BajaNomad

Reverse Osmosis Water System

ArvadaGeorge - 9-7-2010 at 08:58 AM

Is anyone using a Reverse Osmosis Water system in their home or R/V with Mexican tap water?
Does the R/O system clean it enough to drink?

monoloco - 9-7-2010 at 09:38 AM

Most of the tap water in Baja is relatively pure, it doesn't take much of a system to purify it.

Marinero - 9-7-2010 at 09:42 AM

We have an R/O system in eastcape. The water is pure enough from the tap, but the R/O polishes it, removes funny tastes and is a safety valve in case of muni. system breakdown.

shari - 9-7-2010 at 09:43 AM

we have a UV water filter system at the Beach House that works well...you can drink the water but we still provide a garafon of drinking water for paranoid visitors....the village water purification is the reverse osmosis system too.

bkbend - 9-7-2010 at 09:43 AM

And if you're worried about the tap water for drinking you can buy RO/UV water for drinking just about anywhere. Probably anywhere that has tap water you may be worried about. About a buck worth of pesos for five gallons.

El Camote - 9-7-2010 at 09:46 AM

What's UV water, ultraviolet? :?:

Bob and Susan - 9-7-2010 at 09:47 AM

purified water here is 8 pesos for 5 gallons (64 cents usa)

it's "on sale" thurdays 4 pesos for 5 gallons (32 cents usa)

that's 6.4 cents a gallon on thursdays WOW!!!

bajaguy - 9-7-2010 at 09:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by El Camote
What's UV water, ultraviolet? :?:





http://www.waterfixercompany.com/model1000.html

Bob and Susan - 9-7-2010 at 09:49 AM

the tap water doesn't have "bugs" in it but

the minerals and dirt in the water
may make you sick

ONLY drink bottled or purified water when on vacation

Bob and Susan - 9-7-2010 at 01:07 PM

my neighbors have those too...they seem to work
i don't trust them


my question is...

i've eaten off ceramic plates...

how do they get the water thur the ceramic?:o:o

Bob and Susan - 9-7-2010 at 03:05 PM

i still dont trust it...

lets do the math

365 days * 3 years = 1095 days
if you use 1 gallon a day you use 1095 gallons in 3 years

if you boil-dry one gallon of water
look how much sediment you get on the bottom
of the pan

so if you boil-dry 1095 gallons of water
look how much "junk" you get

will it all fit in the little 12 inch filter?

i wonder....:light:

wessongroup - 9-7-2010 at 04:18 PM

RO with ozone generation .. adds something else ... you can make it taste like spring water... plus, clean it up a bit, also...

looking for a guys address that makes custom units.. he was located in north county San Diego.. a few years ago...

will see if I can find him ... he was up off El Camino Real and Palomar... been a few years .. since I visited the subject ...

bajaguy - 9-7-2010 at 04:21 PM

Use the Waterfixer 1000 UV system with a whole house particulate filter in front of it

RO for hard water?

1bobo - 9-7-2010 at 05:24 PM

Anyone have any experience trying to treat (wholehouse) with an RO system?

bajaguy - 9-7-2010 at 05:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1bobo
Anyone have any experience trying to treat (wholehouse) with an RO system?





I really don't think a water filter (RO or UV) will do anything for "hard" water.......you will probably need a softener

Udo - 9-7-2010 at 05:37 PM

Quote:
Do you use the system in Baja, Terry?
How much electricity does it use? (watts or amps?)
Perhaps I should direct the question to the filtration company?



Quote:
Originally posted by bajaguy :?:





http://www.waterfixercompany.com/model1000.html

bajaguy - 9-7-2010 at 05:47 PM

Udo....should have it operational at Christmas. unknown power use. I would call the toll free number. I know a couple of folks in Ensenada using the Waterfixer

RnR - 9-7-2010 at 06:47 PM

RO systems will work in Baja and anywhere else for that matter. They just need electricity to provide pressure via a pump to force the supply side water through the membranes. The higher the dissolved solids content in the water, the higher the pressure needs to be. To process municipal supplied water, 50 psi will probably do the trick. To process saltwater, as in desalination, takes 3,000 psi!

There is also a large percentage of the supply water that becomes waste water. At low pressures, the quantity of waste water is very high. At 50 psi, there is about 4 parts waste water to 1 part treated water. This info comes from GE's website as part of the info supplied with the GE units available from Home Depot.

RO systems also require periodic maintenance. Again, the higher the solids content the more frequent is the maintenance. Maintenance usually consists of cleaning and/or replacing filter cartridges and membrane cartridges. Chlorine is also instant death for the membranes! If there is any chlorine in the supply water, there has to be an activated carbon filter upstream of the membrane cartridge.

Marinero - 9-8-2010 at 09:26 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1bobo
Anyone have any experience trying to treat (wholehouse) with an RO system?


Capacity is an issue. My holding tank is only 6 gallons and the watermaking process is pretty slow. I have a direct line to the kitchen sink, the casita kitchen sink and the icemaker in the fridge. Six gallons is plenty for that usage. However, getting enough R/O water to flush the johns and wash the walkways would take quite a system.

chippy - 9-8-2010 at 01:22 PM

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by Udo
Do you use the system in Baja, Terry?
How much electricity does it use? (watts or amps?)
Perhaps I should direct the question to the filtration company?



Quote:
Originally posted by bajaguy :?:


In called them. The 1000 uses 25 watts and a 1/2 amp. Sounds good to me. My only problem is I will see even less pressure (gravity feed) at the faucet.


http://www.waterfixercompany.com/model1000.html

Pescador - 9-8-2010 at 02:50 PM

The biggest problem with Reverse Osmosis systems is that they waste a lot of water. You may use up to 15 gallons just to make one gallon of water. I am using an Amway filter which is a pressed Charcoal block filter with UV treatment and it filters everything out of the water. I tested and it is every bit as good as any of the water from any of the treatment plants in Santa Rosalia and Mulege. Mine goes under the sink and when I want water I open the valve. It has an alarm when the filter gets slightly plugged or when a certain amount of filtrate has been processed.

Marinero - 9-10-2010 at 08:09 AM

With a Pila, the water is not wasted. It can be returned to the Pila and while it is the cruddy part of the water, it soon mixes with the remaining couple of thousand gallons

schwlind - 9-10-2010 at 10:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by fishabductor


My water expense per yr at 2.5 gallons day at 365day/yr equals 912 gallons. A gallon of water is 20 cents in los cabos..My water expense for 2 people and a baby in $182.50/yr. I am sure when you look at the cost of filters, UV bulbs/fuses, electricity, initial equipement purchase, water softeners ..ect. it would be much more expensive per gallon for what we use. Plus my experience in baja would tell me there would be various failures of equipement. Which is hard to find in baja.


Here in San Antonio Del Mar (Colonet), we must have general purpose water trucked in... The cost per load started out at around $20 US per load in the 90's... now it is $60 per load. It costs us $120 to fill our pilar... (costs more than in the states). We too only use bottled water for cooking and drinking.... Tank water for everything else... Currently the only source of our trucked in water is from a well a few miles outside of Colonet and is a mixture of fresh and salt water, which as I understand is the most difficult water to treat).

Marinero - 9-10-2010 at 03:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by schwlind
Quote:
Originally posted by fishabductor


My water expense per yr at 2.5 gallons day at 365day/yr equals 912 gallons. A gallon of water is 20 cents in los cabos..My water expense for 2 people and a baby in $182.50/yr. I am sure when you look at the cost of filters, UV bulbs/fuses, electricity, initial equipement purchase, water softeners ..ect. it would be much more expensive per gallon for what we use. Plus my experience in baja would tell me there would be various failures of equipement. Which is hard to find in baja.


Here in San Antonio Del Mar (Colonet), we must have general purpose water trucked in... The cost per load started out at around $20 US per load in the 90's... now it is $60 per load. It costs us $120 to fill our pilar... (costs more than in the states). We too only use bottled water for cooking and drinking.... Tank water for everything else... Currently the only source of our trucked in water is from a well a few miles outside of Colonet and is a mixture of fresh and salt water, which as I understand is the most difficult water to treat).

Marinero - 9-10-2010 at 03:11 PM

Since and R/O system is essentially the same as a watermaker for a cruising boat, they should be able to handle salt water. Of course you probably can't use the rejected water as it will be way salty.