Blocky71 Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 I'm feeling sorry for those of you that this hasn't been straight forward for.. I literally bought mine, connected it to my hose, ran it for 5 mins, tested output and got 0ppm. This was pretty much what I was expecting, I'd be screwing if I had no rainwater and a brand new ro unit that wasn't working properly!. Hope you guys get sorted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starseeker Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Just a little warning for those buying RO water at there local aquatics store ,i picked some up yesterday and and checked that this was pure RO ,without salt which they said it was ,when i got it home i nearly tipped it straight into my water but but thought i would check it ,it was reading 3300 on the meter ,yep it had salt in ! Luckily enough no harm done,changed it today so no problem , but could of killed my plants ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerbirus Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 (edited) 19 hours ago, Rob-Rah said: My new RO unit was run and now tested the output with a TDS meter..... 150 ppm. That's no use. The last few litres of rainwater I have is at 50 ppm. I don't have much time left to sort this **** out! Any way you could buy one from somewhere else and return this one? Mine from collinswaterproducts turned up the next day by ukmail if you need to replace it and they responded to me both times within a couple of hours if you need quick help. Im sure someone here must live driving distance from you and can give you some RO water edit: are you sure its all connected properly? I know some filters come in plastic and you have to unwrap them first. I watched this video twice before ordering mine and even he made that error and annotated it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPdzLJWb4R8 Edited July 6, 2018 by Zerbirus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 1 hour ago, Zerbirus said: Any way you could buy one from somewhere else and return this one? Mine from collinswaterproducts turned up the next day by ukmail if you need to replace it and they responded to me both times within a couple of hours if you need quick help. Im sure someone here must live driving distance from you and can give you some RO water edit: are you sure its all connected properly? I know some filters come in plastic and you have to unwrap them first. I watched this video twice before ordering mine and even he made that error and annotated it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPdzLJWb4R8 It's being returned. Flow rate is all spot on and nothing is going wrong in terms of the mechanics, the unit is simply not filtering. I'll buy another one. This is very annoying. Thank god I bought a TDS meter...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deltatango301 Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 My update, my pressure gauge came checked the pressure just now and its at 30 psi direct from the outside tap, so now put on order a booster pump as my system must run at a minimum of 50 psi this is costing me a fortune lol well you will do anything for the plants,,,,,, am I right in thinking the pressure gauge should go just before Di filter if not please correct me or confirm thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerbirus Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Deltatango301 said: My update, my pressure gauge came checked the pressure just now and its at 30 psi direct from the outside tap, so now put on order a booster pump as my system must run at a minimum of 50 psi this is costing me a fortune lol well you will do anything for the plants,,,,,, am I right in thinking the pressure gauge should go just before Di filter if not please correct me or confirm thanks ok so with the tap, there are universal tap connectors if you want to try in the kitchen or bathroom etc, you just need a 1/4" male bsp to 12mm barbed connector for the ro connector to the hosepipe, if the pressure there is better the pressure gauge can go in a couple of places: if you want to check the tap water pressure = after the tap, if youre confident of what it is then before the membrane which will tell you the pressure going into the membrane and if your filters need replacing to check if the di filter is working properly you check the tds of the ro water, when it rises from 0 (around 6 months) then it needs replacing, dont need to check pressure there Edited July 6, 2018 by Zerbirus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 I did look into just purchasing 1000 L deionised water industrially in a big tank - a few hundred quid (but you get to sell the tank which is worth quite a bit). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerbirus Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 17 minutes ago, Rob-Rah said: I did look into just purchasing 1000 L deionised water industrially in a big tank - a few hundred quid (but you get to sell the tank which is worth quite a bit). i brought 25l in a plastic jerry can since it was only £8 more than the can itself just in case the ro unit was late, turns out on the 5th day the water still hasnt arrived Yes but do you need that much/price vs ro water after youve got it all sorted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deltatango301 Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 Interesting question if you are producing RO water at 0-5 TDS and you measure your rainwater at 20 TDS what one would you use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 New RO unit now hooked up. TDS around 2-5. Super. Filling up my water butts now. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 On the purity issue.... I'm not sold on ultra pure on a regular basis. The plants cope with rotting vegetation around them in the wild and some degree of dissolved salts in the surface water. Surely *some* minerals are essential for the plants. It's only certain chemicals they have no tolerance to. However, we're not usually growing in inorganic media so maybe it's OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 5 hours ago, Deltatango301 said: Interesting question if you are producing RO water at 0-5 TDS and you measure your rainwater at 20 TDS what one would you use. Rain, just because it's free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerbirus Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 21 hours ago, Deltatango301 said: Interesting question if you are producing RO water at 0-5 TDS and you measure your rainwater at 20 TDS what one would you use. I use rain for my temperate greenhouse, drosera and utricularia. I paper filter the rainwater for my nepenthes and now i'd use use RO water for seeds (vs boiling the rain water) and use RO whenever the rain water is getting very low, or non existent like now. Better to recycle what you can get yourself before sucking up the mains water reservoir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deltatango301 Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 On going saga of my RO unit, got my booster pump installed and working correctly getting over 90psi so let it run for 30 mins producing RO water it only got me down to From 60 TDS to 32 TDS got on the phone to east midland water co that supplied RO unit not st all happy with them but now again waiting for a phone call from them think my filters are messed up ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picavorus Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 On 7/1/2018 at 8:31 AM, Deltatango301 said: kept the RO going all night and notice that the TDS is 60 in the night and now in warmer Temp back up to 70 The TDS of our tap water only measures 47 straight from the tap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deltatango301 Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 4 hours ago, Picavorus said: The TDS of our tap water only measures 47 straight from the tap Sorry mate not my tap water, if you have TDS of 47 from the you are a lucky girl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picavorus Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 (edited) True, we are very lucky to have extremely soft water round here. Highest it’s ever tested here is 61. Edited July 9, 2018 by Picavorus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirks Posted July 10, 2018 Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 We've got 42 tds straight from the tap but don't trust it so bought a distiller as we're on a water meter, of which that comes out at 0. I was going to buy another tds meter as i can't believe we get a tds reading that low here in Lancashire but from the 2 posts above maybe it is right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted July 10, 2018 Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 21 hours ago, Deltatango301 said: Got my booster pump installed and working correctly getting over 90psi so let it run for 30 mins Is that the one you linked to previously? If so, make sure you take note of the warning; "should not be used for periods longer than 60 minutes at a time, a 120 minute cooldown period between uses must be allowed" If you run it extensively without following that advice it'll burn out quickly. A simple timer socket will allow you to set intervals if necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picavorus Posted July 10, 2018 Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 9 hours ago, pirks said: We've got 42 tds straight from the tap but don't trust it so bought a distiller as we're on a water meter, of which that comes out at 0. I was going to buy another tds meter as i can't believe we get a tds reading that low here in Lancashire but from the 2 posts above maybe it is right. Quite feasible, as I know a few people not far way who are in Lancashire and have similar TDS levels. We never have to de-scale any appliances either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deltatango301 Posted July 10, 2018 Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 (edited) Ok new update, got in touch again with the company this time got the General Manager to ring me back after telling them wanted to talk to the MD, anyway when I bought this unit a 4 stage I asummed the the 4th stage was a Di filter it turns out it was a RO filter i have now bought a 5th stage Di filter they are sending the brackets and connection free and postage free next day so should be producing 0 TDS by Thursday another £30 don't tell the wife....... btw using booster pump 1 on 2 hours off Edited July 10, 2018 by Deltatango301 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimaera Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 20 hours ago, Picavorus said: Quite feasible, as I know a few people not far way who are in Lancashire and have similar TDS levels. We never have to de-scale any appliances either. If you look at a geology map of the Peaks you will see 2 main rock types; the Dark Peak is made of Millstone Grit- this is sandstone and shales with virtually no carbonate or other solubles in them, so runoff into the reservoirs with be low TDS and probably rather acidic. In the White Peak you have Carboniferous Limestone, a totally different beast made of soluble calcium carbonate so runoff and aquifers there will have a really high TDS and probably be alkaline. All those caves are the result of water dissolving this limestone, so as caves are made the material goes into the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picavorus Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 3 hours ago, Chimaera said: If you look at a geology map of the Peaks you will see 2 main rock types; the Dark Peak is made of Millstone Grit- this is sandstone and shales with virtually no carbonate or other solubles in them, so runoff into the reservoirs with be low TDS and probably rather acidic. In the White Peak you have Carboniferous Limestone, a totally different beast made of soluble calcium carbonate so runoff and aquifers there will have a really high TDS and probably be alkaline. All those caves are the result of water dissolving this limestone, so as caves are made the material goes into the water. We’re Dark Peak, so that explains why it’s so low for us. A total godsend in this dry weather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deltatango301 Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 Still no rain here in the Peterborough area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 Just been down to my local aquatic shop and bought 50l of RO water. Off tomorrow to buy another 50l. 14p/l, so 100l will cost me £14. Tolerable. Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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