kati/ain vs ro/di

[Swanwillow]

Okay, so I'm looking and looking and deciding my list out today.
I know that the kati/ani has no waste water-big plus. I'm reading here and there that theres no difference between it and the RO/DI in tds after treatment.

Anyone know anything more about them? If what I'm reading is true, and noone knows much about them, I'll get a kati/ani system instead, and report my results.

[wolrey]

I'm pretty sure the DI resin most people use is just the kati/ain resins mixed together. Make sure to look at the cost of kati/ain, I'm willing to be with either regeneration of resins or replacement, it'll end up being more expensive.

Jeff

[David Grigor]

What you describe will be more maintenance and likely get exhausted pretty fast. You will be dealing with some pretty dangerous chemicals to regenerate and extreme caution needs to used. Before the bulk supply of di resins became available I used to recharge my own resins, not fun and I don't ever plan to again especially with small children around the house.

[mattb]

Consider the cost of waste water with RODI and I think the cost effectiveness becomes closer... I do not know much about the kati/ani other than they are big DI cartridges... May be Fahz will jump in?!?

[mattb]

What you describe will be more maintenance and likely get exhausted pretty fast. You will be dealing with some pretty dangerous chemicals to regenerate and extreme caution needs to used. Before the bulk supply of di resins became available I used to recharge my own resins, not fun and I don't ever plan to again especially with small children around the house.

Ugh, that doesn't sounds that fun... do you think these resins are any better though?

[Swanwillow]

very good points. figured I was missing something.

The unit I was looking at is in the 160 dollar price range.

[David Grigor]

Acutally seperate Ani / Kati resins is less effective than mixed beds. Not really for sure on the technical mumbo jumbo but something to do with the ions as the water is filtered. There's plenty of info out there that would be explain than I can.

[hypertech]

The filter guys has a real nice unit for $160. For a while, 2 part had a coupon running around for RODI systems. I don't know if its still valid though.

[Swanwillow]

I was just wondering which would be better. We're going to be plumbing a water line to the spare room, and everything will be back there. The water line will go straight to the ro/di or kati/ani system, then to a big holding bucket. From there, two lines, hopefully an auto-topoff system to the tank, along with one to another bucket for mixing salt water. But, I don't like the thoughts of all the waste water, and figuring out a way to dispose of that straight out of the room. Although we were thinking of putting a drain hole in the room in case of accidents... but that would be a 'dry' hole, just to get the water onto the ground outside. I might beable to plumb it outside to water flower beds, and I want a koi pond, but the TDS might not be good for a pond either...

[David Grigor]

If your really wanting to conserve water, looking dual membrane water conserving configs. Waste water then becomes 1:1 vs 4:1. But as Matt has mentioned you will never break even from a cost perspective as the amount of water going down the drain will never make up the cost of the additional membrane and/or booster pumps.

[Swanwillow]

I have well water, its not cost thats the bother.. its ease of not moving around huge amounts of water.
I'll just have to suck it up, huh? but it IS an interesting theory. Maybe if I didn't have kids in the house, I could try it.

[David Grigor]

Most people will setup the ro/di near the clothes washer. Since everything is under pressure, you can have your water storage tank just about anywhere in the house.

[Swanwillow]

hmm, a big 50 gallon barrel outside the house? THAT would be ideal, I can water my gardens with it... there we go.

[wolrey]

When I was working with HPLC's (high pressure liquid chromatography), I used Cati/Anion beds to filter the water I was using. Using quality resins, your able to get ridiculously pure water. For a HPLC, it's needed, for a saltwater tank, it's not. I remember the resins being very expensive, but they were much cheaper then replaced a HPLC column due to clogging. IIFC regenerating required strong acid for one and a strong base for the other....not people friendly stuff.

Jeff

[sea monkey]

hmm, a big 50 gallon barrel outside the house? THAT would be ideal, I can water my gardens with it... there we go.

and in the winter you can make your own ice block : )

[Swanwillow]

block? hmm, winter may be a problem.. how bout a skating rink for all the neighborhood kids? Its better than skating on a 6-8 ft deep, 20 ft diameter koi pond.

[mattb]

If your really wanting to conserve water, looking dual membrane water conserving configs. Waste water then becomes 1:1 vs 4:1. But as Matt has mentioned you will never break even from a cost perspective as the amount of water going down the drain will never make up the cost of the additional membrane and/or booster pumps.

I think I'm going to look into a dual membrane... are you running separate DI cartridges for this as well or running through the same ones?

[David Grigor]

I bought the second membrane to do so but never actually hooked it up. I'm very borderline on enough water pressure and would likely need a booster pump so I never pulled the trigger.

The outputs from both membranes come back together to run through your di.

[mattb]

Ok... I'm getting 90+ psi, I hope I'll have enough...

[morty]

Minor hijack -- what kind of pressure is needed for dual membrane to be worthwhile?

[Swanwillow]

don't worry about hijacks!!! the more that this thread is hijacked, hopefully the more I'll learn about running an RO/DI filter!!! go ahead an ASK PLEASE, cause I know I'll have the same questions someday here, so if noone else asks them, then I will be. May as well get it over with.