(rhythmic upbeat music)
- All right, today is actually the last
Best of 2019 of the year.
It's actually New Year's Eve today,
and you're gonna see the best RO/DI upgrades
of the year starting with?
- As always, the most popular.
So it's probably the most popular upgrade
that you guys are making to your RO/DI systems,
and then we're gonna talk about the best upgrade
for water quality, the best money saving upgrade,
and best upgrade for flood protection.
- And then of course,
best in show of all the upgrades out there,
and then what we'd actually like to see for 2020.
All right, so most popular in units sold in 2019
as voted by you guys, there's actually a lot of them,
and in like thousands of each one,
so we kind of grouped together to get a bunch together,
but the number one most popular
is actually just a float valve.
- Yeah, I think this is,
it's most popular for a reason
because it's the smartest upgrade
you could add to your RO/DI water.
Like I said in some previous videos,
and we've all said that we've just
forgotten about filling up our buckets
and filling up our reservoirs,
and there's water all over the floor.
12 bucks and you can solve that problem forever.
Never have that problem.
- I don't know any reefer.
So many, so many reefers out there are like,
yeah, I bought the thing, I didn't know I needed it,
and then I just filled it up.
I'll come back in a few hours, and turn it off.
- Yeah.
- No.
- Set timers and all that. - So, yeah.
Super, super simple.
And by the way, the fixed arm one by far the most popular.
There is a little adjustable one,
but the adjustable one's kind of like actually
a failure point because if it gets loose,
it can actually not work anymore.
So you really, really, really need
to be able to adjust it if you buy that one.
So number one most popular here is this.
But we're gonna have a couple honorable mentions here
because there's like thousands of each
one of these things. - Oh, yeah.
The next one for upgrade.
It's just an add-on TDS meter.
I mean, this tells you that you're filtering properly,
that your filters are working.
The RO membrane,
if I don't have an oil indicator change
in my car or better yet if I don't have a fuel gauge
in my car that tells me when it's time to replace it,
I have no idea that it's working properly
or when it's gonna be empty.
- Yep, so what good is a filter
if you have no idea if it's working.
So it's super obvious why everybody likes TDS meters.
The inline ones like this are nice
'cause you can't get any contaminants in the little bucket,
their cup that you're trying get
your TDS meter out of, reading out of.
So by far the most popular or second most popular,
and then right after that, pressure gauges.
Right?
And so you don't really know
when you're getting one of these things
what's the purpose of pressure,
but every single function of the RO system
is based on pressure.
So if you don't know what the pressure is,
you have no idea how it's really working.
You're probably burning through too much DI resin.
You're probably not producing enough water fast enough.
You're probably producing a lot more
waste water than you should, in the ratio anyway.
And just knowing the pressure allows you
to adjust that, and know if you need to fix something.
Whether or not you need to replace
your sediment filter 'cause it's clogged,
or if you just need a booster pump or what not.
So really, really, really close,
right behind that was the pressure gauge.
The glycerine one holds up a lot longer than the air one,
and that's probably why it's like five to one more popular.
- Yeah, and then the last one most popular is,
I remember the day I discovered this thing
because I had two mixing barrels,
this three-way ball valve.
I had two mixing barrels.
One was for salt.
One was just for RO/DI,
but, you know, I had to fill each one independently,
and sometimes I would not use all of my salt water.
So I needed it to not fill up with water automatically.
So a direct connection didn't work for me.
I need a valve.
This handy little thing went right in between,
and I just say, "Hey, I want water over there,"
and I move it over there, and "Hey, I want water over here,"
and I move it over there,
and it just makes water in that direction.
So really handy in that aspect for sure.
- There's all kinds of real things
that people use these things for.
People were using them to put 'em in between
the canister's on your RO system
to be able to like flush the carbon blocks out.
You can put it on your waste water line
to take some water off for a little reading
with your chlorine dipsticks.
You know, all kinds of, kinds of things,
and it's super, super popular.
You can achieve the same kind of thing
with a whole series of other valves.
They like turn them on and off, on and off,
and (mumbles) or I can say water go that way,
water go that way, water off.
Right, and so these are super, super popular,
and I wouldn't know it.
Such a simple thing, but right up there with TDS meters,
float valves and pressure gauges is the three-way ball bell.
All right, so best of 2019 going to achieve
the thing they probably want most,
which is increase the quality of your water.
What accessory out here will most likely
achieve that for the most people?
- Well, like we mentioned in, I don't know,
all the Investigates videos we've done on this
and this topic in general,
the pressure really increases the performance,
and the best way to increase pressure
is the booster pump kit.
So, it comes with the booster pump.
It comes with the auto shut off sensor
that recognizes back pressure mechanically,
electronically shuts the booster pump off,
and the transformer to power the whole thing,
but if I'm running like 80 PSI or below,
it might be worthwhile to get one of these things
just to increase the efficiency.
- Yeah, I will say if you're running 30,
you need one for sure.
- Oh, yeah.
- There's all kind of reasons, man.
You're gonna burn through resin so fast
that like this thing will pay
for itself probably in months.
If you're running 40, maybe 50,
and now it becomes a question,
but then all there's like these benefits
between like 50's running pretty good,
but like if I want to produce water faster,
I want higher quality water, I wanna do less resin,
boosting up the pressure will absolutely achieve all that.
We have a bunch of Investigates on that,
and like at 90 PSI, you're actually producing water
like almost twice as fast, right?
- Right.
- And the contaminants in there are way less as well.
So if you wanna increase it,
especially if you're lower than 50,
booster pump is definitely it.
But even if you're at 50 and you want incremental results
especially faster water,
and faster water, by the way, also means less wastewater
for those of you like in California
where there's water restrictions
or if you're just trying to be more green or what not.
So booster pump, probably the most likely out there
to increase the quality of your water out there,
but right with that was kind of an interesting thing.
- Yeah, it's the auto flusher.
So they're in most of the units that you get.
Some of them, they'll have the flush on the flow restrictor.
But if you already have the booster pump kit,
this thing can do it automatically for you
and it will do it for a set amount of time.
You turn your system on and it flushes,
and then it stops flushing.
So it's an auto flush, auto flushes.
You already have all the components.
Get that too.
- Yeah, so this thing is actually pretty cheap.
So, and it runs off of the same thing
that goes with all the booster pumps.
So if you're gonna get the booster pump,
and unless you really like opening
and closing that valve which most people probably don't do,
this thing's super cheap.
Add it in.
Replace your flow restrictor,
and now you have an auto flushing system
keeping the membrane clean,
free of all the deposits,
and great little add on for increasing
the quality of your unit,
as well as longevity of the filters.
All right, so best of 2019.
I wanna save some money.
What kind of accessory could I spend money
to save money in the long run
or maybe even in the short term in many cases.
what is it?
- Well for saving money on specifically just like water,
like going down my drain,
and right now it's like a four to one,
sometimes three to one ratio of waste water.
That means more water going down my drain waste
then what's actually going in my barrel,
and over time that can cost some money.
- Especially if you're in those areas like California
where there's water restrictions
and water costs a lot of money,
and you're making a decision
between am I going to water my lawn?
Am I gonna take a bath?
Or am I gonna provide water for my fish tank, right?
- True.
- And so reducing it, makes it matter.
- And that means the Water Save Upgrade Kit.
So, we have these kits.
There's 150 upgrade kit,
which is essentially another 75 gallon per day membrane
that you add on to the top
of your existing membrane on plug that in series,
and then you have the 200 gallon,
so it's like 100 gallon per day membrane.
So couple different options there for you,
but it cuts the waste water in half.
- Effectively.
- Yeah.
- And so you're producing double the amount
of product water with the same amount of waste water,
which effectively cuts it in half,
and so you're just producing water a lot faster,
and it's just a super awesome upgrade,
especially if water costs a lot in your location.
But what about what's the second best way
to save some money?
- So, depending on the quality of my water
there's a lot of things in different water supplies
that just chew through resin.
People see it all the time like,
hey, I only got like 100, 200, 300-some gallons
out of my water production, and my DI cartridge,
my mixed bed DI is already depleted,
like the color change has already happened.
So you can save money by separating those mixed beds
out into individual cation and add ion stages.
So now if something's chewing through anion resin
and attracted the anion resin only,
I'm only gonna deplete anion resin.
I'm not going to waste the cation.
- Yeah, so going to the pro-series resin
allows you to use each one to it's full capacity.
They've got tons of videos on it
if you wanna go check it out.
But if you have C02 in your water
or you got high TDS in your water,
all kinds of different contaminants and stuff,
you're going to save a lot of money.
And in this case, like the cost of the unit
probably pays for itself in a matter
of six-plus months, right?
Depending on how fast you burn through the resin.
But if you are one of those people
who are like man, I'm burning through resin like crazy,
that's me, this is the solution for you.
Allows you to get the most out of each one,
particularly the anion resin.
So the DI saver option is the best option
to save some money for you.
All right, so best of 2019,
protecting your house and your tank
from a potential leak or overflow
from your RO/DI system, what is it?
- Yeah, so this one we thought was a very common one
that we pitched a lot, and that's the flow lock.
- I thought for sure that it was this.
- It's completely mechanical,
and we use it on the BRS 160.
We use it all over the place.
But when we look at the numbers
for what you guys are buying for flood protection,
it's actually that Xp Aqua Flood Guardian.
So optical sensor ran solenoid.
So it measures the water level inside
or some specifically when you got this thing
like tied to your tank, you can probably put it
in your bin and stuff to shut the water off,
but when it reaches the optical level sensor
it recognizes it, and it flips the solenoid
shutting off the water.
- So this is what I thought
this was gonna be the most popular.
Yes, it's so cheap.
- That's like five, six bucks. - And it's such like elegant
little solution.
The little pad soaks up water and flips it,
and then it's closed.
And you can attach it, screw it down to any surface,
and it'll just soak up the water and trigger it.
And, you know, normally the inexpensive option
is the one that wins, right?
Like, by far, right?
Especially if it's like a fourth of the price, right?
So these are really great options,
and they're like a good safety measure,
and you can put 'em pretty much anywhere.
In fact, there's actually a little tray
they can go underneath your RO system
where this thing can mount in it.
So if the RO system leaks,
it goes into a tray and collects it, and does it there.
But, I gotta say, if you got the money,
and I guess apparently people do.
(laughing)
This thing is cool because you can
just put the sensor anywhere.
- Right.
- It's got that little optical sensor.
You can just kinda snap it on to the glass
or your sump or really anything.
And it's useful for not just like the same things
as like an RO system is,
it's also useful for like overflowing,
like a top off or whatever,
and just shutting off the top up,
and you might have your top off auto in there,
or auto top off going in there,
and it's just got its own sensors, and what not.
You might have a float valve going in here.
But if I use this thing with it,
then it will actually shut off the water
if the water level gets too high even beyond that.
- Yeah, true.
- So like, yeah.
So this was actually the most popular flood protection
for working on like a quarter inch tube in an RO/DI system.
Actually has a bunch of instructions right here
on the back, and how you'd use it.
- Being how inexpensive this guy is,
I could see a combination of the two,
like especially if I have a long run on my RO unit,
and maybe it goes through a wall or maybe it goes through
in other rooms, and things like that.
I can strategically put these types of things
at like four, five bucks.
I can put these wherever I want to in those rooms
that I'm not always in, and it can detect leaks beforehand
if this is not sensing the optical level sensor
or what have you, so.
- Yeah, it's a super, super cheap option
and I would use them anywhere,
but those are the two best of 2019
for protecting your house and your tank
from an RO system or any type of flood that might happen
from a quarter inch tube.
All right, so best in show of 2019.
For sure it is the booster pump here.
If you have like pressure in the area
of somewhere between 30 and 50,
just go out and get one.
You'll be super, super happy
with the amount of water you produce,
the reduction in DI consumption
will pay for itself right away.
If you want faster, higher quality water past 50,
you also achieve it, and I will also say
that if you're running dual membranes,
we really like to see the pressure up around 60, 65,
and this thing will help achieve that.
And while you're at it, the pressure gauge,
it tells, you know, it's actually working.
- Right.
- So yeah, best in show of 2019 for improving quality water,
speed that you produce it,
overall nothing will help your RO system
produce better water than increasing the pressure
in how the RO/DI membrane works.
All right, so now we got the best of 2019 out of the way,
what would you like to see for 2020?
- This one's really exciting for me
because I'm a geek head when it comes to,
I guess you could call me a control freak.
(chuckles) So in that essence,
if you know what a control freak is, Apex Gear.
So why not an Apex-ready RO/DI system?
That would be so cool.
I mean, we're talking like Apex readouts on my phone for TDS
and pressure, and I can flip a switch and flush,
and I can, you know, it already has,
I already have a solenoid and leak detections
and things like that or leak detectors,
but all-encompassing a RO/DI unit
that I just plug into my Apex and I'm done,
and I have all these features,
how awesome would that be.
- Okay, so as you know, you're not really taking care
of corals, you're just taking care of water quality.
Right? - Yeah.
- And then corals are the result of that.
So I was just talking to Terence,
probably this is about a year ago,
but why can't we have a TDS meter that goes to my phone?
Right?
- It makes sense. - I don't want to crawl
into wherever it is, see it in the dark,
actually just want an alarm when it hits one,
you know, tell me to go change my stuff.
Right? - That would be awesome.
- Yeah, absolutely.
(laughs)
- So, it can absolutely be done.
I know they have like wireless TDS meters out there.
There's all kinds of different things we can do.
But also pressure.
When the pressure gets below,
you know, tell me and I will go change my sediment filter.
I don't have to go and crawl under there and find out.
Right? - Yeah, for sure.
- And then like you said,
I could manually flush it with my phone
or it could just auto flush it for me, right?
And I can set it to whatever
auto flush scenario that I want,
and then of course they have all
of their own leak detectors and solenoids.
- It does, yeah.
- This is just like a home run.
So, I don't know.
So somebody should produce, if not Apex,
they should work with us, I don't know.
But we should see an Apex-ready RO/DI system out there
because all of those things are capable,
and I think almost everybody said "Yeah, I'd like that"
- (laughing) True.
- And so that actually wraps up
a whole years' worth of best of 2019.
Again, it is New Year's Eve
so Happy New Year everybody.
Next year we're gonna start off with top 15, top 10 fails,
of all kinds of different categories.
- Oh, yeah.
- You're gonna wanna see where we failed for sure,
'cause they're all over the place.
(laughing)
But for now, if you wanna go see
the best of all the 2019 accessories
that we've talked about today,
you can see 'em right here.