Reversed osmosis

[Peter_1]

Anybody already tried/used a small, domestic reversed osmosis on a small ice maker? The rather cheap ones like you find on Ebay with the replaceable filters.

[joe-ice]

Have not tried it but i have one of these units and the flow through them is pityfull depend on the type of icemaker but i doubt if the water would fill fast enough also the unit i have wastes about half the water going in out the drain , could be a lot of water over a year

[Peter_1]

You have a point about the water spoiling to the drain. Is it in a ratio of 50/50?
About the problem not fillinfg fast enough: you find types with a resevoir of 12 l.

[joe-ice]

Have not measured it, only use it for drinking water ,visually it looks close to half, might work ok on a tray type machine .They really do work though ive seen water go in white and come out crystal clear

[The MG Pony]

Half a gallon is dumped for every gallon made! The salts got to go some where, so technicaly it is brine going down the drain but still allot!

[glenn1340]

A true reverse osmosis unit has to have a good inlet pressure, the plant I work on has an inlet pressure of 15 bar. the reject water is about 6m3/hr to 20m3/hr permeate that gives a water quality of around 10u/s. Drinking that would be like sipping distilled water: flat and dry tasting. After all it`s the mineral and salts in it that make it drinkable So I think what you`re looking at is really a water filter which should be ok for ice making.

[chilliwilly]

The filters that I have worked with for ice machines tend to be the disposal cartridge type, or the Brita monitored type for combi steamers.

They are usually 10-30% bypassed for taste reasons, which I can't get my head around because steam is pure water vapour with no impurities? And also depending on which part of the country you're in and on the request of the chef. And they also reccomend allowing for a descale programme at least twice a year, but preferably every 3 months during warranty periods.

I think the coffee machines tend to be the osmosis type but I think they are on lease due to the nature of the maintenance of the unit. Maybe the next generation steamer will reclaim the condensate and regen it to reduce limescale on combi steamers without the need for expensive filtration.