water pump in the sugar house

[miboss]

I'm starting to plan out the water/plumbing in the sugar house and had some questions.

I have a 625 gal permeate tank I was going to use for the water supply. I prefer to not raise it up too high, maybe build a 2x8 platform for it to sit on. I need to get a water line to feed a sink and a 20 gal water heater, what type/size water pump do you recommend?

[maple flats]

I use a 3.3 GPM diaphragm pump. Mine feeds the tankless HW heater and a cold faucet, all from my 1000 gal permeate tank. My pump is a 120V, but many have stated (after I had the 120V) that the 12V versions seem to last longer. Mine is just 2 years old, when it fails I may go with a 12V version.

[VT_K9]

Next year we area going to build a new sugar house. We will have a heated room for the RO and water supply. We plan to use a smaller HW heater similar to your system. We will likely have a 100 gallon SS tank available. We plan to keep it filled year round with water from my house and during the season will fill it from the permeate tank.

I am looking at the same idea you are, but will use a float switch in the tank to feed the HW heater and sugar house lines. I will likely just keep an eye on the level and run another, spare, pump to fill the 100 gallon tank.

I believe the diaphragm pumps will shut once a certain pressure is reached. I am not sure that is what I am looking for so my other option is a pressure tank in the sugar house (like many homes with a private well).

Mike

[maple flats]

That should work fine, in my case I have only a very tight RO room and no room for water storage, I drain my system when I leave. That takes about 3-4 minutes, I first unplug the pump, then I close the tank valve at the permeate tank, open the drain valve at the low end of the permeate line off the bottom of the tank, (once drained the valve gets closed again). Then I drain the lines in the sugarhouse, remove the HW tankless heater drain plug and drain everything into the sink. My sink has no trap to freeze. Being a 1 finger typest, (arthritis makes it too painfull to type the normal way) this took longer to type than is does to do. When I'm running the RO, I'm plumbed so all permeate goes thru the in sugarhouse cold water pipes, then it rises to a 10 gal tank in the ceiling and an overflow pipe runs to the permeate tank outside. This way, I have water to use (10 gal) after I finish R.O.ing before I need to run the diaphragm pump.