RO/DI Expert needed to weigh in

[HiFidelity]

Hi,

BRS did something really weird with their RO/DI lineup, 5 Stage is gone, now it's 4 or 6 and nothing in between. I use a 5 stage system that they were selling just a few months ago but now it's no longer on their site.

Question is I need to replace sediment filter, carbon & carbon block

Sediment filters are pretty standard but I have a couple of different ones, I have both 1 Micron & 5 Micron, which should I use? which one's better?

Carbon - I'm just going to buy high activated carbon in bulk & replace it more often than necessary.

This is where I'm kind of confused, I have in my 3rd stage a carbon block, this is not the refillable cartridge, the whole thing inside the canister gets replaced. It used to be where ChlorPlus 10 was the only option from BRS, now they have all these different carbon blocks, what's good? what's better?

Need to take care of this soon, I've been getting lazy and now all 3 first stages are turning brown

 

[rygh]

Do you have Chloramines in your water?
That usually drives your carbon strategy.

Do you have a lot of sediment?
You do not want just a 5 micron, since your more expensive carbon stage will clog fast.
But with good water, you can often run 1 micron only.

 

[HiFidelity]

Water seems to be really good here in hayward, I forgot what TDS was out of the tap but it was low and it took a whole year for my sediment filter to turn brown.

If I recall correctly I believe the entire bay area has chloramines in the water, which is why I was looking at the more expensive ChlorPlus 10, and yes my RO/DI kit was made for chloramines which I don't think makes it any different than the standard 5 stage kit aside from the ChlorPlus carbon block.

Does the typical 5 stage RO/DI kit run 2 sediment filters or 2 carbon filters?

 

[Marc]

If you have good water pressure, you shouldnt have a problem running 1 micron sediment and usually only 1. You can run a couple cheaper carbon on the front to handle to bulk of the chloramines and Chlorplus before the membrane.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Who cares if they no longer sell a 5-stage, you're simply replacing what's inside of it. And IMO all RO/DI units are the same as far as what they do, some just have more bells and whistles (all of which can be added later), the magic is what you put in the canisters.

Here in San Francisco, I run a 5-micron sediment filter, and 2 carbon blocks, and that's good enough to remove chloramines from my water before it hits my RO membranes. All carbon will remove chloramines, it's just a matter of how much. I will say that the ratings on them are pretty damn scary, for instance you could have a block rated for 50000 gallons on chlorine, but only 1000 gallons on chloramines... thanks city municipal water sources, you screw me over by putting in these harsher elements, doubly so if you realize this are before-rejection amounts too, so if you have a 4:1 rejection rate that filter is only good for 200 gallons. (although I'll say I've run them for much MUCH longer)