Simple affordable RO setup? Recommend your favorites

RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
Greetings growmies. After several years of growing with my semi shitty tap water (200 PPM), I'm looking to get an RO setup. The water contains so much sediment that when I accidentally used a gallon in my humidifier it sprayed fine white dust all over my tent about a year ago. I believe I have a ton of limestone in the aquifers we draw water from as the scaling is unreal on fixtures.

The system needs to be able to be used for my household water drinking supply, with me taking a couple of gallons per week for my plants. I would like something affordable (couple hundred dollars or so) that is easy to install. It also needs to be easy to remove as I will be moving in a couple of months. I know we have some very tech savvy folks on here that make full custom systems that are fully automated and look like a treatment facility, but I'm very much a plumbing layman. My water demands are pretty small; what would you recommend?
 
Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
Hydrologic
I use the stealth.
There's small boy, big boy. Whatever your needs are they can meet it. Super easy install. I just t into mainline with shark bite --- PEX
200ppm isn't terrible out of the tap
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
W
Jjgrow420 said:
Hydrologic
I use the stealth.
There's small boy, big boy. Whatever your needs are they can meet it. Super easy install. I just t into mainline with shark bite --- PEX
200ppm isn't terrible out of the tap
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Thanks for the tip. I know it's not bad water compared to someone using a well on their property, but there is certainly enough sediment to cause a buildup over time. It's just another factor to have to worry what impact it might be having on the plants. It would be nice to start with a more neutral base instead of wondering what traces in the water might be affecting the plants. I leave the water out for several days but I can't shake the feeling that there is something wrong with it. I've been using the same water for years and while the quality of the grows continue to improve, there have always been the same small issues that I see every single grow no matter what else has changed over the years (techniques, medium, nutrient types, etc). It's also possible that I'm still missing something as well, but I'll never know unless I continue to isolate the variables.
 
J. Rocket

J. Rocket

Well-Known Member
I wouldnt RO the whole house. Huge waste of water.
Plus if I remember chem class the RO water will try to replace the stuff filtered out by scavanging it from the pipes.
get a 10" cartridge filter for the whole house.
our water is decent but I filter it down to 0.5 micron for hydro dtw growing.
PH is much more stable in the feed tank.
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
J. Rocket said:
I wouldnt RO the whole house. Huge waste of water.
Plus if I remember chem class the RO water will try to replace the stuff filtered out by scavanging it from the pipes.
get a 10" cartridge filter for the whole house.
our water is decent but I filter it down to 0.5 micron for hydro dtw growing.
PH is much more stable in the feed tank.
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This is why I didn't want to do a large setup. I don't need RO water to clean my dishes for example. I basically just need drinking water (maybe 5 gallons per day for household) and maybe 6 gallons max for the plants per week. I'm looking at the hydrologic site now. Are there any toddy or countertop setups that would be comparable? Definitely going for simplicity's strength.
 
Johnny Lawrence

Johnny Lawrence

Well-Known Member
Last time I checked here, my tap was a little over 500ppm. Long Beach is supposedly somewhere near 700. A grower friend of mine likes to call our tap water "glittery".

I run the Hydro Logic Evo 1000, but it's not cheap.
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
Johnny Lawrence said:
Last time I checked here, my tap was a little over 500ppm. Long Beach is supposedly somewhere near 700. A grower friend of mine likes to call our tap water "glittery".

I run the Hydro Logic Evo 1000, but it's not cheap.
Click to expand...
They are expensive, but it's the best system. Way less brown water, relatively fast flow and easy to hookup. I also have the prefilter unit. I use tap now because the EC is fine and it's nice to be able to fill my res in a few minutes as opposed to hours. I've been meaning to hook it up in my kitchen, but I'm also considering selling it to buy a new car or house or something.
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
lusidghost said:
They are expensive, but it's the best system. Way less brown water, relatively fast flow and easy to hookup. I also have the prefilter unit. I use tap now because the EC is fine and it's nice to be able to fill my res in a few minutes as opposed to hours. I've been meaning to hook it up in my kitchen, but I'm also considering selling it to buy a new car or house or something.
Click to expand...
Are there RO systems that have a convenient bypass that can be toggled off when it's not needed? For example it's wasteful to use RO water to wash hands or do dishes so it'd be nice to only use it when I need drinking water or water for the plants. I apologize if this is all super obvious stuff, but I'm trying to make sure I get what I need and hopefully only what I need. Also convenience would be nice as getting underneath the sink and twisting valves every time someone wants a glass of water would get old fast.
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
RuggedWombat said:
Are there RO systems that have a convenient bypass that can be toggled off when it's not needed? For example it's wasteful to use RO water to wash hands or do dishes so it'd be nice to only use it when I need drinking water or water for the plants. I apologize if this is all super obvious stuff, but I'm trying to make sure I get what I need and hopefully only what I need. Also convenience would be nice as getting underneath the sink and twisting valves every time someone wants a glass of water would get old fast.
Click to expand...
Unlike most systems this one has a hose screw-on attachment. Mine was hooked up to the water line for my washing machine, but you can attach it to a threaded sink facet. This is what I was looking at to hook it up in my kitchen:
 
Boatguy

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
RuggedWombat said:
Are there RO systems that have a convenient bypass that can be toggled off when it's not needed? For example it's wasteful to use RO water to wash hands or do dishes so it'd be nice to only use it when I need drinking water or water for the plants. I apologize if this is all super obvious stuff, but I'm trying to make sure I get what I need and hopefully only what I need. Also convenience would be nice as getting underneath the sink and twisting valves every time someone wants a glass of water would get old fast.
Click to expand...
Mine has a reservoir and a separate spigot i installed where the soap dispenser would go on the sink. Unfortunately it isnt great for hydro growing as it doesnt have much pressure once you get a couple gallons out of it.
A bigger res may help, but an undersink system can only produce so much an hour.
 
Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
RuggedWombat said:
Are there RO systems that have a convenient bypass that can be toggled off when it's not needed? For example it's wasteful to use RO water to wash hands or do dishes so it'd be nice to only use it when I need drinking water or water for the plants. I apologize if this is all super obvious stuff, but I'm trying to make sure I get what I need and hopefully only what I need. Also convenience would be nice as getting underneath the sink and twisting valves every time someone wants a glass of water would get old fast.
Click to expand...
I run a shut off valve on the main
Just remember it's at least 2-1 waste ratio usually 3-1. So for every gal of ro you 'waste' 3gal.
 
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