FearTheTerps April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 So since the new house I moved into has an unfinished basement I finally decided to make a water mixing station. Before I would just make up a batch of saltwater in my brute and when I needed fresh water I would just run 5 gallon buckets. After a few spills and floods that got old real quick. At least its in the basement now instead of all over the kitchen floor. Ive seen several other peoples designs before, most involved using one external pump plumbed into both brutes. I dont really like this idea, I never understood using one pump for both fresh and salt water. Wouldnt the salt water in the pumbling get mixed with the fresh water when you switched the valves back and forth? So for my design I decided to make it pretty simple, Both sides are on stands so that I can simply place my 5 gallon buckets undereath and fill with a twist of the ball valve. My RODI unit fills the fresh side, three quarters of the way up in the fresh water brute I placed another valve that I used to fill the salt side. This designs ensures that no salt water ever enters the fresh water, and the way I placed the valve I will always have at least 15 gallons of fresh water available. Stand Holes drilled in brute using diamond coated drill bit. Made a very nice clean hole. Installing the uniseals was very easy, just used a little water to lube the plumbing. Here's the valve that fills the salt side from the fresh side. I plan on moving my RODI unit onto the stand, just need to buy some longer tubing. I also plan to add to a 4-way DJ outlet to plug my heater and powerheads into to make them easier to control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCFishGuy99 April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 Great Design! I hope to copy it some day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaddc April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 Very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 nice job and good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 Looks good, Steve! Now all you need is like a mag 18 on the salt side for a mixing pump and you are all good!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FearTheTerps April 20, 2011 Author Share April 20, 2011 Thanks all, Last night I let it fill with water, it was nice to not have any water on the floor when I woke up this morning. My TDS here at the the new place is much lower then where I used to live, about 95ppm now compared to 425 before. This has boosted my production rate really well, so it didnt take long to fill a 20 gallon bute. Now with 2 of them I can let it run all night with no worries as it takes about 12 hours to fill. I have the heater and a pump installed on the salt side, not sure what the pump is tho. Its an older one I bought from someone a long time ago, but it mixes the water pretty well. I had thought about installing a float switch to cut off the RODI, but since my unit feeds to the fresh side how do I do that if I would have the top valve open? I dont know whether I could split the feed line, and then install 2 float switches. My thoughts were that since the water comes out so slowly it wouldnt run through both lines, but instead go to path of least resistance. Plus this set up defeats the purpose of gravity feeding the salt side from the fresh side. At this pointing Im just rambling, any thoughts on how in incorporate a float switch with the current design? Flooding really isnt a problem, as the brutes are setting right next to my sump pump in the basement, you can see the cover for it in one pic. My main reason it to not waste any more water if I forget to turn it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 i would think you would want the pipe that feeds the salt bucket alot lower down the RO/DI bucket, the way you have it now you can only put in a couple of gallons of water (aka whatever is above the bulk head if you drill a hole lower and just cap that one off you could fill up the salt mixing bin alot higher for water changes. then id put the float valvle up high in the RO/DI water so that it stays filled and the float valve keeps the bucket filled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 Sort of incorporating what Evan said and my own idea, you could put a much smaller line lower in the freshwater bucket that would "trickle flow" to the lower mixing bucket, on this line you could put a mechanical float (I would also use a solonoid for backup). I drew this up to illustrate what I mean: The red are solonoid valves and the green are float valves. I didn't draw it in, but I would leave the larger pipe and valve that you already have for "fast filling" the mixing tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 ^^unless you use a pump in the FW bucket, the water won't drain below the outlet point in the salt water bucket. I do something similar with my FW/SW mixing station set up, except (because both brutes are at the same level) that I use a pump between my FW and SW reservoirs, and two pumps in my SW reservoir (one to pump the SW out to the neighboring sump, and another as a mixing pump, which is on a timer). One thing that I've found to be very handy is a simple wooden yardstick that I've marked off (using a black marker) in 5 gallon increments. By measuring your before and after water height in your salt water bucket, you can estimate how much FW you've added and thus how much salt you then need to add when mixing up a new batch. You won't believe how handy this simple solution is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FearTheTerps April 20, 2011 Author Share April 20, 2011 Yea, I think I'll just stick my simple design, it works the way I wanted it to. I kept the valve between the 2 brutes at that height because I wanted to be able to fill both at the same time, if the valve is lower in the can then I would have to place the can even higher. It would only fill up until the valve before it would drain into the salt side, therefore I would only be filling the salt side. Like I said above, where the valve is placed means I will always have about 15 gallons in the fresh side, If I need to mix salt with that its very easy to fill a 5 gallon bucket and then dump it in the salt side. With the 1 inch plumbing it takes about 5 seconds to fill the 5 gallon bucket. Good idea Tom, I do have the inside of the brute marked, but it can hard to see here at the new house in the dark basement. I had thought about having a little fun and getting some clear PVC and attaching it to the spouts at the bottom and running up to the top. Then I was going to float a ping pong ball or something inside it and have the clear pvc marked with the water heights. I may still do this, but it was going to cost about $30 more. I could use that money somewhere else at this point. Anyone know anyplace local that sells clear PVC? Savko has it, but you can only buy it 5 ft lenghts, and they charge extra for shipping clear pvc for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 Good idea Tom, I do have the inside of the brute marked, but it can hard to see here at the new house in the dark basement. I had thought about having a little fun and getting some clear PVC and attaching it to the spouts at the bottom and running up to the top. Then I was going to float a ping pong ball or something inside it and have the clear pvc marked with the water heights. I may still do this, but it was going to cost about $30 more. I could use that money somewhere else at this point. Anyone know anyplace local that sells clear PVC? Savko has it, but you can only buy it 5 ft lenghts, and they charge extra for shipping clear pvc for some reason. Steve, You can use vinyl tubing instead of clear PVC; it's much cheaper. And buy one of those 48" shop lights from HD for $10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thefishman65 April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 Add a pipe inside the fresh water can from the saltwater outlet to the floor. You have to have the water above the tubes to start (of course you do now), but once the flow starts a siphon will form and you can drain the FW can. Now add some sort of a float switch for when the salt can is full. Add a float switch to the RO/DI and you should be set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 Put a T after the ball valve at the outlet of the FW Brute. Have a pipe that goes into the side of saltwater Brute. You can put a ball valve on that pipe too to turn it on/off. Or lift 5G buckets of fresh water and dump into salt side like you said. Just a matter of how much laziness you want to achieve... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami April 21, 2011 Share April 21, 2011 Good idea Tom, I do have the inside of the brute marked, but it can hard to see here at the new house in the dark basement. I had thought about having a little fun and getting some clear PVC and attaching it to the spouts at the bottom and running up to the top. Then I was going to float a ping pong ball or something inside it and have the clear pvc marked with the water heights. I may still do this, but it was going to cost about $30 more. Cool idea - kind of like those gauges that show you how much coffee is left in the thermos at work.... I like it. The wooden yardstick is simple and easy to read since it get's wet up to the water line. You just dip it in and read it like the dipstick in your car. I'll read the before and after water heights and figure how much water I've added and how much salt I have to add. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT April 21, 2011 Share April 21, 2011 (edited) i just use a sharpe and mark the line. my jug is clear plastic so i just mark the line for 5 and 10 g etc. or you could always superglue someone inside. Edited April 21, 2011 by Der ABT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt bills April 21, 2011 Share April 21, 2011 what size pumps do you use for mixing in the salt container? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami April 21, 2011 Share April 21, 2011 or you could always superglue someone inside. This is kind of like that guy at Walmart who got himself glued to the toilet seat three weeks ago, isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt bills May 10, 2011 Share May 10, 2011 this is what i built for my water station. The best part home depot had the 1 inch fitting with rubber washer in the appliance section that screwed into the cans they gave them to me. http://www.wamas.org/forums/gallery/image/10869-water-stationjpg/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FearTheTerps May 10, 2011 Author Share May 10, 2011 Home Depot had uniseals? I have looked and asked at my store but no one knew what I was talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt bills May 10, 2011 Share May 10, 2011 Not really a uniseal it is a 1 inch tread to slip with a rubber washer. I have not filled it yet, letting everything dry out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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