wide eyed and legless
Well-Known Member
How many brewers using reverse osmosis for their water, I am thinking of getting something off Alibaba, bit confusing with the amount of stages, 5,6 & 7 what is anyone else using?
Reverse osmosis system.
- Thread starter wide eyed and legless
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homebrewnewb
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what volumes are you looking at? not sure on stages but i was keen to investigate a system too.
Crusty
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I've got one that was initially used for my salt water coral tank where top up water had to have a zero tds reading. Mine is a RO/DI which is reverse osmosis with a deioniser. I dont think their really needed in a brewing situation unless your water is out of control with hardness or chlorine or you want a blank canvas of water. Mine strips out every mineral available so my water has a tds reading of zero. RO standard will allow some minerals to pass through giving you anywhere between 4-10 ppm of tds depending on your input source water. Using ez water calc or Bruin water for salt additions would be easier & cheaper.
Never used reverse osmosis for brewing but I know a bit about RO systems.
The stages on these little domestic systems refer to the number of filters i.e. pre-filter, carbon filter, reverse osmosis is a 3 stage system. The RO itself is generally only a single stage so the total number of stages has no bearing on the salt concentration in the product water. Be careful of systems that have a mineral filter or alkaliser as one of the stages after the RO as this will add stuff back into the water (to stabalise it), which kind of defeats the purpose of using the RO in the first place.
Hope this helps.
The stages on these little domestic systems refer to the number of filters i.e. pre-filter, carbon filter, reverse osmosis is a 3 stage system. The RO itself is generally only a single stage so the total number of stages has no bearing on the salt concentration in the product water. Be careful of systems that have a mineral filter or alkaliser as one of the stages after the RO as this will add stuff back into the water (to stabalise it), which kind of defeats the purpose of using the RO in the first place.
Hope this helps.
rude
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https://www.psifilters.com.au/rever...-020a-3-stage-reverse-osmosis-wall-mount-unit
I use this one but pretty sure it was cheaper than that but was Agee years ago now
Very happy with it now that I have paid for & used it
I use this one but pretty sure it was cheaper than that but was Agee years ago now
Very happy with it now that I have paid for & used it
wide eyed and legless
Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the replies, I do use Bruin water but I have noticed a lot of recipes where they call for RO water and in a way it does make sense to start with a blank canvas, but I am not really that sure I would get that much benefit from the RO system my beers are not so diverse and I do know exactly what to do to get my pH in range without using a pH meter.
But they are not that expensive, let's face it this is one hobby that saves you money though it could turn out to be a piece of kit that we need, but could get by without like so many things we pick up along the pathway of the homebrewer.
homebrewnewb, I will check out some of the systems and it makes it a lot easier knowing that we only need the 3 phase filter ones.
But they are not that expensive, let's face it this is one hobby that saves you money though it could turn out to be a piece of kit that we need, but could get by without like so many things we pick up along the pathway of the homebrewer.
homebrewnewb, I will check out some of the systems and it makes it a lot easier knowing that we only need the 3 phase filter ones.
hotmelt
Well-Known Member
Are there any petshops or aquarium shops nearby.You could try before you buy.I was in a petshop last weekend and they were selling 25lts of RO water for $5.Didn't seem too expensive compared to bottled water.
wide eyed and legless
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Did you end up getting one wobbly?
Lyrebird_Cycles
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I own a small high pressure RO system, built for doing R&D on some amelioration processes for wine.
I have not bothered using it for water in Melbourne or Beechworth, doesn't seem to be worth the effort.
Best fun thing I ever did with it was make several litres of 400% strawberry juice concentrate as part of a research project for a strawberry grower in Qld. That stuff was yum, I never tried using it in beer but it would make a really interesting addition to lambic or similar.
I have not bothered using it for water in Melbourne or Beechworth, doesn't seem to be worth the effort.
Best fun thing I ever did with it was make several litres of 400% strawberry juice concentrate as part of a research project for a strawberry grower in Qld. That stuff was yum, I never tried using it in beer but it would make a really interesting addition to lambic or similar.
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Camo6
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I bought a cheap 3 stage RO system off ebay a few years ago when I built my rig. Paid about $120 from memory.
One thing to watch for is the flow rate. It would take me most of the day to fill a 90l HLT and I would also lose a little less than 90l just in waste water even with our clean Melbourne water.
I did a bit of an experiment with a cheap PPM meter and found my Melbourne tap water ( going off memory so may be a bit off) was around 75ppm. Using the RO setup I had close to 0ppm ($15 meter mind you) and after bypassing the ro membrane and just using the two carbon filters I got about 5-15ppm with no waste water. So now I just use the two filters and only connect the ro membrane to fill a twenty litre cube for bulk starsan mixes from time to time.
Hmm, I better look for some replacement filters. I'll try and link the seller if I find it.
One thing to watch for is the flow rate. It would take me most of the day to fill a 90l HLT and I would also lose a little less than 90l just in waste water even with our clean Melbourne water.
I did a bit of an experiment with a cheap PPM meter and found my Melbourne tap water ( going off memory so may be a bit off) was around 75ppm. Using the RO setup I had close to 0ppm ($15 meter mind you) and after bypassing the ro membrane and just using the two carbon filters I got about 5-15ppm with no waste water. So now I just use the two filters and only connect the ro membrane to fill a twenty litre cube for bulk starsan mixes from time to time.
Hmm, I better look for some replacement filters. I'll try and link the seller if I find it.
No - as I indicated I currently use 85% rain water and 15% tap water and then add salts according to Bru'n
Wobbly
Cervantes
Well-Known Member
I have a small ebay version. It works (as far as I know) but is very slow. It will take all morning to fill a 20L Jerry Can. I use it as the tap water where I am is actually treated bore water and rubbish for brewing.
Where are you located mate? I've thought about it a few times (buying a RO filter setup) but if I could snag RO water at a price like that I think it would at least initially make a lot of sense in trying out specific profiles for the 7 or 8 house beers I've pretty much settled on.
These things generally run in the 10 - 15 litre/hour range, so not fast. You can get larger ones that will do around 50 litre/hour but they get pretty pricey.
Also you're looking at a 1:1 ratio of product water to waste water (this will vary a bit based on a bunch of things like feed quality, temp, membrane fouling) so half of what you feed in goes to waste. It is worth noting that Australian drinking water is usually extremely high quality and you are only doubling the contaminants in the waste stream. You would have to test it to be sure but I would think there are plenty of places in Australia where the water from the tap is good enough that the waste water from these things would still meet, or go close to meeting the drinking water guidelines.
Mardoo
Noob What Craps On A Bit
Mate, expert input is the best. Crap on, water engineer!
moonhead
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Are there any places around where you can get your tap water analysed, so as to take into consideration if an RO system would be of any benefit?
I've often heard the Melbourne water, for example, has very little in the way of minerals to begin with, in comparison to other city water supplies around the world, so the benefits of an RO system in Melbourne are very little. But It would be good to be able to qualify that (and I suppose, have a good starting point for any water calcs).
I've often heard the Melbourne water, for example, has very little in the way of minerals to begin with, in comparison to other city water supplies around the world, so the benefits of an RO system in Melbourne are very little. But It would be good to be able to qualify that (and I suppose, have a good starting point for any water calcs).
fungrel
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I use 6 stage with alkalising filter. My system is good for when you need to make massively hoppy beers, load up on all the minerals that drive down pH and not have to add back hardness to hit decent mash pH. I got it from these guys who offer fantastic response times and their product is sound.
As for whether there is a noticable quality difference in product between a dual stage and a 6 stage, that's a completely different topic for discussion.
As for whether there is a noticable quality difference in product between a dual stage and a 6 stage, that's a completely different topic for discussion.
