BajaNomad - Drinking Water in San Felipe

Drinking Water in San Felipe

BajaJim - 9-29-2006 at 02:25 PM

Has anyone installed an RO water system in San Felipe and used the water to drink or make ice?

Just curious

wornout - 9-29-2006 at 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaJim
Has anyone installed an RO water system in San Felipe and used the water to drink or make ice?

Just curious

I haven't because I am in a solar area and they take a lot of power. Also I understand they use 5, 6, 7 or whatever gallons to make one gallon. There are ample water places in San Felipe.

BajaJim - 9-29-2006 at 04:27 PM

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I haven't because I am in a solar area and they take a lot of power. Also I understand they use 5, 6, 7 or whatever gallons to make one gallon. There are ample water places in San Felipe.

Reverso Osmosis does not take any power. It used a fine mesh screen to clean the water. It does take 2 gallons to one to make the purified water. Now the question is, when you say it wastes water, does it bother you that water is being wasted or just your water is being wasted? If you get bottled water from a machine, it wastes the same amount of water.

EngineerMike - 9-29-2006 at 05:46 PM

I have a whole-house RO filter on my motorhome. I fill the tank w/good water from whatever source is available. I don't have the MH in Mulege, but could have devised a way to take river water & run it thru the RO to make good water. Pre-filters take the big stuff out, then the RO gets 100% of the virals/bacterials and anything particulate, and 95% of the disolved minerals. Mulege water has 700ppm in disolved minerals & the RO gets that down to 38ppm into the tank. In AZ its 800ppm, but @ 70psi input pressure I get 20-25 ppm in the tank.

I can dial it from zero to 2X the waste water per gallon of "product" water; lower waste = lower filtration efficency. It does not take any electricity if you have pressure (20psi min). Higher pressure works best; efficiency of the filter increases as the input poressure goes up (it has faster output & lower ppm output as well). If you don't have 20psi, you need a pressure boosting pump which can be 120V or 12V. While in Arizona I water the palm trees & such on our lot w/the discharge water. While in Mulege I dial the discharge rate back to 1:1, water the plants till they won't take any more, then the rest goes in the septic tank. Since we don't put that much into the septic anyway, the dilution doesn't hurt.

Got the setup from www.vagabondwater.com. My tank is 100 gallons & we use about 25 gallons/day, so I top off every 3 days or so.

wornout - 9-29-2006 at 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaJim

Now the question is, when you say it wastes water, does it bother you that water is being wasted or just your water is being wasted? If you get bottled water from a machine, it wastes the same amount of water.

It bothers me that if I get a truck with 2500 gallons, 1250 gallons will go in the septic if I put in an RO system. That is 1250 gallons I will not be able to shower with, water the plants with and so on. It is too late for me to redo my system to use an RO system. It has worked just fine for the last 8 years just the way it is.

It doesn't bother me what they do with the 5 gallons of water it took to create the 5 gallon bottle of water I buy because that waste is figured in the 75 cents we pay for the 5 gallons.

Bajajorge - 9-30-2006 at 09:21 AM

Five gallon bottles at 7 pesos is good enough for me. Why go to the expense of an RO system. The trucked in water is good enough for showering, flushing etc. I have a $20 filter on the water coming out of my storage tank, change it about every 5000 gallons. I've even drank it

and I ain't dead yet.

ncampion - 9-30-2006 at 12:12 PM

A good compromise is to just have a small RO system to make drinking water. I use one in my house in the States to get great tasting water. I does have some waste water but it is minimal for the small amount of water that you produce for drinking. You don't need to RO the water you use for the shower and washing clothes. Get a system at Costco for less than $200, install under the sink and fill up you drinking bottles from that.

wornout - 9-30-2006 at 07:33 PM

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Originally posted by ncampion
A good compromise is to just have a small RO system to make drinking water. I use one in my house in the States to get great tasting water. I does have some waste water but it is minimal for the small amount of water that you produce for drinking. You don't need to RO the water you use for the shower and washing clothes. Get a system at Costco for less than $200, install under the sink and fill up you drinking bottles from that.

Let's see, $200 would buy about 180 five gallon bottles, and at 2 bottles a week that is 90 weeks or about three years worth of water (we are not in San Felipe during the summer so I subtracted those weeks).

Figuring in filters for an RO system, and considering I already invested in the 5 gallon bottles, RO isn't really for me at this time. Might be a plan for someone just building though. :light:

meme - 10-1-2006 at 09:09 AM

We bought the $100 undersink system two years ago for our house. Just change the filters once a year. Works for us! Before that we were drinking the water , had no problems but a Mexican friend advised us not to drink it.

QuePasaBaja - 10-1-2006 at 10:01 PM

There is a law for ALL tourist areas, and that means Baja. If you buy water from one of the places that sells botteled water, it is CLEAN, or they are out of business. I will try and find the translated law. It was put into action because of tourists getting sick. So we get the water from one of the local places and use that. It tastes fine, and is nice and clean.

BCSTech - 10-2-2006 at 05:34 PM

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Just to keep the comparison fair, I assume this doesn't include any other costs such as the time, effort or gas it takes to get the water and schlep the bottles, no?

wornout - 10-2-2006 at 07:10 PM

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Originally posted by BCSTech

Quote:

Just to keep the comparison fair, I assume this doesn't include any other costs such as the time, effort or gas it takes to get the water and schlep the bottles, no?

Let's see, the water place is on the way to the gas station and I have to get gas for my dune buggy, in cans, so I schlep the water bottles along with the gas cans. Now if I gave up schlepping my water cans, I might just not want to schlep my gas cans. That means I wouldn't have gas for the desert trips. Then I would just sit around when everyone is going to the desert, and this would be a bad thing. Therefore, installing an RO system would just cut into my hobby. BTW, like a lot of folks in San Felipe, we are retired and have lots of time.

ncampion - 10-2-2006 at 10:22 PM

Besides, schlepping all that water and gas makes your arms longer which makes it easier to steer the dune buggy. Makes sense to me!

bajalou - 10-2-2006 at 11:24 PM

I just drink the water-------------

Cypress - 10-3-2006 at 11:12 AM

Drink the water!

You'll build-up a tolerance to those little bugs that cause all the problems.

Only the strong survive. :biggrin: