RO/DI Safety Help

[Craigdillman]

Hey guys,

Well just caught my RODI just in the nick of time 4th time in the last few months ( 3 of them my wifes doing but ..I digress) to see one my 40g barrels on the verge of overflowing and the lid floating ... So time to see what everyone else does to prevent this from happening because ( setting an iPhone alarm apparently doesn work for my wife cause she was busy "multitasking" to remember the RO machine she started lol )\
And sooner or later this is going to cause a flood under my stairs where it is set up and we all know where that goes... into the hallway carpet ... bathroom floor.. cause im sure it wont all flow down into the sump pump ...

So what do you guys do with your RO machine to fill your holding buckets up as a safety stop so to say?

[Myka]

Add an auto shut off valve and check valve to the RO system and a float valve to the container. It will shut off automatically when it's full.

[whatcaneyedo]

A mechanical float value and automatic shut off valve does the trick. Have you never heard of them? The two will cost you around $50 and are sold virtually everywhere that sells RO/DI systems. Here is what J&L carries: http://www.jlaquatics.com/aqua-fx-float-valve-and-shut-off-kit.html Electric float switches and solenoid systems can also be built if you're into that sort of thing. I personally put more faith in the manual type.

[Craigdillman]

Ok sweet yea I have a pressure shut off for the drinking water side of it but never installed anything for the buckets

Problem is I usally bring the buckets upstairs And use them to mix salt and do the change in, ( they have wheels and I move them up the stairs when I do the change)

That sounds like a awesome idea lol I don't know why didn't think of that, now that I think of it I should find a way to plumb it directly to my ato container

[intarsiabox]

Even though I use float valves on my RO system I've seen and had enough of them fail to have an emergency drain line near the top of the barrel that goes to a floor drain.

[Myka]

now that I think of it I should find a way to plumb it directly to my ato container

Although lots of people do that, it's a really scary idea. If the shut off ever fails your tank will be pumped full of a never-ending supply of RO/DI water.

[Craigdillman]

Well yea I was thinking of plumbing rodi into the ATO tank which is controlled by the Tunze ATO so if it did over flow the ATO tank would flood .. both equally bad lol and my RO machine is down stairs and tank up stairs so i would have to route it threw some stuff which could also be a challenge

[Craigdillman]

Just found this video which is solving my problem even if i don't hook up directly to my ATO tank something in here should work for my situation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XPKLrU6LEo


Thanks for all the input ( hoping to never have a flood )

[gregzz4]

I used to have a mechanical float valve in my RO drum to shut off my system.
After some issues, I found that during shut-down, before the pressure valve closes, water pressure is greatly reduced. This caused some TDS to get through my system.

I've removed said float valve, and have run the RO drum overflow to a drain.
Drilled a hole as high as possible in the drum and away goes the leak.

If it overflows, oh well. Then close the valves and shut off the source water.
Next time it runs I flush the membrane and start all over.

If I were to ever spend some money here, I'd get a float/solenoid setup that would shut off the system instantly. Then I'd consider trusting it on it's own.

[mike31154]

One of those dilemmas. I've learned not to trust any kind of automated shut off, mechanical or otherwise when making RODI. I only make water when I'm home & doofus that I am, I've still had a couple of mini floods overfilling both my fresh & waste water vessels. I collect the waste water to use around the house & in the garden since our water rates are quite high & continue get jacked up by our good officials here in Vernon. Need to make the most of every drop coming down the city pipe. I set the timer on my gas range when I make RODI as a reminder. Nevertheless, several times I've forgotten even that when I decided to go outside & tool around. Now I set the timer on the gas range & my mobile when I go outside!

No way I'd ever plumb a RODI system directly to a sump or display as an ATO solution. I'd be terrified by the thought of that screwing up on me & greggz has already mentioned the TDS creep associated with that kind of set up. I can ill afford any kind of water disaster in my basement since the sewer exits the house only about a foot below the top of the basement concrete. There's no drain in the basement floor, so if something breaks, I'm knackered if I don't catch it in time. Thinking of breaking thru the concrete floor & installing an emergency sump to pump water up to the sewer line in the event of such a calamity. Recently installed a laundry tub with small sump underneath to catch the washer water. The washer used to have to pump about 6-7 feet up to the sewer line through a check valve. There was often residual water in the bottom of the washer after cycle was complete. Works much better now with the sump under the laundry tub doing the work. Anyhow, that little sump won't help if there's a water pipe break down there, the level in the whole basement would have to rise more than a foot before that started filling up & pumping.

All that to say, reiterate, a major mishap in my basement will have dire consequences, so I don't rely on any manner of automated water shut off on my RODI.

[Craigdillman]

Yea I totally agree, i never really wanted to plumb it directly in cause that alone scared me , and logistically in my house probably wouldn't be an option, I'm in the same boat a flood would not be good my downstairs bathroom is touching the storage where the RO MAchine is and would not want to cross that bridge..

I was wondering, the perfect set up would be a timer that you set say for 2 hours then after 2 hours a shut off stops the water going into the RO machine u till the timer is reset . So then you could figure how long it took to make be bucket set it for that time walk away and the timer would cut the water supply of you forgot to come and check it ? Does something like that exist ? Like a timer trigger solenoid or something ?

[gregzz4]

Use a mechanical timer
The style with pins used to set the on and off times
Then just do not use the "on" pins

Then of course you need to add a shut-off solenoid

[mike31154]

There is hardware available (solenoid) that is able to shut off your main water supply to the house. It may be wired to a water detector to automatically do its thing when water is detected. Kind of like a water alarm, but with the ability to take action rather than just make noise to alert you. Something like this has the potential to lower your home insurance rate. I'm somewhat baffled that these things are not actually required by code for new buildings these days.

As for a timer to shut off your RODI via a solenoid, that's pretty much the same thing, but you're still relying on the timer not to fail. 99.99% of the time this will work, probably for many years. But remember Murphy's law..... Having said that, I use a timer to run an air pump which pressurizes my ATO container. This in turn pushes water through a mechanical float valve into my display. I think I mentioned I don't have a sump, so this is the best scenario I could come up with, involving minimum risk of a failure. 3 components with potential failure modes, the timer, the air pump, the mechanical float valve. I suppose you can take that to the nth degree & include the container & tubing to the mix, but the likelihood of any kind of major disaster due to those is too minimal to worry IMO. Over the years I've come to know how long the timer needs to run in order to keep the ATO container pressurized sufficiently to keep up with evaporation. The beauty of this set up is that even if the air pump runs longer than it needs to, the mechanical float valve prevents overfilling the display. This has worked great for me for many years with only a few 'close' calls due to issues with the float valve.