Keeping 20 gallons RO Water in Open Container?

[Buckeye_Hydro]

I let my RO waste water run outside onto the lawn. The grass seems to like it since that area is taller and greener than other parts of the lawn. Keep in mind the TDS of my source water is already low which means the discharged waste water has a low TDS too.

We have many customers from parts of the country where their RO concentrate is better than tap water elsewhere!

 

[heygus]

After 28 years as a home brewer, the most significant improvement to my beers came from the use of RO water from the unit I got from Buckeye Hydro. After almost a year of brewing two to three times a month TDS still go from 410 down to 10. The only addition I make is 1/2t CaCl2 in the mash and the beers are always awesome. I use the blue plastic Rubbermaid Brute 20 gal container with a ball valve at the bottom and a float valve at the top. I always thoroughly wash the barrel out with PBW and sanitize with Saniclean the night before a brew session. I turn on the RO unit after sanitizing and in the morning I have 18 gallons of brewing water. 10 gal goes into the HLT, 3.5 gal into the mash tun, and about 2.5 gal goes into the brew kettle to sanitize the chiller (Therminator). Usually there's a bit left in the barrel.
If I get distracted and the water sits in the barrel for any more than a few days, I get a moldy or musty odor from the container and the inside starts to get a little slimy. TDS is still low, but I'm not too comfortable brewing with that water. Now I'm hearing that some are using water from the same setup after several weeks or more! Am I being too sensitive to the quality of the water or have I missed a step somewhere?
Interestingly, after a brew session there are usually a few gallons left in the HLT. I could leave it there for a month and it's still just as fresh as "from the land of sky blue water". The HLT is SS and does get heated to about 190*F. I just don't get how others can keep water in the blue plastic barrel for so long without it going bad.
As always, any advice will be greatly appreciated, and the advice one can get from this group is the best the world has to offer.
Thanks in advance!
Edit; I meant to say that if I get distracted and can't brew the day I prepared the water for, all the water in the barrel seems to get a little funky smelling and the inside of the container starts to get slimy after four or five days.

 

[ajdelange]

The chelators help remove that hardness. Using extra hard water is therefore not a good idea.

I'm puzzled as to why you would think this problematic. In using concentrate you accept that you are throwing hard water at your laundry and that soap/detergent use will go up. Is that the objection? It seems as if you are focused on the chelating agents. They will doubtless get saturated but who cares? Unless saturated chelating agents cause a problem?

 

[ajdelange]

Am I being too sensitive to the quality of the water or have I missed a step somewhere?.

WRT the slime I don't think so. WRT to sanitizing the storage barrel before collection? Well that may be a bit of overkill. As long as it is clean (of slime) I think you will be OK as the water is going to be used pretty quickly and will, soon enough, be boiled.

 

[heygus]

WRT the slime I don't think so. WRT to sanitizing the storage barrel before collection? Well that may be a bit of overkill. As long as it is clean (of slime) I think you will be OK as the water is going to be used pretty quickly and will, soon enough, be boiled.

Thanks AJ. The only reason I sanitized the barrel was to see if it would eliminate what I thought to be a potential problem. As you said, it's getting boiled anyway. I'll let the next batch sit for week and brew with it just to prove the point to myself. I've been brewing batch after batch with extremely consistent results, so if there is an oddball flavor component that shows up, I'll be the first to know, and I'll know where it came from. I don't think that will happen.
Thanks again.

 

[NeoBrew]

This won't work for the OP as it's not very portable, but for others...

I swapped out my original 5 gallon pressure tank on my RO system with a 20 gallon one. That gives me enough capacity to easily get 10 gallons out on brew day even for my high gravity 5 gallon all grain batches.

Because of the pressure bladder you won't get 20 gallons out of a 20 gallon tank. Mine seems to hold about 10, but I believe that varies with water pressure.

For about $120 This has been a great solution for me as I don't have to pre plan to draw water nor do I have to worry about contamination as it's a closed system. It also has the benefit that my family of 5 never runs out of RO drinking and cooking water.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Hi guys

The "permanency" of an RO system is all about the little fitting you use to tap into your plumbing to get water to the system, and the way you handle the concentrate (drain water). Absolutely not a big deal to install an RO in such a way that when the time comes you can easily disconnect it and take the whole thing with you to a new location. We do this a lot for customers in apartments.

Russ

 

[BrunDog]

I store RO water in 5 gallon jugs. Have done so for some time, and I have not seen or felt any mold or slime inside.

 

[finsel]

Hi,

I saw in some article ( I can not find it anymore..) that the atmosferic air react with the water and change the PH. This is something that you should check I suppose.

Also I always have 2 plastic for water carboys (20L each) filled with RO water closed without any air space and protected from sun lights.. after months, it still perfect without any contamination traces or anything else. I just inlcude the salts, acid, etc right before I use it.

tks!


Frank

 

[chris000]

There should be no problem with open storage of RO. There is very little for any water-borne organism to survive on ....

disagree. I spent a few years dealing with pharma water and you wouldn't believe how little is necessary for some Pseudomonadaceae to survive.

... since you'll be brewing with it, it will be appropriately sanitized during the boil. I would still cover your reservoir since dust can alter the water quality a bit.

agree for sure and BTW the things that typically can be found won't make it past a healthy stomach anyway. the biggest risk from dust is that it carries microorganism - again, most likely not an issue

what I would be more concerned is the fact that quality RO water is very aggressive and going to leach all kind of stuff out of the storage container. without good research, i wouldn't go for long term storage of solvents (yes, alcohol and deionized water are solvents in that sense) for anything but stainless steel or glass. Sure there are plenty of plastics that are suitable, but the cheap bins from the grocery store and the like are certainly not what you want here.

 

[jknepper]

Laundry can be a perfectly good use for the concentrate... depending upon how bad your feedwater is in the first place. For most "city water" using it for laundry will be fine. There was a period of about 15 years where all the concentrate from the RO unit at my house went into the top loading washing machine.

Russ

I’m puzzled about worries about high minerals in RO wastewater. A typical ratio of wastewater to purified water is 4:1. The most mineral concentrations could increase (no minerals in the purified water) is 5/4, or 25%.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

I think my rather romantic vision of maintaining an artificially treated water supply as some sort of ersatz natural cistern is pretty patently ridiculous.

I'm only half kidding. Will move for water.