ro unit question.

[anubix00]

i know that it takes a while for any given unit to make so much water, but what happens to the waste water that isnt squeezed through the filter? does it just go down the drain wasted? or is the unit normally hooked to a sink? i was lookin at getting a ro unit, and i didnt need to hook it to my sink so whatis normally done with the "waste water"?

 

[durgeonman]

depending on the type of unit and how you set it up it either goes into the sink or into a bucket that you dump out afterward.

 

[rusting]

It is waste water, and goes down the drain.

 

[anubix00]

oh, well the way it was explained to me was that there was like a whole lot of waste water.
thanks though

 

[djm]

RO units waste TONS of water. I'm sure there are probably exceptions, but MOST home RO systems never shut off the incoming water supply feed. The system is most efficient as it fills the holding tank. After the holding tank is full, the water is switched to bypass flowing through the membrane and runs directly into the drain. A bucket to catch wastewater is not an option, unless you have a 600 gallon bucket. lol
The wastewater line on an RO system HAS to be plumbed into a drain line. It's hard for me to imagine a system that needs no plumbing. It is actually quite easy to attach the wastewater line to your sink's drain. You only need to drill a hole big enough for the wastewater line in your drain. RO systems come with a collar that fits around the drain to keep the wastewater line from leaking.

 

[gsd]

You can simply place the drain / discharge line from ther RODI unit into the drain itself without any need for making a connectiion to existing pipes. On average yu can expect 2 to 3 gal of waste water for every gal of RODI water produced. After the fill valve is shut off on the RODI line there is a valve that will allow unit to flush membrane etc and then shuts off a few minutes later. These valves can stick and the unit can keep dumping water down the drain, so it is IMHO a good idea to stillshut off a unit especially if its hard plumbed in and yu can not see the drain or waste line. We used to catch our drain water and use it to water the plants etc, but its ore of a hassle thanits worth since water here is so cheap and we have yet to go over our water allocation for minimum billing.