"Spotless rinse" DI filter for coolant?

k!n3tek · Jul 8, 2021

I have a tiny garage CNC shop and buying barrels of RO water for my coolant (Rustlick Ultracut 380R) is kind of impractical for me.

I need something better to use than my normal drinking RO system lol.

I came across these spotless rinse DI systems for cars -- they seem to just be tubes full of DI resin. Apparently they can successfully filter a couple hundred liters of water right from a garden hose.

Does anyone use something like this for coolant top ups? I'd love to have a proper RO system to do this or just get barrels but don't have the space.

metalmadness · Jul 9, 2021

IDK how much space you're expecting a DI system to take up, but ours is very compact. It takes up less than 1sqft of floor space and is about 4.5 feet tall. Welded SS tank. It can filter A LOT of water before needing a bag change. I think it is absolutely worth it but that is just me...buying RO/DI water is insanity, yet my distributor is constantly dropping off thousands of gallons of it per week! You may be able to get away with what you're asking, but will it work well? Is it worth it? If it will cost you 1K or whatever it might be worth looking into a true DI system like ours.

Was about $1750 if I recall correctly

k!n3tek · Jul 9, 2021

metalmadness said:
IDK how much space you're expecting a DI system to take up, but ours is very compact. It takes up less than 1sqft of floor space and is about 4.5 feet tall. Welded SS tank. It can filter A LOT of water before needing a bag change. I think it is absolutely worth it but that is just me...buying RO/DI water is insanity, yet my distributor is constantly dropping off thousands of gallons of it per week! You may be able to get away with what you're asking, but will it work well? Is it worth it? If it will cost you 1K or whatever it might be worth looking into a true DI system like ours.

Was about $1750 if I recall correctly

Was in the 500 canadian range but if a real DI system can be had around 2500 canadian and they're that compact then it'll be worth it to get the good stuff.

I'll look for a supplier in my area. Thanks!

jhov · Jul 10, 2021

How much water do you go through? I don't use much so I just distill my own using a still, a hot plate and a timer. It's a slow process, but with the timer you can fill the still and let it go all day or night and it only needs water and power.

Orange Vise · Jul 10, 2021

The carwash DI resins will work fine. They just have a very limited life.

If you want an RO system, you can get a drinking water system for $200 off Amazon. The DI stage is optional. The rest of the RO unit is good for thousands of gallons with the occasional replacement of the sediment and carbon prefilters. The RO membrane is good for 5-10 years. Without the DI unit in place, the RO takes the TDS of the water from 100-300+ down to about 15-20.

FWIW we stopped using RO/DI a long time ago. We use Qualichem 251C and Trim 585XT depending on the machine. Neither coolant has issues with our city's tap water. IME the #1 cause of coolant going bad is charging it too lean.

Wsurfer · Jul 10, 2021

FWIW,
3 years using Trim 685 with tap water, no issues. Machine never sits idle more than a week at most.

Pete Deal · Jul 11, 2021

Not using ro water to top off doesn’t make sense to me. I guess it depends on how coolant is lost- mostly carry off vs mostly evaporation. It just seems like mineral buildup would happen and not be good. Maybe though if coolant is mostly lost through carry off the minerals go too so they don’t build up much.

Anyway I tried a di setup and wouldn’t recommend it. Doesn’t last long. I wound up making a little setup that has a charcoal filter followed by a sediment filter followed by an ro cartridge. The charcoal filter’s purpose is to take the chlorine out of the water. The sediment filter keeps the charcoal out of the ro cartridge. The filter housings take standard 10” filters. The ro membrane housing is about the same size. I also put a tds meter on it to monitor water quality. All the parts cost me about $100 on ebay.

I used to work at a pharma plant. We made a lot of ro water. It wasn’t my area but I understand that ro membranes don’t like chlorine.

daffyff · Jul 11, 2021

Pete Deal said:
Not using ro water to top off doesn’t make sense to me. I guess it depends on how coolant is lost- mostly carry off vs mostly evaporation. It just seems like mineral buildup would happen and not be good. Maybe though if coolant is mostly lost through carry off the minerals go too so they don’t build up much.

Anyway I tried a di setup and wouldn’t recommend it. Doesn’t last long. I wound up making a little setup that has a charcoal filter followed by a sediment filter followed by an ro cartridge. The charcoal filter’s purpose is to take the chlorine out of the water. The sediment filter keeps the charcoal out of the ro cartridge. The filter housings take standard 10” filters. The ro membrane housing is about the same size. I also put a tds meter on it to monitor water quality. All the parts cost me about $100 on ebay.

I used to work at a pharma plant. We made a lot of ro water. It wasn’t my area but I understand that ro membranes don’t like chlorine.

Excellent DIY solution and advice. I'd add that it largely depends on how hard your tap water is as well. Mineral content will absolutely increase over time, at a rate whose function is dependent on how high your tap water's mineral concentration is. In other words, harder water becomes unusable faster than softer water. This is why lakes without an outlet turn to salt over time. It may take 5 years, or 20, or 100 but eventually your coolant tank is going to be mostly salt if you don't use an RO system to top it off and you will need to flush your tank.

604Pook · Oct 26, 2022

Orange Vise said:
The carwash DI resins will work fine. They just have a very limited life.

If you want an RO system, you can get a drinking water system for $200 off Amazon. The DI stage is optional. The rest of the RO unit is good for thousands of gallons with the occasional replacement of the sediment and carbon prefilters. The RO membrane is good for 5-10 years. Without the DI unit in place, the RO takes the TDS of the water from 100-300+ down to about 15-20.

FWIW we stopped using RO/DI a long time ago. We use Qualichem 251C and Trim 585XT depending on the machine. Neither coolant has issues with our city's tap water. IME the #1 cause of coolant going bad is charging it too lean.

Would this work on Hard Well water? That's my next step to deal with on setting up my shop at my new house after I get my power set up next week.

I need to fill up coolant on two machines and top up. We have hard water, with the kids pool this past summer, I had a lot of fun chemically getting the water to swimming pool acceptable levels. Total alkalinity is very high.

We bring in bottled water for drinking, our little town nearby has 6-7 water filtering places operating...since everyone is on wells in the surrounding area. I can do the same for for the initial filling of the machines, but top ups would be the pain.

Comatose · Oct 26, 2022

Even if you use the carwash DI systems, you will want to feed it with RO water. The life of the DI resin is directly related to how much it has to take out. Here, tap water is 250 ppm and the RO puts 30ppm into the DI system. So saving the couple hundred bucks for the RO makes you go through 8 times as much DI resin.

The real trick is having an accumulator tank between the RO system and the DI system, so the output runs at a reasonable rate when you need the water. Then the tank can charge however slowly it wants as long as you have enough gallons per day capacity.

604Pook · Oct 26, 2022

Comatose said:
Even if you use the carwash DI systems, you will want to feed it with RO water. The life of the DI resin is directly related to how much it has to take out. Here, tap water is 250 ppm and the RO puts 30ppm into the DI system. So saving the couple hundred bucks for the RO makes you go through 8 times as much DI resin.

The real trick is having an accumulator tank between the RO system and the DI system, so the output runs at a reasonable rate when you need the water. Then the tank can charge however slowly it wants as long as you have enough gallons per day capacity.

I would be very happy with just the RO system even. My water was over 400ppm according to the pool water measuring stuff.

Pete Deal · Oct 26, 2022

I suggest a little ro system ought to do you. Mine is made up of 2-10” filter housings and an ro cartridge housing. All ebay stuff parts. First housing is a carbon bed. Second is a particulate filter, ro housing last. I have a 10 gallon tank up on the wall.

The wall mounted tank I used I got for free. Probably a 10gallon plastic drum would be good.

As I mentioned in a previous post I started with a DI only system and it didn't last long at all. The RO membrane seems to last very long.

Wick Craft · Oct 26, 2022

I use a 7 stage RODI system from LiquaGen. I purchased it off Amazon for sub ~$300. I have a charcoal based RV filter (overkill) plumbed upstream from this system which flows into a 30 gallon conical tank w/valve at bottom. For shutoff control, I used a simple 110/120v solenoid valve rigged to a float switch atop the conical tank. I have put thousands of gallons through this system and my TDS meter still shows 0 PPM. This system can handle the top offs of several machines and periodic initial charges. YMMV.

604Pook · Oct 27, 2022

Thanks, I was looking at the systems on amazon, but wasn't sure on the longevity. This helped.

mmurray70 · Oct 28, 2022

Orange Vise said:
The carwash DI resins will work fine. They just have a very limited life.

If you want an RO system, you can get a drinking water system for $200 off Amazon. The DI stage is optional. The rest of the RO unit is good for thousands of gallons with the occasional replacement of the sediment and carbon prefilters. The RO membrane is good for 5-10 years. Without the DI unit in place, the RO takes the TDS of the water from 100-300+ down to about 15-20.

Were on a well and we use one of these amazon setups, works fine. The DI stage got used up and now just use the other 3 stages. I did have to replace the sediment filter twice. Mcmaster car sells a compatible sediment filter if you need it quick.

Orange Vise · Oct 28, 2022

604Pook said:
Would this work on Hard Well water? That's my next step to deal with on setting up my shop at my new house after I get my power set up next week.

Should work fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that wastewater is created from RO. For every gallon of filtered water that you get, you're dumping 3-4 gallons. It's not "toxic" or anything like that, but the impurities from the 1 gallon of good water is now added to the rest. You can use it to water your lawn.

Orange Vise · Oct 28, 2022

Wick Craft said:
I use a 7 stage RODI system from LiquaGen. I purchased it off Amazon for sub ~$300. I have a charcoal based RV filter (overkill) plumbed upstream from this system which flows into a 30 gallon conical tank w/valve at bottom. For shutoff control, I used a simple 110/120v solenoid valve rigged to a float switch atop the conical tank. I have put thousands of gallons through this system and my TDS meter still shows 0 PPM. This system can handle the top offs of several machines and periodic initial charges. YMMV.

I haven't personally tried this product yet but will likely be adding one soonish.

Water Worker 86 gal. Pressurized Well Tank HT86B - The Home Depot

This 86-Gal Pressurized Well Tank is a direct-fit replacement for your installed wall tank bases. It's highly durable with a deep-drawn steel construction with a polypropylene lining that prevents the

www.homedepot.com

Screen Shot 2022-10-28 at 8.47.45 AM.png

86 gallon pressure tank with a bladder inside that maintains pressure. The RO unit has a shutoff valve so when the tank is full, it'll stop producing. The tank maintains enough pressure to push clean water around your shop without requiring a pump. If tap pressure is insufficient, a booster pump may be required on the tap side. These can be daisy chained for higher capacity.

Search "pressure tank" or "accumulator tank" for alternatives.

604Pook · Oct 28, 2022

Orange Vise said:
Should work fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that wastewater is created from RO. For every gallon of filtered water that you get, you're dumping 3-4 gallons. It's not "toxic" or anything like that, but the impurities from the 1 gallon of good water is now added to the rest. You can use it to water your lawn.

Good to know. Thanks,

My yard is frozen 7-8 months of the year, so I will probably end up having to just dump it which sucks, probably be to much impurities to use for my chickens.

Wick Craft · Oct 28, 2022

Orange Vise said:
I haven't personally tried this product yet but will likely be adding one soonish.

Water Worker 86 gal. Pressurized Well Tank HT86B - The Home Depot

This 86-Gal Pressurized Well Tank is a direct-fit replacement for your installed wall tank bases. It's highly durable with a deep-drawn steel construction with a polypropylene lining that prevents the

www.homedepot.com

View attachment 378276

86 gallon pressure tank with a bladder inside that maintains pressure. The RO unit has a shutoff valve so when the tank is full, it'll stop producing. The tank maintains enough pressure to push clean water around your shop without requiring a pump. If tap pressure is insufficient, a booster pump may be required on the tap side. These can be daisy chained for higher capacity.

Search "pressure tank" or "accumulator tank" for alternatives.

Great suggestion! Definitely going to be looking into this. Thanks!

Pete Deal · Oct 28, 2022

My ro tank high up a wall serves this purpose. It’s about 10’ up. It gravity feeds well to fill buckets. It has an over flow pipe that comes back to the sink. I’ve considered adding a float (could be a switch/solenoid valve or a just a float valve) that controls the supply water to the ro system. It’s working pretty well with a hand valve though so the float control may never happen.

"Spotless rinse" DI filter for coolant?

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