Elmo wrote:
bstev wrote:
Over the next few months we're building a new house in a rural area on
25 acres. The 410 foot well is terrific, but the water has a slight
salty taste which apparently is sodium, so we'll have an undersink
reverse osmosis filter for drinking/cooking water, with a sideline
running over to the water dispenser/icemaker in the fridge.

My problem is that RO filters produce about 8 parts waste water for
every 1 part of drinking water. This water is normally routed out to
the drain pipe, which in our case would go to the septic tank. This is
a significant amount of water; for every cup of water you drink from
the RO filter faucet, 8 cups goes down the drain.

Is there SOME way to reroute this RO waste water away from the septic
system? I hate to think of it all going in there. I guess you could
just run a small pvc pipe from under the sink to the yard somewhere,
but that seems kind of ugly-looking. We don't want it going in right
next to the house because it could cause eventual problems with the
foundation.

Please reply to the newsgroup.

Thanks!

Ron M.

Ron, you use more mater shaving and brushing your teeth each morning
than the grey water an RO produces all day.


First thing is to figure out what the volume you're going to be dealing
with. �If it's just drinking and cooking water, chances are that the
extra water going into the septic system isn't going to be worth
worrying about. �

This is true. The typical RO produces about four times the volume in
grey water but is capable of producing only about three gallons of
filtered water every 24 hours at the most, but the typical household
will only use like a 1 1/2 gallons of filtered water a day... so what
are we talking about here, perhaps 6 gallons of grey water a day/or
like three water-saver toilet flushes. Don't worry about it. If your
septic can't handle six extra gallons of plain water a day then you're
gonna be in trouble anyway... don't ever have company. On a good beer
day most guys can easy pee a couple-three gallons. And that beer
represents that much less RO water they'll drink


If it is, you might consider routing the outlet line so it ends
up being used to flush toilets -- it would take a little bit of "Amish
Engineering" but it would probably be fun, too.

It's pretty simple to bury a length or two of 1" PVC pipe running from
the foundation to a tree or flower bed.. or to wherever the water from
your downspouts from the roof let go.... do yoose have any idea how
many gallons come off the average roof per hour during just an
ordinary light rain... don't lose any sleep over a few dribbles of RO
grey water.