R/O waste back into rainwater tank

[I.B. Washincars]

Don't worry, you will use it all with no problem. I have 3 autos and 7 SS bays at my busiest wash. I have 2 Mark VII GT-700s and a Wesumat soft wash. I use all of my reject through just the driver side pump on the least used of the GT-700s.

The only way you may have an overflow is on a busy day and all of the sudden business drops to nothing (started raining) while the SFR is making water. Of course, if your auto goes down you will get an overflow until you get it back up and running.

 

[Waxman]

My friend says she saw a dramatic (40-50%) decrease in her water bill upon implementing this. Has anyone checked and compared their bills before and after the system like this was put into place? Would you care to share your savings?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I couldn't tell ya. On three of my washes I installed it from the git-go. It was 14 years ago on the other wash and I didn't track it.

 

[MEP001]

My friend says she saw a dramatic (40-50%) decrease in her water bill upon implementing this.

More than likely, her spot-free rinse wasn't set up properly. The guy who started up our RO system had no idea what he was doing, and in order to keep the pressure under 200 PSI as specified he had the reject running 22 GPM to 2 GPM product. Even after I corrected it, the unit was still dumping 4:1 - I had to replumb it with two separate bypass systems to get it down to 1:1 and not have the pump flow restricted and running at 600 PSI.

 

[Waxman]

Even if my reclaim catches just 125 gallons per day to reuse, that's a savings of 45,625 gallons per year.! And I know I probably double that easily, because that's about the overnite amount (125) I generate now.

I like the idea of saving in excess of 100,000 gallons of water a year.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

After a little searching, I also found that my RO reject water was going down the drain. I am going to have get started on this asap, especially since my township is raising our local water/sewer rates by 50% on January 1st. I don't know what I would do without this forum.

 

[Waxman]

Bubbles

Pm me and I will get you my cell # if you want. I can walk you thru step by step what I did. Like I said, my total cost was very low and the system works great. I came in this morning and had almost 200 gallons in the reject recovery tank, which I used up this a.m.

Only glitch so far is after adjusting the original float downward so it's under the 'aux.' float setting, the brass rod that holds the plastic ball float in place is bending and I need to replace it w/stainless threaded rod a.s.a.p.!!! If that rod breaks, I flood and negate any water savings quickly!

 

[MEP001]

You might want to use a smaller ball instead of stainless threaded rod. The smaller ball will put less pressure on the rod, and stainless all-thread is pretty weak.

 

[Waxman]

hmmm.

I thought the SS rod would be stronger than brass. No? The brass one was bending by the valve.

I don't want to go to a smaller ball, because the tank has been slightly overflowing caused by the city water valve dripping overnite. I thought that was because the rod had bent slightly but maybe I should rebuild that valve, too; I have a rebuild kit for it.

Thoughts?

 

[bighead]

not what this thread is about, but here is what i would do...

http://www.kencove.com/fence/detail.php?code=VJT1

 

[MEP001]

I don't think the bent rod would cause it to drip - unless it's bent all the way up, it's still putting full force on the valve to close it.

I have some stainless threaded rod in all sizes - it's very flexible and bends very easily, even the 1/4".

 

[gsgriffin]

question regarding using the RO reject

I was looking at doing this at my wash, but I may not be setup right to make it feasible. I have a 2bay IBA, one touch, one touchless. I have a stainless steal tank that is used for feeding several wash functions, including the undercarriage, some soap functions, rinsing, etc. While the RO reject is soft, it has a very high particle content. Probably around twice what my tap water is that I have been using to fill this stainless tank. Will using this high TDL water cause the other functions to not clean as well? I ran this idea by the person I bought my wash from, who had owned it for 7 years and his response was:

There is a reason that the RO reject water is poured down the drain. No one wants to see that water wasted, but all of these equipment guys set it up that way for a purpose. It is much harder to wash a car using the RO reject water.

I want to save money any way I can, but I don't want to do anything that is going to lessen the effectiveness of my soaps.

Thoughts? Am I missing something? Is it the way my wash is setup and I cannot use this just for the rinse that limits my ability to do this? Also, I noticed the original subject of the thread was using the reject water for rainwater, but then it morphed into using it for rinsing, then to feed other functions.

G

 

[Waxman]

My ro reject is softened. It is also somewhat pre-heated in that it is stored in the pump room, which is always higher temp than straight city water. I think these two factors negate the higher particle matter than city water as it relates to cleaning power of the reject water. If a filter is filtering city water and that filter is flushed often, isn't what it was flushing out just what was removed from the city water in the first place? You are assuming that the water generated from flushing a filter that cleans city water is dirtier than the original city water; maybe. But that much dirtier? Given 'conservation of matter', how can that be?

Or you could install a filter or series of filters to filter the reject as it is pumped into the carwash for re-use???

The proof is in the results and mine as I have noticed have not suffered.

I use the reject for HP rinse and med. pressure wax on my IBA. All soap , foam polish and spot free (obviously) still use city water only.

Given the cost of a system like mine was $500 total, isn't it worth it to try it out and see if it works for you? Surely you could figure out a way to use the water somewhere in the wash.

I think that maybe the folks who design ro systems and install carwash systems maybe don;t care as much about your water and sewer bill as you do!

 

[lag]

I need more to do... A couple years ago I did some tests the results below were run at 2 washes and ran approximately 10 times at each location. The numbers are averages.

Incoming TDS 212

RO waste TDS 408

Water in rinse tanks when RO reject was being used 235 TDS

We capture the waste into a holding tank then pump it back into our cold water piping after the softeners(thereby diluting it). I have never seen a problem washing cars with it.

If it is a concern for you maybe you could figure a way to mix it with fresh water before it goes to a tank ,or wherever you decide to use it.

I may add that the reject water is used very quickly, so a lot of the time your wash would not even be using it.

 

[Waxman]

I agree with this. You can definitely set up some floats on whatever tank you use so that reject and fresh are mixed; that's what my iba tank has. with a little fiddling around, I set mine so that both fresh and reject pump into the tank at about the same time. The goal is that the reject gets used up and it definitely does!

My wash quality today looks super and I've washed quite a few w/reject added into the mix.

 

[MEP001]

I have never seen a problem washing cars with it.

I haven't either, but your TDS is pretty low. Our city water incoming is 1200.

My setup uses the reject only on the automatic's high-pressure pass and mixes in maybe 10% of the total volume used.

 

[ted mcmeekin]

We posted our set up a few years ago but here it is again. We plumbed RO reject to a buried tank which also collects gutters and weep drain off (our wand holders are PVC pipe going to this tank). In the Equip Room we have a shallow well pump with bladder tank. Our MK VII IBA's came plumbed for reclaim use which is programable (ie use for any combination of undercarriage, side blaster, or rinse) with on board PLC. As there is demand for IBA or weep the bladder tank pressure falls and shallow well pump starts. Need to size bladder tank and pump to meet planned demand. If water in tank falls too low (has not happened in our case) pump should trip on lo pressure cutoff and check valve in IBA swings closed allowing City water to feed IBA pump. This has worked well for 7 years.

Ted

 

[ted mcmeekin]

PS we are only using in undercarriage, side blast and weep right now so not too concerned on TDS content. We have in line filter and have not had any trash problems to date--water is pretty clean to begin with. We oaccaisionally monitor tank level to be sure none is going out overflow but so far seem to have a happy mix using up waste water.

 

[Waxman]

Here are a few pics of my RO Reject Reclaim system.

 

[BillClinton]

How do you plumb 55 gal. drums?

1. Install some sort of overhead support system (like a heavy duty shelf)

2. Clean 2 or 3 old 55 gallon drums and put on side on your overhead support

3. Plumb all drums together using opening on drums closest to floor

4. Make sure caps are on in openings closest to ceiling except one which needs an overflow hose connected to a drain

5. Drill a hose in top of one drum and run waste hose from spot free to the new hole

6. Connect bottom plumbing to rinse tank via a $10-$20 low pressure float valve. You can get one from Kleen-Rite or your local cattle supply store (ask for a valve to control water for cattle in a water trough)

7. Your done

A 275 gallon tote won't fit through my equipment room door, so I need to use this suggestion and plumb the 55 gallon drums together. How do you plumb them together? I have only operated this car wash for a few months, and I'm still learning about plumbing.

Also, how do you suggest I make the platform. Is wood construction sufficient? I know this will be a lot of weight to support.

Final question. I have a 1/2 inch float valve already. Will this be sufficiently large? I've read that a gravity system like this needs to be oversized. Thanks for your help.