This extended my resin life from 2 weeks to 8 months, even in New Mexico. Tap water into the pre filter 180 ppm -> Tap water out of the 3 stage pre filter 80ppm goes into the RO -> Tap water out of the two RO membranes 25ppm goes into the DI -> Water out of the DI system 000ppm

Where I live now, in VA we have much better water and it is almost 'spotless' straight out of the RO. Tap water into the pre filter 1500 ppm -> Tap water out of the 3 stage pre filter 800ppm goes into the RO -> Tap water out of the two RO membranes 70ppm goes into the DI -> Water out of the DI system 000ppm This was obviously unsustainable and unnecessary when you realize that a 2 bucket wash uses 10 gallons right off the bat, not including the pre and post rinse so I started using a 5 stage, twin membrane RO system to pre filter the tap water before going into my DI. With my CRSpotless I would get roughly 50 gallons of spotless (000ppm) water before a $100 resin refill was necessary. In New Mexico our tap water was 1400-1600ppm depending on the day of the week. RO water is not the same as DI water because it will still have some impurities and may cause spotting. That is to say that 3 gallons will be flushed down the drain for every one gallon of RO water produced. This water is essentially wasted at a ratio of up to 3:1 depending on your water quality. These ions would eventually plug up the membrane so the membrane has to be continually flushed to remove the ions. Reverse osmosis systems pass the incoming water under pressure through a membrane with holes small enough to trap mineral ions. If your tap water is garbage you will be replacing a lot of resin at a lot of $$. One gallon of tap water in equals one gallon of DI water out and you can produce it at roughly. The upshot is that there is no waste water from the system.

Once the resin saturates you will need to replace it. Water deionizers like the CR spotless use an ion exchange resin system that bonds to and effectively removes mineral ions from the incoming water but the resin has a finite life. The second is a resin bed de ionizer (DI) such as the CRSpotless system. The first is reverse osmosis (RO) which uses a membrane with holes small enough to actually trap and remove individual mineral ions. There are two common ways to actually remove mineral ions. These are very different processes and 'soft' water can absolutely spot, but I digress. One should also not confuse softening water with filtering or deionizing it. Please don't use the terms 'filter' and 'deionizer' interchangeably. You may see a reduction in TDS due to the carbon filter removing some chlorine and the sediment filter removing larger particles but in terms of changing the mineral content, they do very little. The filter devices shown here are almost completely ineffective at removing the dissolved minerals that cause hard water. First we should establish that a water filter and a water deionizer are very different and perform different functions. I had to become an expert or suffer the wrath of New Mexico municipal water. I would like to clear up some things since I come from an EXTREMELY hard water area (1400+ ppm tap).

Spotless water system