What's new
By:
Filters
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Good R/O unti?

They have them at Sears... dunno how good they are, Im going to buy one in spring.
 
Get one on ebay. For that price, I got a 6 stage RO unit including storage tank!
 
Will any R/O unit be good or is there something I should look for?
 
Walmart 50cents a gallon.  Better yet just get a 55 gallon plastic drum and collect rain water!  R/O units waste to much water!  For all the people on this website who are conservationist we sure do waste a heck of alot of water with R/O units!  I know there are times when a R/O units are needed, but to water plant is not one of them, in my opinion.  Not when you can easily collect rain water in a drum you can normaly get for 5 to 10 bucks in the classified.  

Sorry for my rant, but I do find it ironic that we are fussing and complaining about burning gas in our cars and using oil.  Yet we will setup a R/O unit in a heartbeat and send all the waste water down the drain that is full of the unwanted minerals.

You have everything you need to distill your own water for basicly free.  All you need is something to collect the steam from boiling water and let it condense into another container.  You would have to research how to build your own system, but it will be far more efficient than an R/O system.
 
I'm not sure distillation is more efficient than RO. It does take a little energy to boil the water.
 
If you buy off ebay like I did, be carefull.

There was one for sale in Taiwan and it was about 70 bucks american. I e-mailed him and three days later no response, So I bought one from denmark or some euro country like that. I think I paid $170 for that becuase my dumb butt got the conversion confused. A day later the Taiwanese guy e-mailed me back and said Paypal was fine
smile_h_32.gif


Lesson learned.
 
Distilation would be good inital se tup would be expensive but you would need a place to do that and cleaning up the minerals alot wouldnt be fun.
 
on ebay, you can buy from "aqua safe", he's in Canada. The instructions suck, but if you go by the photo, it's easy to install. I collect the waste water and water my regular plants with it. Not a single drop is wasted.
smile.gif
 
  • #10
Nepenthes AK.  You can distill water with a pot and aluminum foil.  It was done on survivor man, and when I say its more efficient I mean it uses all the water instead of just some.  Do you guys realize the amount of waste water that R/O units generate?  For ever gallon you waste like a gallon and a half or so.  Don't quote me on the numbers, but its ridiculously crazy.  I was looking them up for a friend for her house.  Where she is at there is radon in the water. She wanted to filter it out and R/O unit was the only way to do that from what I read.  Then I read about the waste, its unreal.  Also the cheaper the unit the less efficient it is in water conservation. Meaning the more waste water it generates per gallon.  When you distill all you do is boil water then collect the steam on something and let it drip into another container.  It can all be done with things he probably already has in the house.
 
  • #11
Hmmm... I guess you could hook up a pressure cooker to a copper coil and let it drip down like a still. Probably dangerous though.

Lucky for me we have well water and no water bill. Muahahaha!!
 
  • #12
LOL Your still releasing all that mineral waste concentrate into the drainfield. I wasn;t worried about the water dill I was just concerned with the water shortage in alof of areas, and then the waste water. This just compounds the issue. I don;t think a pressure cooker and copper coil would work the steam has to escape. Just build an alluminum tent over a pot of boiling water. The steam collecting in the tent drip down the sides into a clean container. Now of course there are better ways of doing that but that is just one. Besides rainwater is better for the plants anyways. Forget distilling and collect rain.
 
  • #13
yes... but You have to clean it every so often... I dunno Im lazy.. I dont have a good place to collect rain either.. Theirs lots of crops... and who knows what Kind of fertalizers they spray, and pestaiceds... *teaR*
 
  • #14
Like I said, no need to empty the waste water into the drain, simply collect it and use it on other plants. Problem solved. A gallon of water is ridiculously cheap, just look at your water bill. Most of the cost is from fees and other stuff, but the actual cost per gallon is less than a penny.
 
  • #15
I'm not so much talking about the cost. I am just talking about the waste water. Not many plants cna tolerate the extreme concentration of the waste water. Maybe I am just paranoid about the waste.
 
  • #16
The "waste "water is not really wasted... it is returned to the aquifer.

However distillation requires energy which comes from a power plant which burns oil which causes pollution which causes global warming which will be the demise of humanity.

You make the call.
 
  • #17
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Dyflam @ Oct. 05 2006,4:53)]The "waste "water is not really wasted... it is returned to the aquifer.

However distillation requires energy which comes from a power plant which burns oil which causes pollution which causes global warming which will be the demise of humanity.

You make the call.
Click to expand...
Precisely. And where the heck are you gonna get "rainwater"? Certainly not here, unless you can take care of your plants with 1-6 gallons per year. And they don't mind it being so full of dust the pH is 8 or 9 and the TDS is 1,200ppm or worse.
 
  • #18
If you're interested in distilling your water you can look into solar stills. Not much waste there and fairly inexpensive.
 
  • #19
Well, Joseph I guess it depends on where your collecting the rainwater from then and how your collecting it.  I use rainwater exclusicly on my CPs and have no problems.  I collect off the house when it rains.  Of rouse I am here in GA too.  I duno I guess R/O is just not for me.  To much hype for something thats not scientific.  I agree there are some instances for it though.  Rain water works fine for me, and when I get my reserve to where I want it everything will be watered exlcusivly with rainwater.  Right now its just my CPs as I am limited to 55 gallons.  I was just throughing out distilling as an option I personaly don;t use that method.  I guess we are fortunate here.  Not all our power comes from petrolium.  We have a nuke plant close to us feeding our power grid. LOL  I will have to check out the sloar still though.  Thanks for the link!

Edit: I just checked out the link to the solar still, and I think I am going to make one of those, eventualy! It seems simple enough to make and would be better, in my opinion, than an R/O unit. Although it would be slower at producing pure water though. Thanks again for the idea!
 
  • #20
Joseph is in Arizona so not much rain but a great place for a solar still... if you get the water before it evaporates.
smile_m_32.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top