Installed a reverse osmosis water filter on the boat

mainshiptom

mainshiptom

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Again a low priority project but when on anchor SWMBO insists on bottled water for tea! Fussy

So I have installed a reverse osmosis filter which will clean the water to a very high standard and will create the perfect see through ice cubes.

Currently the access water from the filter is going over board. can i redirect back to tanks?
 
judging from the installation of the RO filter at home, yep, no problem.
Just make sure you route this "waste" water all the way to the tanks. You CANNOT tee off in the pressurised part of the system and expect this water to go in...
IIRC, pipe on this return is v.narrow, maybe change to something more substantial if the path is more than a few metres to improve performance of the system.

cheers

V.
 
vas said:
judging from the installation of the RO filter at home, yep, no problem.
Just make sure you route this "waste" water all the way to the tanks. You CANNOT tee off in the pressurised part of the system and expect this water to go in...
IIRC, pipe on this return is v.narrow, maybe change to something more substantial if the path is more than a few metres to improve performance of the system.

cheers

V.
Click to expand...

thanks Vas
 
I would say it depends.

The waste water is the original water plus the impurities of the consumed water. As such it is "worse". Just like a RO water maker - the water leaving has a far higher salinity.

If you are talking a few litres in a big tank and that same tank is used for showering and filled every few days then it will make no practical difference.

If you are circulating 50% of the tank volume and time between fills is long then in my view no.
 
Waste from RO water should in a domestic situation go down the drains .
In a boat overboard .
I wouldn’t direct it back into the supply tank on a boat .
Why would you even consider doing that , what’s the rationale?
 
It needs clarification by the op but in his first post he does not say "waste water" although I think it's a typo what the op stated was "access water", I think he meant "excess water".
 
To clarify from my side ....

With RO water goes in and 2 things come out

a. fresh water ( or improved if tap)
b. waste water

The waste is the original water with more impurities in it. In the case of a water maker that impunity is salt. The discharged saline is more salty.

In the case of a cheap eBay RO for tap water the discharge / waste water will have more "contaminants" in it as the harness, salt or whatever has been removed from the fresh water the thing is their to make.

Porto is right - stick it down the drain ..... but you are on a boat and don't want to waste the water. If you have 1000 ltr tanks and 10 litres of " waste" water goes int them then that is not ideal but it is not going to do any harm.

If you run the thing all day such that it turns over 1000 lts a day then clearly you really don't want it in your tank.

I bought one to try and for Cala Dor water. In Palma turn it on from the dock supply and fresh water is pouring out. it has relatively low contaminants so does not needs much pressure to work. Cala Dor. It just dripped with nearly all water going to waste. I did consider leaving it running but having measured the drips a tank would take 10 days!
 
Portofino said:
Waste from RO water should in a domestic situation go down the drains .
In a boat overboard .
I wouldn’t direct it back into the supply tank on a boat .
Why would you even consider doing that , what’s the rationale?
Click to expand...

For every liter it makes it waste a liter so we carry 300 liters and drink lots of tea so to reduce the amount we waste?

Currently it goes overboard!
 
mainshiptom said:
For every liter it makes it waste a liter so we carry 300 liters and drink lots of tea so to reduce the amount we waste?

Currently it goes overboard!
Click to expand...

1 million years of evolution going to waste !
Your gut ( stomach , small intestine , large intestine ) along with kidney tissue , not one but get this two kidneys are more than capable of extracting what your body needs from raw water and dumping anything it’s doesn’t need .
There’s shed loads of “good for you “minerals you are filtering out with RO and denying your bodies natural selection of what it needs .
RO is ok for situations where cleanliness is required eg autoclaves in health care environments , or washing wounds etc , diluting drugs as such .
But for drinking it’s potentially over a long time harmful, the lack of basic minerals ( filtered out ) could be co factors in multi faceted syndromes.

Bottled mineral water is the answer if you have issues with the dock water in the tank .
 
I'd rather drink bottled water than anything coming from a tank, regardless of any filters.
And even more so with a 300L tank: why waste such small reserve for drinking, when you can carry bottles?
 
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