RO system on softened well water

[marc1]

Is it ok to clean with soften water and sterilize in RO water?

You can clean with softened water, it might make things leave less residue if you have really hard water and your cleaner doesn't have something like EDTA in it to chelate.

How are you sterilizing? With a pressure cooker, minerals in the water might leave a little buildup, but I wouldn't think it's a big deal unless you are using something like a commercial sized autoclave.

 

[mabrungard]

I only clean and/or sanitize with straight up well water filtered. No need to worry about water chemistry when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing, I think? I assume all is good as long as clean water source

Sort of, but not for all sanitizers. The phosphoric acid based sanitizers like StarSan perform much better and last longer when they are made with very low hardness water. That's because the calcium in the water causes a precipitate to form, making it cloudy and that can coat your brewery surfaces with slimminess.

It's better to use distilled, RO, or ion-exchange softened water for those types of sanitizers.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

A word of caution regarding RO booster pumps.
Be aware of the max pressure limits for each component in your system. Typically the weakest component is the housings - which are often rated at a max of 80 psi. To take advantage of your elevated pumped pressure, and protect your housings:

Russ