Reverse Osmosis - Who's doing this in their RV?

[jbeletti]

Jim,
How are you going to maintain the water pressure. Running on the rv water pumps doesn't provide consistent water pressure and your installing so many filters. Won't that reduce the pressure and flow even more?
Regards,
Steve

Hi Steve,

Campground pressure will push water through the 3 pre-filters. From there, the water is boosted with an RO booster pump. This pressure is one of the keys to efficiency in this particular RO system with dual 75 GPD RO membranes. So now we have pressurized filtered fed water into the RO membranes. From there, it's stored in the fresh water tank.

We'll take water from the fresh water tank using a Aquajet ARV pump - link. This variable speed pump should pressurize our coach plumbing to about 65 PSI and deliver 5.3 GPM.

 

[jmgratz]

My question is why do you need an RO system in the first place? We have been camping for years and have never had a problem with the water. We do sanitize the fresh water tank about 4-5 times a year and use a Zero Water filter for drinking water. I think a softener would be more of what I would see for us. BTW if you check out the source of bottled water some of the bottled water comes from a municipal water source. I guess if you think you need a RO system then go big.

 

[mlpeloquin]

A lot of areas in the country have a lot of lead in the water as well as other things. RO systems remove everything. You can get hole RV filters that are 5 and 1 micron and then add a lead filter. Really good, but RO is the best. Some people don't care an do not filter at all. It also depends on where and how much you travel. I filter and have soft water. With RO you will have soft water without the need of a softener. There are trade offs. Hole RV filters need to be replaced 4 to six months and the lead filter yearly. The softener need to be regenerated depending on use.

 

[jbeletti]

My question is why do you need an RO system in the first place? We have been camping for years and have never had a problem with the water. We do sanitize the fresh water tank about 4-5 times a year and use a Zero Water filter for drinking water. I think a softener would be more of what I would see for us. BTW if you check out the source of bottled water some of the bottled water comes from a municipal water source. I guess if you think you need a RO system then go big.

Hi Jim - thanks for your feedback. A few times a year while traveling, we get sick as do the dogs. Often all at different times and sometimes, at the same time. Could it be from waterborne diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms - link?

In an effort to do "all we can do" to maintain our health while camping - cleaning up campground water is one of my goals this season. Is my plan overkill? Perhaps. I'm generally not known to jump in part way. I'm all in on this one. And I'll use this system for the balance of the 2016 camping season, then change it up based on my learnings.

 

[sjandbj]

Jim,
This project has my wheels spinning with so many questions. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. In the past do you travel with the fresh water tank full. That can add any where from 400 to 700 lbs. I normally only keep 50 or so gallons in the tank when I travel to reduce the weight. What are your thoughts. It is too expensive to drain the tank after filling the fresh water tank.

Regards,
Steve

 

[jbeletti]

Jim,
This project has my wheels spinning with so many questions. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. In the past do you travel with the fresh water tank full. That can add any where from 400 to 700 lbs. I normally only keep 50 or so gallons in the tank when I travel to reduce the weight. What are your thoughts. It is too expensive to drain the tank after filling the fresh water tank.

Regards,
Steve

Hi Steve - happy to get the wheels spinning. That's what's great about discussion forums. Get that discussion going

I do "not" plan to travel with a full fresh water tank of RO water. My "plan" - subject to experience/experimentation, is to look at our tank level the day before our travel day. If I feel we have enough or more than we need, I will hit the "Inhibit RO Production" switch. This is a switch that I will add to the system. If I feel we don't have enough for our needs, I will leave the system as-is.

Now the trick will be to dial in what our "needs" are prior to travel. We want to ensure that the day/night before travel, we have water for cooking, cleaning (RV, clothes, dishes), showers etc that day/night and then for the morning of the travel day, water for cooking and showers and finally, we want to roll into our destination on travel day with enough water to use the toilet, cook and maybe start a load of clothes.

We always (99.5%) have water hookups at our camping spots, so we'll begin RO production as soon as we hookup to power and water at our destination. At a 150 GPD (gallons per day) RO production rate (or 6+ gallons per hour), we'll be making water at a fast enough rate, adding to what's in the tank to serve us well that evening.

Here again, all of this is subject to upcoming experience/experimentation. It's my sincere hope that I can shut off RO production the day before travel and be good with that. By good, I mean strike that balance of not carrying too much water but also not rolling into our destination empty either.

We are consummate planners. We make good use of electronic calendars. This means each night's campground destination is on the calendar. For all calendar entries for new destinations, I can set an alarm that goes off the day/night before that reminds me "Turn RO Off". The trick there will be to remember to turn it back on when I get to my destination!

 

[Crumgater]

I just invested in a Berkey filter for use in the home... I need to remove fluoride for personal health reasons. I looked at an RO system, but the amount of waste water turned me off. Here in Seattle you'd think we have ample water supplies, but we do get into drought summers (more with climate change) and water conservation is a BIG deal around here.

In the RV, we use a simple carbon filter on the incoming water (camping world variety), and in most places put that through a Brita filter for use in the ice machine (portable) and for normal drinking use. There have a been a few places we've gone where the water still tasted off (metallic or just icky)... so, we always carry big jugs of spring water as backup.

The Berkey filter is very portable, so it might go with us... but we don't full time, so as of yet, the carbon filters with jug backup has worked for us.

I agree that RO water is also devoid of minerals, and needs to be 're-energized'. Even the Berkey water tastes 'dead' to us - I get thirsty/dry-mouth drinking it if I don't at least add some sea salt to it. Here's a good article about how to add back some level of 'life' to the RO water: http://wellgal.com/7-ways-add-essential-trace-minerals-drinking-water-health/

And, yes, Nuclear Reactor Water (and any Steam Turbine Water) is VERY pure and normally produced through RO systems. That water gets heated and pressurized in order to make power, which causes any minerals to plate out on the equipment... which you really do NOT want. When I'm not out camping, I do performance assessments at power plants... water chemistry is VERY important to maintaining a clean and efficient power plant. -Tina

 

[jbeletti]

Hi Tina - your job is very interesting. Thanks for the feedback.

I'll think I'll just have to install my system and tweak it once we start getting some experience with it. In addition to have really clean/pure water in the coach, we do want it to taste/feel worth drinking.

Just got all my equipment ordered. Should all be here in a week. Might get it installed before we hit the road for 3 weeks and give it a test in Sevierville, TN, Branson, MO and points in between.

Can you recommend a lab or test kit that tests for water borne organisms that are bad for our health - that doesn't break the bank to do the testing? I've seen various test kits that test for metals and such but I want to know what the water I'm producing has in it from a micro organism perspective. Thanks

 

[mlpeloquin]

Hi Dave - your job is very interesting. Thanks for the feedback.

I'll think I'll just have to install my system and tweak it once we start getting some experience with it. In addition to have really clean/pure water in the coach, we do want it to taste/feel worth drinking.

Just got all my equipment ordered. Should all be here in a week. Might get it installed before we hit the road for 3 weeks and give it a test in Sevierville, TN, Branson, MO and points in between.

Can you recommend a lab or test kit that tests for water borne organisms that are bad for our health - that doesn't break the bank to do the testing? I've seen various test kits that test for metals and such but I want to know what the water I'm producing has in it from a micro organism perspective. Thanks

Jim I found this on the internet. http://www.purewaterproducts.com/articles/what-does-ro-remove I don't think you need to test unless you have not purified the RV prior to installing the RO system or unless you think the RO has a bad membrane.

Concerned about cysts like giardia and cryptosporidium that have been in the news so much lately? The reverse osmosis membrane operates down to an unimaginably tiny pore size of 0.0001 microns. That's about one ten thousandth as big as even a very tight carbon block filter, which is itself much too tight for a giardia or cryptosporidium cyst to pass through. As for bacteria and viruses, the smallest virus is about ten times as big as the largest possible pore in an RO membrane. And by comparison, bacteria are giants. (Note: This should not be understood to mean that you should treat bacteria-contaminated water with an RO unit. That isn't its purpose, and the O-ring seals in reverse osmosis units are not designed to prevent the migration of bacteria.)

 

[Bones]

Jim I think that was Tina Talking.

 

[jbeletti]

Jim I think that was Tina Talking.

Oops - thanks Dave.

 

[jbeletti]

Thanks Marc. I used that site as a resource in determining what I wanted to do. Good info there.

 

[mlpeloquin]

Thanks Marc. I used that site as a resource in determining what I wanted to do. Good info there.

If you are going through the expense of a RO system, have you thought of adding a Sterilight 5gpm ultra-violet light? Could be added prior to the RO system.

 

[jbeletti]

If you are going through the expense of a RO system, have you thought of adding a Sterilight 5gpm ultra-violet light? Could be added prior to the RO system.

I did read about it but haven't given it much consideration. The system, once installed will be used for a year, then moved to the next coach. I suspect I'll make tweaks with it in the next coach based on learnings.