Can RO cannister be used for whole-house particle filtering?

[Anonymous]

I moved into a location with City supplied water that apparently sits at the end of a major supply line and we wind up getting quite a bit of rust / sediment during peak use times.

From what I'm finding, whole-house basic filtering uses a 5-micron mesh filter and then sometimes a carbon block filter after that.

My biggest question is, does this produce a significant reduction in available water volume and thus pressure if multiple ends are opened around the house?

My guess is that it would but I'm a bit muddied on where I should start my math..

Or, if anyone has done this and can give just a basic yes/no answer that would freakin rock too!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know much about whole house filtering, but I'll give the thread a bump.

Hopefully, somebody will know.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

We just bought a unit from Lowe's that has a replaceable cartridge that was tied into the line coming out of the well head. I can't tell you much more other than we need a new filter. They're about $33, give or take.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes you can use an ro/di for whole house water supply. But it may not be the most efficient. plus it actually removes too much ions for human health.

 

[Anonymous]

We just bought a unit from Lowe's that has a replaceable cartridge that was tied into the line coming out of the well head. I can't tell you much more other than we need a new filter. They're about $33, give or take.

Thanks!

Looking at my RO rig I think if I were to attempt to use that it would restrict the flow too much using a single stage. (The canisters have small inlet/outlet ports..) - I've got 4 stages to the one I used to use for my tanks (including the actual RO) so I could probably run the 3 canisters in parallel with just the cheap 10 micron cotton/poly sleeves but @ $30-$35 why bother re-rigging..??

Most of the stuff I've run into looking around online have been near the cost of a full RO setup.

Thanks again, now I've got an excuse to hang out at Lowes for a bit this weekend.

 

[Anonymous]

I think GD meant to use his prefilters housing for this RO membrane for whole-house application. From the title, it sounds like he want to use his RO housing, which won't work. PLB, you seem to think that he wants to use a whole house RO setup, which is very expensive and wasteful. Most people just use a water softener in the application. The commerical RO setup is usually used in municipal water treat. Here, we are using RO'ed waste water. Yeah, drinking our own pee like the astronauts. :?

The problem with most of the canister filter housing used in RO filter is that they have small 1/4 inlet/outlet, which you notice already. I have a few 10 inch filter canisters that have 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch on them. These larger port is more appropriate for whole house application, which should use 1 inch or larger FPT on the cap due to the high flow rate needed. If you keep the filter replaced on a regular interval, there should be very little pressure drop inside the house. I recommand you get the ready-made COTS from your local hardware store since they are the right size, and most of them has a bypass valve on the top that make it easy to twist off the can when you need to replace the filter. You don't want to shut down the whole house when you do that. Besides the bypass valve, another thing you should look for is clear canister housing. You want to see how brown the filter gets, and you will be amazed. Oh, some are 20 inch tall housing too, and these are the heavy duty type.