to be below the level of the unit or not? I'm just trying to look for suitable sites to put it and am too impatient for the instruction manual to arrive... :)

Cheers

[Guest Aidan]

It all depends upon your input water pressure. But, it ain't like a fire-hose! Waste-water exits at a higher pressure than product-water, but both collection points really need to be lower down...

[bwdoz]

Thanks Aidan, that's just what I needed to know. I should be able to accommodate that fairly easily. What complicates matters somewhat is that I'm trying to save the waste water for general garden use rather than dumping it, and as I understand it there will be a lot of waste water!

Cheers

[AAJ]

I have mine in the utility room (an outhouse)

In the winter I poke the waste pipe into the washing machine drain and in the summer I collect it in buckets for the garden.

The main collection container has a float to switch it off when full.

They are both below the unit.

The waste is approx 5 to 1

[bwdoz]

Thanks, that's just about the same as what I was hoping to do, but I was going to pipe the waste out through the utility room wall to a separate waterbutt. That way I could leave it overnight without having to worry about changing buckets etc. which I guess is the purpose of the float switch in your case.

Cheers