Tap Water Purifier Life in Vancouver

[clintyiu]

Hmmm...

Looking at the cost of using DI I am thinking of switching to RO. A 5 stage unit sells for about $350 which is just about the least expensive I've seen.

As with recharging the DI resins....where does all the corrosive stuff go? Just disappears down the drain. Out of sight...out of mind. This is okay if you live in an area where there is waste water management but if you don't please mind what you pour down the sink.

clint

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

The two (very) active ingredients are HCL and NaOH. These two solutions are in very high concentrations and they are very corrosive individually. However, if you carefully (slowly) mix the two chemicals together,

HCL + NaOH <=> NaCl + H2O

NaCl...or table salt (without the iodine), is corrosive too....especially to steel and stainless steel, but it it is relatively harmless in diluted form. Of course, this is assuming that there is equal amount of HCL and NaOH in the two solutions. If either solution is greater, then the unreacted portion of the solution will enter the water system.

So, it is relatively safe...other than concentrating all of the metals, phophates and silicate from 150 gallons in to 1 gallon of waste water.

- Victor.