TDS Measurements for water makers

[AnnapolisStar]

Does any one have any actual TDS measurements that they have made with their water makers while sailing in the Bahamas or open water. I am particularly interested in the Katadyn 80e, or 160e but would like actual measurements from any commerical unit. The 80E spec states that the TDS can range anywhere between 512 ppm and 1280ppm which sounds kind of high.

[tommays]

Well

I do it on land to check the water quality going into are DI water system as it has a big effect on bed life and the tap water is around <100 PPM and gets taken down to .06 PPM ?? (its about 25 PPB TOC)

[velero]

AnnapolisStar,

Can you regulate the pressure on any of these units? The World Health Organization WHO has a requirement for drinking water to be 500 ppm or less for long term compsumption and 1500 ppm for short term (less than 10 days). If you can regulate the pressurre I would try to get around 750 ppm which of course depends on the original sailnity of the water and the applied pressure. Operating at this middle range will extend the life of you RO membranes by a lot of hrs. Trying to get all the salt out of the water will foul the membranes and you do need some of the salts for your bodily functions. We use to have a portable conductivity meter calibrated with ASTM sea salt to read TDS that was very handy fill the cup and push a button to get your TDS reading. I will see if I can get a model number for the TDS meter if you are interested. V49