mike31154 |
11-29-2011 03:43 AM |
Before buying a system, best to find out a little more about your tap/source water. I assume the city of Wetaskiwin is the water provider? If so, they likely have a web page with water quality data, such as TDS, and whether the water is treated with chlorine or chloramine for disinfection. Chlorine is commonly used and once you confirm this, you will not need a 7 stage system with two carbon pre filters. Two carbon stages are usually only required for water treated with chloramine.
100 gpd RO membranes have a lower rejection rate than a 75 gpd or 50 gpd, so although you'll be making water faster, you will likely be using up DI media faster as well, and DI media is costly. Also better if pre filter housings are made of clear acrylic rather than the white plastic on some of the cheaper systems. The clear housings make it easy to monitor the condition of your sediment filters visually. The DI stage should also be mounted vertically, not horizontally as on some systems. Horizontally mounted DI cartridges will not make full use of all the DI media inside. A good quality system will also include at least one pressure gauge and a TDS meter.
Saving a few bucks up front on a cheaper system may end up costing you further down the road. I'd recommend budgeting about $200 and you'll get yourself a good quality system with no surprises, such as inadequate pre filters or cheap RO membranes. Most RODI systems use standard, generic 10 inch filter housings and vendors simply stamp their brand name on the product. Aquarium RO systems are no different than others, except that we tend to add the DI stage to completely strip the water of all contaminants. Plenty of info out there, do a bit more research before spending the $$$s.
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