Waste water

[steve&mari]

How would ya use the waste water from ro/di for other uses do you set up a waste water tank or fun back into plumbing thank you trying to help a friend out

Big Steve

[MizTanks]

You could funnel it into a bucket and use it for watering plants~most I believe just run it down the drain.

[AZDesertRat]

You could pipe it to a barrel or other holding tank. If you do so make sure you provide an air gap so there is no chance of backsiphoning back to the RO unit and it meets local and state plumbing codes.
After looking at all the work involved plus pumps or manpower involved to save and use the waste I made the decision to buy a low waste RO/DI which runs at slightly less than 1:1 waste ratio so I save water and send what I do produce to the sanitary sewer where it gets treated and reused over and over.

[sugargary]

Never Drink or let your pets drink waste water. High concentrations of flouride, which cause brittle bones in all of us who have them.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

I collect some of mine and use it for house plant watering or the initial fill for the washing machine.

HTH,
Tom

[AZDesertRat]

You would only have a high concentration of fluoride or anything else if it were present in the tap water to begin with.
The waste or more accurately "brine" flow is only 20% to 25% higher TDS than the tap water TDS was to begin with so nothing is at toxic or unhealthful levels unless you were treating non potable water.
The normal waste ratio is 4:1 or 4 gallons of brine to 1 gallon of treated water. The concentrated TDS from that 1 gallon of treated water is diluted in those 4 gallons of waste thus the 20 to 25% higher TDS. Really no big deal and safe to use as long as the source was safe to begin with.

[rmalone]

I would watch using the waste water on sensitive plants like orchids, they generally prefer a very clean water to begin with. The washing machine is a great idea, though even for the amount of ro I make for my 180g, at most 100g/mo I just dump it.

[XSiVE]

Id love to do the washing machine idea, I'd just hate to accidentally over-flow it since my RO/DI is constantly on filling up my top-off tank/tub.

[AZDesertRat]

I learned a long time ago about flooding things.
My first RO system was in the kitchen and I filled my buckets and jugs from the RO faucet and pressure tank, remember this was about 20 years ago and before the popularity of RO/DI and I didn't know anything about TDS creep in a pressure tank. I forgot and flooded the kitchen a couple times and boy was she mad! We had commercial carpet in the kitchen area and it really stunk when wet.....

I bought a couple small digital kitchen timers, one even has a clip so I can wear it like a pager, so I can now set a timer if I am filling something and need to be reminded. Mostly I use the timers for the BBQ or for my homebrewing but they still come in handy for filling buckets or jugs too. You could do the same when filling the washer.
One bad thing is the new front loaders can't be filled like that.

I too send my waste to the drain and I don't feel guilty about it since it gets recycled and reused over and over. I also have an ultra low waste RO/DI system so I am only wasting about 0.67 gallons for every gallon I treat but it cost me to get to that point, may not be for everyone.

[rmalone]

Another option is to keep ALL of it in the basement and use a pump to move the water (either ro/di or brine) wherever you need it. A separate bucket for the waste/brine collection could have an overflow that dumps to a drain or sump, it's not a bad idea to have an overflow on the ro/di water container headed to the same drain/sump. It's a cheap way to avoid self inflicted floods.

[tankdude]

All my waste water goes down the drain.

[TM01]

I drain onto my lawn during the summer. Come winter...down the drain it goes.

[MizTanks]

Ugh! Down the drain an it drives me crazy...I'm a hater of waste. I'm gonna test it for TDS there's gotta be some way I can utilize it.

[AZDesertRat]

At the normal 4:1 waste ratio the brine or waste TDS will be 20 to 25% higher than the tap water was to begin with. It concentrates the TDS from that one treated gallon in the four waste gallons. Its not horribly bad as long as the tap water was safe to begin with and can be used for other purposes. That being said, I send mine to the drain too since its a pain to do anything with and it gets recycled and reused over and over anyway.

[rmalone]

Miz you really don't make that much of it anyway. Just send it down the drain, look at your tank and smile.

AZrat, what kind of waste numbers do you see on your high efficiency setup.

[AZDesertRat]

Depending on water temperature and my booster pump setting I see between 0.67:1 and 1:1 waste to good. Its normally slightly less than 1:1.

The MaxCap UHE system is not cheap but it is a real marvel of technology and science.
It uses a computer microprocessor to control a booster pump and solenoid valves and uses stored RO/DI water to backwash, rinse and store the RO membrane in so it is stays clean and fresh. TDS creep is not an issue since on shutdown the unit double backwashes and then fills the membrane housing with DI so tap water is not surrounding the RO membrane and osmosing to the treated side which is what TDS creep is. It should also last pretty much forever since it is cleaned at timed intervals an at shutdown so solids do not have a chance to collect and solidify on the membrane fabric. Even with my tap wate rTDS of 630 I see a RO only TDS of between 2 and 3 and my DI seems to last forever.

[rmalone]

Thats an awesome ro number for that high of a TDS. My god you have some crap water in your neck of the woods. I see about 330ppm, I thought that was bad. What kind of TDS numbers do you see on the brine? It must be sky high!

[AZDesertRat]

The brine TDS is over 1200 since the 0.67 to 1 gallon contains the concentrated brine for the treated gallon too.