http://www.wateranywhere.com/ You can get all the parts for a 4 stage unit (except the tubing and DI resin) for under $150 shipped (depends on your preferences). http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/ You can get the resin in 5# bags $38 and tubing for $0.15/ft. No need to pay $300 or more for good water. If I get ambitious, or when I actually order mine, I'll make a parts list.
Not to be a party pooper, but I bought a complete 5-stage 100gpd system including mounting and plumbing tap hardware and a 4g storage tank for about $120 on eBay. We mounted it under the kitchen sink. It has a 20ft tube with a valve that makes it super easy to fill buckets. We're going to integrate it into the new tank setup using autotopoff and a solenoid valve.
I did get a TDS meter. Our award-winning tap water in Arkadelphia reads at 47ppm and the filtered water reads 1-2ppm depending on how clean the bucket is. BTW, the "filtered" water from my fridge cold-water dispenser reads about 45ppm. it hardly filters anything.
It's suspicious at least. Anything over 2 ppm and you can all but guarantee something in there has failed. The deal is that if your input water is 47 ppm, and your membrane has a 90% rejection rate (as all 100 gpd do) then before it gets to the DI it should read 4-5 ppm or such. So . . . that means your DI cartidge is only removing 2-3 ppm (if it's removing anything at all). The flow rate is probably not a problem. It's common for channels to form in the cartridge, like little streams, so that not all of the beads are being used and not all the water gets processed. You can try tapping it nicely with a wooden spoon and see if that helps. Also, how much water have you made with it? It might just be time to get a new DI cartridge.
Bah, I do have one of those gadgets, but I don't have a TDS meter. So I just blew 45 minutes adapting my multimeter . . . My multimeter only goes up to 2 M Ohm, but I could get the plates a lot closer than 1 cm before the reading changed, probably about 2 mm before hand tremor started making them touch. Either way, the water is at least 2 M Ohm, which approximates 0.33 ppm NaCl solution.
To test your RODI water let the water run for a little while before you get your test water. Use a glass cup and rinse it out with RODI water at least 2 times before you get the sample You can get a bad reading just from the end of the dispenser and the water in a reserve tank can go up slightly over time jerry
