Question about Deionization

[dnorton1978]

I am reading John Tullocks book titled Corals, and read something interesting.

So, I need input from the RDO community.

Here is what the paragragh says about DI.

"Deionization can also be used as the sole means of water purification, dispensing with RO altogether, but this is a more expensive option, as the resins must be replaced periodically. The advantages of using deionization alone are that water is produced on demand, rather than drop by drop, and there is no wastewater production."

I found one today for about $50, and that is much cheaper than RO/DI, and was wondering if the water quality is as good. Also, just how expensive are these resin replacements?


I like the whole no waste, and the on demand feature, not to mention the initial out of pocket.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

You'll go through quite a bit of resin, the purpose of DI only units is to allow you to recharge the resins using OTC type chemicals, you'd go broke if you replaced the resins.

 

[dnorton1978]

Might be a dumb question, but hey its me dnorton.. What are the resins? I was thinking of it being a filter..

 

[Anonymous]

The filter in DI is a plastic beads with resin on the outside of the beads. If you just use DI without the RO, depends on how bad your tap water is, it probably will cost you anywhere from 20 cents to more than a dollar per gallon for the resin replacement.

Your $50 DI filter will give me about 20 gallon of water before I need to change the resin/beads.

 

[Anubis1]

I thought it was a filter too.. the one that i have coming uses cartridges.. so yeah.. add me to the list of confused people..

 

[Anubis1]

The filter in DI is a plastic beads with resin on the outside of the beads. If you just use DI without the RO, depends on how bad your tap water is, it probably will cost you anywhere from 20 cents to more than a dollar per gallon for the resin replacement.

Your $50 DI filter will give me about 20 gallon of water before I need to change the resin/beads.

ok.. you have me wondering.. how do you go about recharging it?... and where do you get the chemicals?

btw thanks!
(not taking over the thread.. i promise...)

 

[dnorton1978]

The filter in DI is a plastic beads with resin on the outside of the beads. If you just use DI without the RO, depends on how bad your tap water is, it probably will cost you anywhere from 20 cents to more than a dollar per gallon for the resin replacement.

Your $50 DI filter will give me about 20 gallon of water before I need to change the resin/beads.

ok.. you have me wondering.. how do you go about recharging it?... and where do you get the chemicals?

btw thanks!
(not taking over the thread.. i promise...)

Thats a lot of money, and not much water..


No worries, your not taking over. This is helpful to me as well.

 

[Anonymous]

RO membrane will remove ~95-98% of the impurities in the water. You run DI after the RO to finish off what the RO cant do.

The cartridge (filter) in the DI container holds DI resin. After a few months the resin will be used up and will need recharging. You can buy just the resin to refill the DI cartridge or you can by a DI cartridge.

I get my resin from www.buckeyefieldsupply.com. I get a 5lb bad that lasts me a few months. I run 2 DI cartridges on my system.

 

[Anonymous]

Nobody says it is not a filter. It is a water filter that use mixed ion exchange resins.

To recharge the resins, you need a strong inorganic base (usually lye, sodium hydroxide) and a strong inorganic acid (usually muriatic acid, hydrochloric acid) on each of two resins after you separate it. The process of resin separation is tedious and messy, but much cheaper than buying new mixed resins.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm using DI exclusively on the current tank, no RO. I'm doing so because the water pressure in my apartment is lousy and I don't want to go through the hassle of running a booster pump to run water at sufficient pressure through an RO membrane, my tap water isn't all that bad to begin with, and I don't have a convenient source of RO water from a grocery in walking distance.

You can get great quality water with just DI, but as others have mentioned if your tap water isn't so good to begin with you'll exhaust the cartridges very quickly. I get about 45 gallons from one of mine, which amounts to something like 30 cents per gallon.

The other drawback is speed. To work properly water has to pass through the DI column slowly... I find that under five gallons an hour to be the sweet spot.

 

[SnowManSnow]

I'm glad you posted this.. i need more resin in my filter

I also get mine from www.buckeyefieldsupply.com

B

 

[dnorton1978]

Well, I am glad to get all this useful feedback.

cjdevito How much do you spend on refills?

I am still deciding, obviously the norm is RO/di.

When you guys and gals change you filters on the ro/di untis, how much does that set you back? I know they get changed roughly every 6 months or so.

Just weighing all options before buying. Thanks.

 

[Anubis1]

RO membrane will remove ~95-98% of the impurities in the water. You run DI after the RO to finish off what the RO cant do.

The cartridge (filter) in the DI container holds DI resin. After a few months the resin will be used up and will need recharging. You can buy just the resin to refill the DI cartridge or you can by a DI cartridge.

I get my resin from www.buckeyefieldsupply.com. I get a 5lb bad that lasts me a few months. I run 2 DI cartridges on my system.

Thanks for the link.. I was wondering .. what color do the color change ones change to when they need to be replaced? Is it from the brown to yellow?

 

[Anonymous]

They are only as a rough indicator. You should get a cheapo conductivity meter to monitor the resin, even for the color-changing one. Don't remember the color, but it depends on the type of resin, and you just watch which way is the input end. The color band should move from input end to output end, until most of the resin is the input end color. Make sense?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm ditching the RO part of my filter and going with DI only.

My tap water is 38ppm usually.

www.resindepot.com sells a cubic foot of resin for about $200. It's around 33 changes or so. And at that price (~$7) per change I'm okay with that.

Right now Buckeye is having a RC special, two changes of DI resin for $18

You just have to keep a TDS meter going so you know when to change the DI cart.

B

 

[Anonymous]

Is Buckeye's two changes for $18 a better deal than 5 pounds for $38?

Louey

 

[liquid]

Is this the procedure you use for recharging your DI resin?

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/twp_recharge.html

Shane

 

[Buckeye Field Supply]

Good morning folks.

On DI only systems it is customary to use prefilters (sediment filter and carbon block) ahead of the DI resin.

To simplify the task of recharging resins, you can use non mixed resins is separate housings. And yes, without the RO ahead of the DI, you'll go through resin quickly.

With bulk mixed bed resin available at $12 per cartridge, and less if you buy 2.5 or 5 lbs, most people think recharging their own resin isn't worth the trouble.

Russ @ BFS

 

[shr00m]

if you have the water pressure, use a ro/di, heck on ebay you can get a really good system for the money... around 100 bucks for a 100 gpd... ive heard nothing but good about them, and i love mine....

 

[dnorton1978]

Quite honestly, my main concern with ro/di is the wasted water. Some of these units claim 4 gallons of waste to one gallon pure. That IMO seems to wasteful for me. If I make 50 gallons of water, then I will have wasted 200 gallons? No way. I pay for my water, and my water bill alone runs about $100 per month. My electric is touching $300. Not to mention my mortgage for $1950..PHEW, man that is just the half.

Although it is getting very old making weekly trips to fill my gallon juggs. I hate that.