Really? I just bought and installed a Spectrapure MaxCap 90 from Reef Supplies. I had in installed in less than 30 minutes and was cranking out 0 ppm TDS water in bucket-fulls in no time. I can assure you it does not look like it was engineered by grade school students. Seriously.

It's fine to offer a system with a booster pump.... but if your house water pressure is better than 60-70 psi, you don't really need one. In my area the water pressure delivered to the house is between 110-120 psi and the plumbing code calls for a PRV in the house to regulate/reduce that to the standard 60 or so psi for home plumbing. By tweaking the PRV I have 100 psi going into my no name RODI system. Why would I want the added complexity & expense of a booster pump?

As I mentioned in my previous post, a little pre planning & research into what comes into your house can save you from spending extra money you don't need to. I suppose I should add that my no name system was purchased from an outfit in Ontario that's no longer in business. Despite that, it's still a great set up for my needs with standard 10 inch, clear pre filter housings, a DOW filmtec 75gpd membrane that's still going strong after almost 4 years & thousands of gallons produced with a tapwater TDS of approx 210-220. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put together (or design if you wish) a RODI system using generic components that have already been designed & have been on the market for many moons. It really boils down to the quality of a single component, the membrane itself & possibly the carbon block.

I'm not really a fan of the auto flush feature either. I flush manually before & after each production run & that's served me very well over the years. Auto flushing too often uses up your carbon while wasting water down the drain. I've also found that at each flush, there is a TDS spike which takes a few minutes to get back down. All the while, your DI will be working harder to give you that 0 TDS you want for your aquarium.

Yes, seriously.

What makes you think the Vertex isn't 100% better than the Spectrapure for the same money?

Compare:

http://www.reefsupplies.ca/online-st...ectrapure.html

• Four stage RODI
• Two Dual-Probe Inline TDS meters
• Manual flush valve for longer membrane life
• Auto shut-off with float valve

Okay, so consider that the Vertex has that plus the following:

• 1:1 water ratio
• Automatic backflush control and membrane monitoring
• Solenoid controlled back-pressure sensor
• 100% unit shutdown when unpowered
• Local Canadian support

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s..._ID=vt-ro100di

For the $20 difference, I'd say that is a much better value and a much better product.

The booster pump is to achieve the 1:1 ratio, not to boost PSI...

Albert, I am not disputing the fact that the Vertex is also good. I am making the point that the Spectrapure is also a good unit and your statement that it is poorly engineered.

Oh, okay. Umm, let's replace the phrase "poorly engineered" with "behind the curve".

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The Vertex website seem to indicate that the pumps is used to boost low source water pressure. Here is the quote directly from Vertex's website.

"Each Deluxe Puratek RO/DI system is furnished with a Vertex™ HP-100 Booster Pump, enabling the setup to operate at the lowest source water pressures."

Maybe I'm interpreting it wrong?

Out of curiosity, do you still work for Proline (Vertex's distributor)? If so maybe you know the answer to this. I understand that some units use some of the DI water it creates to backflow the membrane and some (probably most) just use pure tap water through the membrane. What method does the Vertex unit use for flushing?

I don't work for them anymore (over six months).

Ignore what the site says. It enables increases in PSI, but is mainly there to improve the water/waste water ratio.

I'm not sure what function is used for the backflush, unfortunately.

On the Vertex RODI, it looks like the flush valve bypasses the flow restrictor to flush the membrane, so I'd say it's still using waste water for the flush
The flush is just higher volume past the membrane, so it's not a 'back flush' per se

Thank-you both for the replies!