4 stage or 5 stage RO/Di

[Nautical_Newmans]

Hi im about to buy an RO/Di unit but i don't know if i should spend the extra and get the 5 stage.

Im looking as the Spectrapure as I have a credit note to spend at Goreef.com

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Steve

[mike31154]

Get a water report from your city. Among other things, the report should provide you with a TDS reading and whether they use chlorine or chloramine to disinfect your drinking water. If they use chlorine, a 4 stage should do it, if they use chloramine, then generally you need 2 carbon stages before the RO membrane and that's where a 5 stage would be required.

[Nautical_Newmans]

Thanks Mike i will ask on here and find out if anyone is Edmonton has had oner of these reports yet.

[Myka]

You can get a handheld TDS meter for about $10 from a hardware store so you can test the TDS of the tap water yourself (you will need one for monitoring the RO system anyway). You can also search on the City of Edmonton website (or is it Epcor that does water there??) to find out if chloramines are added or not. Keep in mind that chloramines will form when chlorine is added to high pH water too.

Saskatoon has chloramines added, and I have run a 4-stage RO/DI system for several years now. It does just fine. I do monitor for chlorine and change out the carbon blocks a little more often than typical. Also, I use 0.5 micron for sediment and carbon. The smaller the micron is more effective the carbon is...more surface area.

[Myka]

Ah ha... http://www.epcor.com/water/Pages/quality.aspx