Reduce/Repurpose waste water from RO/DI?

[STiTCH87]

Does anybody know if there's a kit compatible with a 50gpd Air Water Ice Mighty Mite that will reduce the amount of waste water expelled?

That or does anyone have good ideas for what to do with waste water? I produce around 7g a week of RO/DI which means probably around 14-21g of waste water, right? Rather than watching water I pay for go down the drain, I want to either lessen the waste, or find a new use for it. I know the obvious ones like watering the house plants and what have you, but 20g is far more than any plant would need. One thing I was considering is taking all the waste water and filling the sink up to do dishes by hand. But does anyone else have cool ideas for waste water?

Since we're on the subject, anyone have a good use for collected rain water other than watering the lawn and garden?

 

[reefstarter]

I run mine to my garden and the plants love it the nutrients in it are great for gardens

 

[dakar652]

I run my waste water right into my washing machine and do 2 or 3 loads a week with it

 

[dakar652]

P.s. less waste water expelled=higher total dissolved solids=higher phosphates. My expulsion rate is around 98% I think...but I get TDS readings of zero parts per trillion.

 

[mrjantzen]

I hate wasting water to rinse out recyclables, I use my rodi waste.

 

[this is me]

I put the waste water tube in the middle of the lawn. The newer washing machines do not allow you to manual add water to it even the top loading ones.

 

[STiTCH87]

Yeah I have the same washer issue lol. So I guess into the sink for washing dishes it goes!

 

[daves-reef]

I Remember see something about zero waste RO systems were the wast water feeds hot water system. For some reason I stopped looking into it. Don't remember why.

 

[dakar652]

Drill a hole in the top of your washing machine lid...presto change-o.

If your wife complains...tell her you're saving the planet or some other hippie garbage.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

You can control the amount of waste water by changing your flow restrictor - a $4 little plastic component.

Russ

 

[BrianOD68]

Good thread!
Before when I was in a condo my RO waste water line went into the washer machines drain pipe. The other day I set up the RODI unit up outside of my new place outside on my deck and just ran the waste water into a 5 gallon bucket and kept emptying it into my pool or watering my plants.

I forgot how much waste is involved when filtering out tap water. I am interested to hear of any creative ideas to avoid the waste.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

That process starts with measuring your current waste water to purified water ratio.

Line up 8 identical cups in front of your system. With your waste water tube in one hand, and your purified water tube in the other, how many cups do you fill with waste water in the time it takes you to fill one cup with purified water?

What's called the "waste water to purified water ratio" in this hobby is better referred to as your system's "recovery rate." Recovery Rate is calculated as a percentage, like this:
Permeate/Feed water.

So a system producing 1 gpm of RO water from 5 gpm of feedwater would have a 20% recovery, and be operating at a 4 to 1 ratio.

Russ

Russ

 

[delta]

If you have good water pressure(65psi or better) you can run a second membrane in line with your current membrane(fed from the waste line of first membrane) theoretically it cuts waste in half.

The other option is to move to DI system with Separate DI (Cations/Anions)setup. It is zero waste but there is no RO membrane so depending on your water quality that will dictate how fast you blow through DI. But since the DI is not mixed Bed you can recharge it. This is not for everyone so make sure you know what you are getting into when recharging DI resin.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

If you have good water pressure(65psi or better) you can run a second membrane in line with your current membrane(fed from the waste line of first membrane) theoretically it cuts waste in half.

Somehow we have to find a way to kill this myth.

Doesn't help that a popular pet supplies vendor keeps promoting it.

When you run two membranes in series they behave like a single long membrane - nothing in this configuration magically allows you to reduce the waste water by half - unless you use the wrong flow restrictor - but you could have done that with just a single membrane. More on all this if you're interested.

Russ

 

[delta]

No I get what you are saying. As there is only one restrictor in that setup and Short of collecting the waste and using a pressure pump to run the waste through another membrane with a second restrictor it inefficient/placebo effect use of two membranes. And even with a pressure pump/second restrictor theoretically would only cut waste by 1/4 if that even works.

Although that may not even be correct as the water was already rejected and I am not sure exactly how that works. meaning if it was rejected as a capacity of rejection. or just the capacity of of how much volume the Membrane can handle? Not sure that is clear as to what I am asking