What do you use for RO water storage?

[krazydave]

My dilemma is this:
I have a bad tendency of turning on my RO filter to fill some sparkletts jugs and forgetting about it. Sometimes overnight! This of course means I get the joy of waking up to water covering my garage floor and running down my driveway and then the eventual words from the SWMBO about the water bill.
This has happened about 5 times this year alone - not so ironically, much homebrew seems to be involved when it does happen!

I've ordered a float valve for my RO unit in thoughts of installing that into something 15-30 or so gallons and using that as my primary tank from which I will fill the sparkletts jugs as needed. We use the RO for both brewing and on a sparkletts dispenser in-house to cook with and drink.

So, I'm searching for a good storage tank that's both big enough to brew with on a brew day, but not so big that the water gets stale or starts growing anything. I'm looking for something with an open top so I can install the float valve, and it would also need to have a valve on the bottom for me to drain from (though, I can install that myself provided I can access it). Something that is less than $40 would be awesome, though so far, all I can seem to find is plastic drums which seem to run around $70+.

What do you use?
Any suggestions?

 

[ShinyBuddha]

US Plastics conical? Don't have time to check prices now but it might be some place to start.

 

[jpalarchio]

I just bought like a 25 gallon RO storage tank to replace the 3 gallon one that came with my system. I moved the tank and filters from under the sink down into the basement and just ran a small line back to the faucet at the sink.

Now my RO pressure is great, I can pretty much get all my brewing water in one quick fill and we have more space under the sink. No worries about the water getting stale or nasty in the closed tank and no need to mess with a float valve.

The tanks are cheaper than you might think, pretty sure I paid like $70 shipped and the thing is pretty sizable. One thing to watch is the tank size is not how much it holds as you have to account for the bladder so be sure to check the specs.

 

[jpalarchio]

Wow, looks like the costs have gone up since I bought mine a couple years ago but still checkout this option. For us, it was a wife approved purchase as we use our RO a ton and sometimes would run the original tank dry and then would be out of water or with nearly no pressure.

It's a home improvement, not a brewing purchase!

 

[krazydave]

Yeah, I saw a 20gal bladder tank that would be amazing. But it was around $200
I did just find a local plastic blow molding company nearby though. I may have to pay them a visit!

 

[acidrain]

I use a 55 gallon surplus pickle barrel. It is fed with your standard RO water float valve in my garage. It sits on top of my beer fridge, and I use 1" PVC to gravity feed RO water out to my brewery, and it fills an 8 gallon pot in seconds.
Cost was about $25.

 

[krazydave]

I use a 55 gallon surplus pickle barrel. It is fed with your standard RO water float valve in my garage. It sits on top of my beer fridge, and I use 1" PVC to gravity feed RO water out to my brewery, and it fills an 8 gallon pot in seconds. Cost was about $25.

No problem with the water tasting like pickles?
I wish I had a place nearby that I could find something like that at.
I found a place called Valencia plastics nearby and stopped in today. Turns out they make the Mr. Beer fermenters and some plastic conicals for clients... Interesting! But they weren't able to sell any of them to me, unfortunately...

 

[Huff360]

Most aquarium guys just use a new plastic trash can. Foodsafe? Not likely. Will it hurt you? Probably no more than the orange Home Depot buckets, but you decide.

 

[Chrisl77]

Do you have a lhbs that repackages liquid malt extract? If they do they might have a surplus barrel to sell you.

 

[rodduley]

Can anybody recommend an Ro Float valve for this purpose. I have a 50 gallon stainless tank with a bottom coupling that I thought i might use as a holding tank. I heard about the aquarium uses but I can't visualize how to make it work as a holding tank.

thanks

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

One of the grey 20 gallon Brute trashcans, supposedly they're food safe (wine makers use them as fermenters frequently).

 

[Chrisl77]

Can anybody recommend an Ro Float valve for this purpose. I have a 50 gallon stainless tank with a bottom coupling that I thought i might use as a holding tank. I heard about the aquarium uses but I can't visualize how to make it work as a holding tank.

thanks

They are pretty simple if you get one like this you just make a hole in your container near the top, insert it into the hole and put the nut on the outside to lock it in. The ro line connects to it on the outside of the tank.

 

[krazydave]

One of the grey 20 gallon Brute trashcans, supposedly they're food safe (wine makers use them as fermenters frequently).

I think this might be my best bet... The LME drum sounds good too, but I'm not sure if it'll make all my water taste like LME. I may not mind, but the SWMBO likely would.

I've looked around a bit, but all I'm finding so far are the bigger Brute cans.

Come to think of it... I just remembered that my LHBS has large white cans around the right size for wine making. Looks like I may be swinging by sooner than I thought!

 

[krazydave]

They are pretty simple if you get one like this you just make a hole in your container near the top, insert it into the hole and put the nut on the outside to lock it in. The ro line connects to it on the outside of the tank.

Make sure your RO unit has an auto-off on it too. It uses the back pressure from the float valve to shut off the unit so the pressure doesn't keep building, causing your float to leak. Most already have them, especially if your system is set up for a bladder tank. But then again, I have the value 75GPD system from bulk reef supply that isn't set up for a bladder tank and it came with one also.

 

[rodduley]

I have an RO unit but I will not be using it with a bladder tank. I was thinking I would just let the purified water run into the holding tank and then let the float valve stop the water flow. What is the "auto-off" that you are reffering to?

 

[krazydave]

One of these guys - http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/1-4-auto-shut-off-valve.html

BRS also sells it in a kit with the float valve as well.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auto-shut-off-kit-for-reverse-osmosis-systems.html

 

[bethebrew]

Can anybody recommend an Ro Float valve for this purpose. I have a 50 gallon stainless tank with a bottom coupling that I thought i might use as a holding tank. I heard about the aquarium uses but I can't visualize how to make it work as a holding tank.

thanks

folks, RO water can actually be aggressive because it is so pure. makes little sense, but it can really leach out metals and other stuff. not even all bladder tanks are suitable for use with RO water.

even stainless could be an issue. 316L (Low carbon) is needed for very high purity water.

 

[rodduley]

One of these guys - http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/1-4-auto-shut-off-valve.html

BRS also sells it in a kit with the float valve as well.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auto-shut-off-kit-for-reverse-osmosis-systems.html

Thanksfor the links. I'll take a look at these.

folks, RO water can actually be aggressive because it is so pure. makes little sense, but it can really leach out metals and other stuff. not even all bladder tanks are suitable for use with RO water.

even stainless could be an issue. 316L (Low carbon) is needed for very high purity water.

The tank I have is 18 guage 316 stainless. Should I start to be concerned about any leaching?

 

[JuanMoore]

Around here used foodsafe HDPE barrels are easy to find and come in many sizes. I have a 15 gal one I use when I buy RO water for brewing, and a whole bunch of 30, 55, and 60 gal ones I cut the tops off of and use for garbage cans in my shop and at construction sites.

 

[thatjonguy]

folks, RO water can actually be aggressive because it is so pure. makes little sense, but it can really leach out metals and other stuff. not even all bladder tanks are suitable for use with RO water.

even stainless could be an issue. 316L (Low carbon) is needed for very high purity water.

You mean almost neutral in respect to pH? I would have to disagree with your post.

Yes water is the the ultimate solvent given time but a relatively neutral solution (in this case water) will take quite a while to start disolving tanks. Not like you are storing full strength acid in a food grade barrel. Although Star San and Phosphoric Acid that I use in brewing have been in their plastoc bottles for years and the plastic is fine.

 

[tjr3000]

You mean almost neutral in respect to pH? I would have to disagree with your post.

Yes water is the the ultimate solvent given time but a relatively neutral solution (in this case water) will take quite a while to start disolving tanks. Not like you are storing full strength acid in a food grade barrel. Although Star San and Phosphoric Acid that I use in brewing have been in their plastoc bottles for years and the plastic is fine.

Hes probably referring to the fact that you shuld not run RO water through copper as it will eventually destroy it. RO water is very aggressive when it come to household plumbing - the dispensers have to be RO dispensers, not just filtered water dispensers. I didn't know that until we remodeled our kitchen and we had to run plastic pipe from the RO system in the basement to all of the drinking water areas.

 

[thatjonguy]

Hes probably referring to the fact that you shuld not run RO water through copper as it will eventually destroy it. RO water is very aggressive when it come to household plumbing - the dispensers have to be RO dispensers, not just filtered water dispensers. I didn't know that until we remodeled our kitchen and we had to run plastic pipe from the RO system in the basement to all of the drinking water areas.

Ah, yes. Of course. My bad.

 

[krazydave]

So I ended up getting a 20gal brute can from the big orange store... Couldn't beat $20!
Float valve and ball valve installed and it's filling at the moment.

Seems to be working great so far except my RO water smells like a Brute can. Hopefully that will go away soon!

 

[833R]

I service RO and micro filtration systems. I would recommend using a RO storage tank.Make sure you have the auto shut off working properly, or you'll end up clogging your filters fast. For line use Pex, jhon guess, or other food grade line.
Don't use copper, as RO water is very thin and adsorbs minerals.
I would only use food grade materlas.

 

[krazydave]

I know it may sound odd, but the grey, yellow and white Brute cans are indeed food grade and can be confirmed on their website. I definitely made sure of that before buying one. I think it's just a first use thing, but we'll see....

 

[bethebrew]

Thanksfor the links. I'll take a look at these.



The tank I have is 18 guage 316 stainless. Should I start to be concerned about any leaching?

I worked for Tri-Clover for years, selecting and applying materials for pumps of all kinds. Trust me, high purity water is aggressive. The less solids, and the higher the temperature can make it VERY aggressive. Don't know what else to tell you guys. Choose your materials wisely. Food grade isn't a "catch all phrase".

316 is better than 304. The 316L refers to Low carbon which is what high purity water can leach out of the stainless. So, 316L SS better than 316 SS because less carbon to pull out of the stainless. Aggressive? Hell yea.

You may be OK on the leaching as long as the water isn't too pure. The stuff that was the worst was water for injection at 180F so called pyrogen free and you are nowhere near that.

As for holding tanks, you can always throw in a little calcium chloride or gypsum or whatever your beer calls for or you routinely use. It's the purity that makes things actually worse, so by adding back even a little mineral the problem "goes away".

For expansion tanks (bladder tanks) that will see the RO water at highest purity, I would HIGHLY recommend getting one SPECIFICALLY made for RO Otherwise you may end up sad when the bladder fails.

 

[krazydave]

So I believe I'm good now. I washed the can out good yesterday and refilled it with RO overnight. Then I used that to fill the sparkletts jugs. I smell or taste nothing of the can anymore.

SWMBO is happy.