Reverse Osmos.is constantly dripping into the floor drain. Can that "waste" water be piped to the back yard?

[Robert Gift]

Wonder if the dripping water is measured by the front yard below-grade water meter?*

Would like to run the 1/4-inch plastic tube to the backyard.
Or would the gravity pressure from running it from the basement up to the back yard affect performance?
(I may mounthe unit athe basement ceiling. Wife does not want itaking up space in a kitchen cabinet.)

Thank you.

*In China, many have a faucet slowing dripping into a plastic basin to collect "free" water - unmeasured by their water meter.
Their water is not potable. They all have water dispensers.

 

[MaxBlack]

I would always recommend to put the system in the basement in a spot where everything is more readily accessible than under the kitchen sink.

Why do you want to run the waste water to the backyard? Doesn't that create a possible wetness problem? What about freezing? If your goal is to "save the water" maybe keep a plastic barrel in the basement and use it for houseplants. It would have to have it's own overflow to a drain (maybe use a water softener "brine tank" which has such built-in) in case you forgot to empty it. Or, you could put a cheap submersible pump in that tank and use IT to pump the collected water into the backyard controlling it with a float of some sort (think "sump").

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

1. The drain water came from water that was metered on the way in. I don't know of any residence that has actual metered sewage. They figure what comes in goes out, but there may be a special assumption that increases in water use during certain seasons was due to lawn watering and compensated for on the sewer bill.
2. What is your motivation in running the water to the back yard, instead of dumping into a laundry tub etc?
3. There will be a small loss in performance by having the drain go to a higher altitude. Whether this is significant at all might depend on stuff like your incoming water pressure. There are RO units that use booster pump to raise the incoming water pressure. There is also a difference in how water-efficient different units are.
5. There is a zero-waste system that routes the drain water into your hot water supply.
6. How hard is your water and do you have a water softener? I am not sure what I would suggest that to do based on the answer, but it might play a part in somebody's assessment.

 

[Robert Gift]

No metered sewage. Based upon water metereading.

Running the Reverse Osmosis waste water into the back yard simply makes use of the waterather than sending it down the sewage pipe. The yard islightly sloped andry.
If I had an electric valve, I would connect it to a light timer and have the water turned off all night and much of the day.
(Plan to place a 5-gallon bucket over the basement floor drain and see how long it takes to fill.)

 

[Reach4]

You could have a tee in the line to the back yard. Then have the side port pipe route up a fair amount before feeding into the floor drain. Thus if the pipe to the back yard freezes, the high loop pipe will serve as a relief.

I am thinking you would use this water for one tree, rather than trying to distribute it over an area of lawn.

 

[Robert Gift]

Good ideas! Thank you. Was considering the tube going to a tree near the back of the house where the tube would exit.

Found a hollow area of the kitchen cabinet where the RO unit could possibly fit.
Instead of coming up from the basement floor, the cabinet location would produce higher water pressure into the refrigerator water dispenser. We do not wanthexpen$e of a pump.

 

[Jeff H Young]

In California people go through a lot to save water some for the cost but many think its not right to waste any water and feel a duty to save. it gets a bit fanatical but why waste when you can use it I get that! I see people collect it for yard use

 

[Fitter30]

Most cities base sewer charge from the water used.

 

[Bannerman]

Drain flow from an RO is commonly called 'brine' as it contains the rejected contaminants that will not pass through the membrane. The composition of the brine will be dependant on contaminants contained in the water supplied to the membrane.

The drain flow rate is directly controlled by the drain flow restrictor which is sized dependant on the rated daily production rate of the installed membrane.

Methods to reduce the amount of daily drain flow include:

Replace the standard membrane with a Pentair GRO High Efficiency membrane. The GRO membrane requires less drain flow to flush away contaminants, thereby permitting the drain flow restrictor flow rate to be reduced, which will improve the RO water vs waste water ratio, often close to 1:1.

Utilize a permeate pump in connection with a standard membrane and drain flow restrictor. A permeate pump does not utilize electricity, but is 'powered' by the waste flow. Because a PP will pump RO water (permeate) into the storage tank as it exits the membrane, and will prevent back pressure from the storage tank from exerting pressure on the membrane, so the pressure differential across the membrane will be maximized, thereby increasing the quality of the RO water produced. With virtually no back pressure on the membrane, the production rate will be increased, permitting the same amount of water to be produced in less time, while also reducing daily drain flow as a result of the shorter production time needed per day.

A further potential benefit of using a PP, is higher RO pressure to the faucet & ice/water dispenser. A standard RO automatic shutoff valve (ASV) is calibrated to halt production once the storage tank pressure has risen to 60% of supply pressure. Because virtually all back pressure will be eliminated from the membrane, the 60% ASV maybe replaced with a 90% version, thereby causing production to continue until the storage pressure is 90% of the supply pressure, which will increase pressure and flow while also increasing the quantity of RO water in storage.

 

[Robert Gift]

Great information! Thank you.
The iSpring Water Systems unit was donated to MED-Stat (volunteers who transport blood to hospitals in emergencies) and uses no power.
I was wondering if the brine would damage plants. I do not knowhathe brine contains so was planning to see what happens in the grass.

 

[Robert Gift]

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After everything is shut off I plan to look at the in front yard water meter and see if the meter advances.