Community Forums

buddy110 · 04-13-2019, 07:05 PM

Those of you who have installed RO systems in your coach can you weigh in and share your feelings, opinions?

I have a small system in my home which I uses for drinking water only. It has a 5 gallon holding/pressure tank. From my understanding, it wastes a lot of water. I would like to supply RO water to the entire coach if possible. However, if it wastes a lot of water, it my not be feasible. We boondock often.

Who here has installed a whole coach system?

Cutch · 04-13-2019, 07:25 PM

From what I know they do use and waste lots and lots of water. Secondly, since your aqua hot has copper tubing any water free of minerals, RO, Distilled, etc will eventually weaken, eat the copper. Exactly how long is a question for Aqua Hot. I thought of an entire coach system, but after researching the effects of RO water or mineral free water on copper and other plumbing metals, I reconsidered. I have a softener and use deionized water for RV wash/rinse.

buddy110 · 04-13-2019, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cutch

From what I know they do use and waste lots and lots of water. Secondly, since your aqua hot has copper tubing any water free of minerals, RO, Distilled, etc will eventually weaken, eat the copper. Exactly how long is a question for Aqua Hot. I thought of an entire coach system, but after researching the effects of RO water or mineral free water on copper and other plumbing metals, I reconsidered. I have a softener and use deionized water for RV wash/rinse.

Where did you install the softener?

nebster · 04-14-2019, 05:49 AM

I use a small system for drinking water in my coach. 1.5 gallons of holding tank. Recirc the effluent back into the fresh water tank, so no wasted water.

The RO water only reaches the ice maker and the dispenser, so no copper leaching to worry about.

Easy to install, pretty cheap to run, tastes great!

buddy110 · 04-14-2019, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebster

I use a small system for drinking water in my coach. 1.5 gallons of holding tank. Recirc the effluent back into the fresh water tank, so no wasted water.

The RO water only reaches the ice maker and the dispenser, so no copper leaching to worry about.

Easy to install, pretty cheap to run, tastes great!

This is my second choice

jherrin99 · 04-14-2019, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buddy110

Those of you who have installed RO systems in your coach can you weigh in and share your feelings, opinions?

I have a small system in my home which I uses for drinking water only. It has a 5 gallon holding/pressure tank. From my understanding, it wastes a lot of water. I would like to supply RO water to the entire coach if possible. However, if it wastes a lot of water, it my not be feasible. We boondock often.

Who here has installed a whole coach system?

I thought a whole coach RO system would be ideal also. I really enjoyed my whole coach RO until I got a water bill. It waste a ton of water. I was using smaller than recommended flow restrictor to keep the waste as low as possible. It was too expensive and wasteful for me to justify. I only use it for ice and drinking water now. If we didn't have the washing machine in the coach it might have been more feasible for us. The water usage was so drastically higher than normal, I first thought it must be a water leak. Further testing and a water meter confirmed the root of the problem. I calculated that our usage skyrocketed to over 10,000 gallons per month. We have a water meter and pay for water at our home base. I thought about just using it when traveling where we don't pay for water. But after seeing first hand how wasteful it is, I could not justify all the waste versus benefits. We have some really bad water at our home base. After numerous modifications, I finally ended up with a softener and a filtering system that helps alot and doesn't waste a ton of water. I also have a DI system for washing the coach. JMO

vsayler · 04-14-2019, 12:35 PM

We have it in our coach for drinking and ice only. Its easy to hook up that way. Very happy with it. I dump the residual water out to the ground under the coach.
Van Sayler
2017 anthem 44b

DoggieDaddy · 04-14-2019, 06:28 PM

All I know is that "purified", "DI", or "RO" water makes bitter coffee. Lack of minerals the reason. IMHO. Good for rinsing the coach after a wash though.

Fattman-Litlboy · 04-15-2019, 07:54 PM

My 2-cents. Three years ago I did my homework and realized the best solution is the Kinetico Kube. $170 dollars, from Home Depot, and very easy to install. The unit weighs about 10-lbs and processes 1600-gal of water with the two installed filters removing 68 chemicals from the water. We have an onboard water softener, and life is good. We're full timers and in the three years we've had it we've only used half the filter capability. I have a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry along with 40-yrs of aerospace engineering behind me. Last week I met up with a vice president of Ecolab, a huge company in water purification (including CocaCola), and he praised the selection of the Kube for our coach. Great validation for us. You simply connect the PEX tubing supplied with the unit to the small drinking water pencil filter in the coach and you have pure water for your drug and drinking faucet. Hope this helps. Here are a few photos.
Jim

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Tom78418 · 04-18-2019, 03:10 PM

We went with a whole house system. To minimize wastage we have 2 RO filters in series where the second filter processes the brine from the first and a booster pump for efficiency. We also have a mineral adder filter to mitigate potential issue with the AquaHot and brass fittings. I realize there is waste and we have taken steps to reduce it, but we have encountered very poor water far too often in the 5 years we have been full time. The system is installed so that it a matter of one valve and the coach is back to city water without RO. That way we can selectively use the RO system.

powerboatr · 04-18-2019, 04:17 PM

we have a whirpool RO unit
its only for the drinking water, gatorade mix and coffee. my coffee tastes or smells great

the unit is stated as around 3 gallons wasted for each gallon filtered.
i have a dedicated tube that drains this off at the cg. sometimes i run the small hose to water the plants at my site

F4Gary · 04-18-2019, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoggieDaddy

All I know is that "purified", "DI", or "RO" water makes bitter coffee. Lack of minerals the reason. IMHO. Good for rinsing the coach after a wash though.

I completely disagree. Our home RO filtered water tasted better than bottled or tap water and makes outstanding coffee and tea.
I also don't know why anyone would want an RO filter for the whole RV when all you need it for is drinking and cooking water. Seems like overkill.

A water softener would benefit the rest of the RV.
Just my 20 cents. (inflation

)

Tom78418 · 04-20-2019, 11:19 AM

We installed the system when we were in an area where the TDS was well in excess of 800. Hard the clothes, plumbing, showering, etc. Not pleasant even with a Water Softener. We are now in a area where the TDS is just over 200 and the coach is on city water without using the RO. The goal putting the system in was to be able to easily switch between city and RO water to the coach. A bit extra plumbing, but worth it. We have separate filters for the drinking water and refrigerator ice maker. Twice now we had landed in parks where there was a boil water alert. Prepared for the amount of travel we do.

buddy110 · 08-05-2019, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vsayler

We have it in our coach for drinking and ice only. Its easy to hook up that way. Very happy with it. I dump the residual water out to the ground under the coach.
Van Sayler
2017 anthem 44b

I'm circling back to this and decided to utilize it for ice and drinking water from the fridge. How do you winterize the RO system? Do you remove it during the winter months?