• Equipment

  Choosing Between Polyethylene and Stainless Steel for Your RO Water Storage Tank

  Posted by yellowstone on February 25, 2020 at 6:34 pm

  I’m running a smaller 200 gallon stainless water storage tank now for my RO water but need to upgrade to 1,000g or larger. Is anyone using polyethylene tanks for your RO water? I’ worried about the plastic tank imparting a flavor into the water and then into my spirits.  But a $650 poly tank vs a $3000-$5000 stainless tank is what is driving the question.

  drdistillation replied 4 years, 9 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

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  pour decisions

  Member

  February 25, 2020 at 7:23 pm

  many ferment in food grade poly, I see no issue with RO in poly unless your letting it sit in the sun for a year or more before using, similar to the disposable water bottle circumstances

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  slickfloss

  Member

  March 14, 2020 at 10:20 pm

  Poly is cool for RO water no problem just make sure you keep your shit clean- if you’re moving enough water through the system it will take care of it self!

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  yellowstone

  Member

  March 14, 2020 at 10:28 pm

  I finally did go with a poly tank. That 1000 gallons should get cycled through every few days, but just in case I’m going to recirculate through a UV filter continuously as well. That should cover my bases.

  Thanks for the feedback!

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  drdistillation

  Member

  March 15, 2020 at 2:07 am

  You can probably pick up a UV pond or industrial filter and just plumb it right as the water comes out of the tote.

  One thing I’d suggest is to setup a filter inline as well before dumping the water back in the tank.  If you are killing off microbes in the water with UV you want to have a way to remove them as well.

  If you are using the water pretty consistently you probably don’t need to keep it circulating 100% of the time as just your normal usage will be enough.

  You should be able to calculate the watts needed to kill off anything based on your flow rate.  Do some reading of needed watts per flow rate (contact time) before buying anything.  You’ll need to clean them occasionally as well (easy) so that the glass doesn’t build up a slime on it stopping the UV from doing it’s thing.

  You can also plumb in 2 or 3 smaller units in parallel if needed as that could be cheaper.  Look into how much bulbs cost at different sizes.  With multiple units you can stagger replacement.

  If this is for cooling water only and will never be potable or used for anything else, you can add 1/4 teaspoon of bleach per gallon of storage water to kill off algae and microbes as well. That’s about 1/3 gallon of bleach for a 1000 gallon storage tank.

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