Is it improper for me to talk about other's pools here?

[taekwondodo]

LOL,

I just visited two new prospects today.

Pool 1: CYA 90, Ca.... ta-da: ~800ppm (40Kgal). White stuff is shooting out of the plumbing (but other than a little MA, the pool looks good).

Pool 2: CYA... ta-da: I put in three-four DROPS and the black dot disappeared. I'm guessing around 1000ppm. And the pool's the prettiest shade of lime (as opposed to forest) green.

Just shakin my head here.

- Jeff

 

[Richard320]

I read what you wrote, and my thought is
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
$$$$$$$$

 

[Guest]

So how close are you to starting an R/O business up there

 

[taekwondodo]

The topic actually came up - but I'm guessing the start-up costs are pretty high and overall "cost-to-repair" would be similar or more. How much does it cost to "R/O" 40Kgal?

 

[Guest]

40K is a pretty big pool! Our rig is actually rated for 40K a day (although Sal pushes it to 50K sometimes ).

Our typical pricing (we discount to TFP Members!) is $375.00 to 20K, $475.00 to 25K, and $575.00 to 30K. Above that we bid according to TDS/CH levels, as we like to be able to get the water down to 750-900 TDS and CH down to 200 (or a little less). I'd say we'd probably be somewhere around $700.00 for that pool.

We did a Jr. Olympic pool (approx. 120,000 gallons) last month, and the rig ran for 6 days! TDS was 12,000 ppm! No CYA in the pool (but they were dumping about 165 gallons of chlorine in it a week!), and I can't recall what the CH level was (Sal probably knows and might chime in). We charged $1,472.00 for that job, and the pool was open the whole time the rig was running, and in use. They were happy with the price, and the finished product, but most importantly they were happy that they did not have to shut the pool down!

How does that pricing compare to a drain and refill up by you? That is pretty much what we base our pricing on, which seems fair and competitive.

 

[Guest]

CH was 180 ppm... We have seen about 10 pools with CYA that was off the scale. All due to tab feeders!

 

[taekwondodo]

Partial DNF runs about 300-400. Then they both need superchlorinated, T/A adjusted and maybe some stabilizer put back in. Depending on the size of the pool it runs 200-300.

So, I use R/O on a smaller scale for my aquariums (FW/SW) and the output is about 10/90 product/waste. Since there is required waste flow across the membrane in order to make R/O work, how does your equipment deal with that (just the engineer in me asking)?

 

[Guest]

Based on that, and since we treat all of the water, it sounds like our prices would be pretty close :-D

We start at about 78% recovery and work up to around 85%. We are trying to achieve closer to 85% as much as possible. Our pools around here are often around 25,000 gallons, so we are "burning" about 3,500-4,000 gallons on a pool that size. Warmer water helps us on our recovery rates also.

 

[anonapersona]

So, 15% wasted water vs 90% wasted water for home RO for aquariums, wow.

The engineer in me also finds this fascinating.

 

[Guest]

Taekwondo,

Unlike home R/O systems we have 9 membranes and use a high power pump to move water instead of house pressure. Our system was made specifically for our application. Some of our competitors get recovery rates in he mid 60% starting and finish in the low 70's.

 

[taekwondodo]

Agreed, I'm pushing at most 60 PSI and do 100 gallons a month - at most. I'll bet you're running 150-200 psi. That must be quite a set-up. How much would one of those cost me?