(upbeat music playing)
- All right, so best of 2019, RO/DI systems, I gotta tell ya
this is a little bit of a shameless plug because we only
sell BRS RO/DI systems here but we sell a whole variety
of systems.
But one of the things I think you're going to see today is
the immense value that comes when you get the person,
it's important, all the stuff here, building them
themselves and selling them direct.
You start to see what the differences are and it's really
a value that's almost impossible for anyone to beat
because we're selling so many of these things.
- Yeah, so today we're going to see the top five reasons why
it's difficult to compete with us, the BRS systems.
And then we're going to pick four clear winners
of the most popular, the most affordable option that gets
the job done, the least techy-ist option, so the best one
that's not as super techy.
And then we're going to find the best option for those hard,
water-type situations with oddball contaminants, super high
TDS and a bunch of other factors.
- Okay, in spirit of that shameless plus, best of 2019 does
mean that we need to actually say why these things are
better than some of the other options out there.
And I'm just going to start with the filters.
Beyond the fact that this thing is just a bunch
of plastic fittings and tubing and screws,
it's the filters inside that are doing all the work.
And so, when you look at them, there's often no-name brand
filters in most of our competitors.
In this case, we're using GE made sediment filters.
Those filters actually made over in the Minneapolis area
here in the United States.
Those are true depth sediment filters.
You'll know it the moment you touch them.
They just have a true graded density.
You can see it on the side.
Capture particles all the way through the entire
thickness.
They're just the best in the market.
Same thing with the carbon blocks, you can hold it up
and you can look through it and there's a tiny little
pencil hole because there's so much carbon in the carbon
block, you can see it with the naked eye, right? Yeah.
Most of them have a big quarter size hole in them.
- [Man On Left] And then we have the Dow Filmtec
membrane, so the RO membranes themselves.
Some of the top of the line in the water industry,
RO membranes.
- [Man On Right] So Dow, whether you know it or not,
makes most of the membranes for most of the other companies
out there.
And you just put another sticker on it.
And so one of the other things here, because we're using
Dow membranes we're also using Dow's stated specs, right?
- Yeah.
- And so a 75 gallon per day membrane does 75 gallons,
it doesn't do 90 if you crank up the pressure beyond
where most people would ever have it.
Right? - Yeah.
So it's honest assessment of performance, it's Dow specs.
So we're using GE, Dow, we're also using DI resin here.
We're telling you what it is, what the purpose of it,
it's a mixed bed resin, it's a anion resin, it's a cation
resin.
There's no mystery names or marketing.
- Super duper deluxe.
Yeah. - Yeah.
- Silica fighter, or what not.
No, silica fighter is a specific type of resin
and we sell that resin and it's incorporated into
the mix of what we do here.
So all of it is transparent and we're just using
the best filters out there.
- [Man On Left] All right, so top five reason number two
why it's hard to compete with us.
This is what I loved when I first got my RO/DI unit,
is it comes with everything I need in a pouch to connect
it to my water source.
So, whether I'm connecting it to a garden hose or a utility
sink or my kitchen faucet or even underneath my kitchen
faucet and in almost all cases, every single connection
that you need to get this thing hooked up is included.
And that's just automatic.
We don't want you to buy something else or have to get
a package or a kit to hook this thing up or go to
the hardware store if you've never really done some
plumbing before and you go to the hardware store
and you see the wall of all the plumbing parts.
I've no idea what to pick.
I like that everything comes with.
- Yeah, and so that's because actually the first one that
I bought, it didn't come with those fittings so I had
to go to the hardware store.
They actually didn't have what I wanted so I had to go
back to the place, order it and get it a week from now
as it came in the mail.
So what we do is we put all of the fittings in there again,
one that screws on your faucet, one that goes underneath
your sink.
We have, they go into the drain, we have all the different
fittings. Cover 99 probably or 95 at least percent of all
of the solutions you would need to make this.
When I open up the box, it will work for you.
- Yeah.
- Right and so, one of those things that we don't charge
you extra for that, there's extra fittings in case you move
and you got a different water.
Nobody's charging you any extra for it and it's just
all included.
- [Man On Left] So speaking of fittings, there's the double
O-ring Mur-lock fittings for all of the water connections
in here and the biggest purpose for that is so I don't get
water on my floor.
And I've done that many different other ways, be it
by water changes or other things so not worrying about
my RO/DI unit leaking water on my floor is just one
less thing I have to worry about.
- [Man On Right] That's one of those things that almost
nobody would ever know that we did, right?
They cost like $1.00 a piece whereas the cheap imports
are like .10, .15 and almost nobody would ever know
that we did that but for us, I don't want these things
to leak on anybody.
Most specifically, not right out of the box, I don't want
it leaking in like 10 years from now either.
And they really do is protect is when the tubes get bent.
You pull on it, the cheaper ones will start to leak out
the side.
When you pull on a Mur-lock fitting, it does not do that.
So yeah, better fittings, you might not even know
that you're getting that value.
- [Man On Left] But it's already there.
Number four out of five top reasons why it's hard
to compete with us is our guys in the back
making these things.
So everything is assembled here, put together here.
We ship from here and we also ship free.
- [Man On Right] Yeah so all these have shipping built in
to them, a lot of our competitors you add 30, 40 bucks
in shipping.
And when I say 30, 40 bucks, we went and checked.
I couldn't believe it.
- We did.
- That's an enormous amount of money to add, the shipping
and the cost of it.
So they all ship for free, we build them here, we have
our own standards.
I want to make sure that everybody's doing it the right
way every single time.
- [Man On Left] So last but definitely not least is
the service that we back these with, between the videos,
the multiples of videos that you've done, that I've
done a few of, the customer service team taking your
calls, the lifetime warranty and if something goes wrong,
I've answered that phone call a bunch of times,
"Something's wrong with my RO unit", well we're sorry
about that, we're going to fix it.
- Yeah, that's it, man and I think that we have produced
probably, something in the magnitude of 50 plus videos
on RO/DI, to manage your performance on it, get the best
value out of it you can, and like you said lifetime
warranty on the whole thing.
So you call up here and the people on the phones have
been instructed, help at all costs.
That is a bit of a shameless plug here but I guess I'm
just going to challenge anybody to come out with
a system that is cheaper, has better filters, comes
with more connections, has better service.
I just don't think any of that stuff exists out there.
This is the best value 2019 and I'm going to roll right
into then, what is the most popular unit of all that we
sell here and it's this guy right here.
The 4 Stage Value System and right behind it was
the Value Plus, which comes with the little pressure
gauge and the flush kit and the TDS meter.
- [Man On Left] Yeah, so for this one, it's a 75 gallon
per day membrane and we looked at what you guys
were buying and what majority of people were buying
for like the past year and so and at the top of the list,
the 4 Stage Value so it gets the job done in most cases.
It is a really good value plus free shipping.
- It is the cheapest way to make zero TDS RO/DI water
of any of the systems we offer so I'm not surprised it is
the most popular option out there.
So it will definitely, definitely produce zero TDS water
for your reef tank.
There's only some of the most obscure challenges out there
where it could be a little bit better and we're going
to cover those in just a minute.
But for vast, vast majority of reefers, this is it
and you can upgrade it at a later date at any time.
So you want to add another carbon block, you add
another DI system, you just add it on there.
So you're not locked into this guy forever.
It's a system that you can build upon
and obviously why it's the most popular.
- So up next is the most affordable for 2019.
- [Man On Right] So not surprisingly, what's the most
affordable one?
- [Man On Left] The one we just talked about,
the 4 Stage Value here in which case, it's not more
affordable because we are skimping on some parts
and pieces and grade and quality of the filters.
Everything we talked about in the top five is in this
system.
You just get it at a lowest cost in it's class.
So like you said, it's also upgradeable.
- [Man On Right] Best of 2019 non-techy RO/DI system.
Non-techy might be like a strange word to talk about it,
but if you really start diving in to RO/DI's,
there's chloramines and chlorine and silica
and all kinds of strange different things in your
water and you're just really not sure what you're
supposed to do if you get too far into it.
You start wondering, "Am I part of the 5% out there
or not"?
You probably aren't because 95% of you are just fine.
But there's better ways to deal with things and there's
a good enough and then there's a better.
And this is definitely inside the better.
And the only difference between this guy and this one
of the 4 and 5 Stage is two carbon blocks.
- [Man On Left] Yeah, and more and more that we were
finding over the years that cities are treating with
chloramines, in which case it's the dual carbon block
system that really does the trick here.
- I'm not going to bore you to death with chloramine
chatter but it's basically chlorine mixed with ammonia
it's super stable, super hard to remove and so you
have one carbon block, removes most of it,
second carbon block removes the rest and there's
specialized carbon blocks.
We got a video actually that's going to come out here in
probably just a few weeks that shows exactly how
long a normal standard carbon block in the universe
lasts on chloramines.
I'm going to tell you it's going to be less than
100 gallons, where these guys are going to be into
the thousand plus.
So it's a way, way, way, way, way more economical option
to get the right tool for the right job.
And so, when you get the two carbon blocks here,
we call them universal carbon blocks in that non-techy
kind of frame of mind, because most of you don't know
if you're city uses chlorine or chloramines.
You got to call your city up and ask them or get a test
kit or what not.
You just don't want to know and they've changed, too.
Some of them change during the seasons because
the chloramines get longer down there and they have
dirtier water in different parts of the season so they
change it.
And some of them will just change over because it's,
I'm going to bore you again with these trihalomethanes
and disinfection by-products.
The EPA is lowering the standards every year for these
things and so, it is harder and harder and harder, too,
for the cities to meet them.
And with chloramines it's just way easier because they
change all the time.
You'll never know who it is.
I think it's probably up to 50% of the water supplies
that are out there using that.
So if you're using two carbon blocks, you can just skip all
the nonsense, skip all the techy jargon that I just
bored you with and just know you're covered in both
instances.
And that's why I believe the 5 Stage RO/DI System should
probably be the most popular because most people don't
know what's in their water.
This will cover it, this will just do it better
and more redundantly.
- So we're talking non-techy version, which some people
see on the 5 Stage Premium Plus that we have here.
Some people see the pressure gauge, some people see
the TDS meter and might think, well that's pretty techy.
Well no, actually it's included so that we know
that it's running efficiently and then we know
that you have a peace of mind that it's doing
the job that it's supposed to, in which case
the pressure gauge just lets you know that you
have proper pressure going through it and if your
sediment filters start to time to change them out,
you get something to monitor it with.
Same thing with your TDS meter, you get a monitor
of the quality of water you're making and that your
unit is running efficiently and effectively.
- Should you read zero TDS water coming out, if it isn't,
you should troubleshoot it and find out.
In this case again, what you should really do is call up
here, they'll tell you right away.
Or watch one of our videos, there's like five reasons why
that might be and it will definitely be one of those things.
So in the pressure gauge, it should just
be over 50 psi for optimal performance and without
the pressure gauge, you just don't know.
- Yeah.
- Most of you will probably be over that, some of you won't.
I know at my house I've got a well so I had to go turn up
the pressure on my well but not a big deal.
But yeah, this is the best non-techy option,
gives you the information you need to know
and it also just takes all the chloramine
nonsense out of the equation, you don't have
to worry about that anymore.
All right so best of 2019 challenging water, and I guess
I'm even going to say best of show.
If you have infinite dollars and you just want to know
that you got the best, this is it.
- [Man On Left] I mean this covers you for a wide variety
of special water conditions.
Not necessarily every water condition is going to be
the same but if you don't know and you don't want
to do the research or you just don't know what you're
looking for, this is an option that just cuts all
that out.
- [Man On Right] So this guy right here is a 3 Stage RO/DI,
again it's a 3 Stage DI rather, and it is
a little reef nerdy.
You should go watch all of our videos if you really
want to know about it.
But in the end, it is the most efficient
because it has three specialized resins in there,
a mixed bed, cation, and an anion, all in series
and it allows you to deplete them fully
and you can get 2 to 3 times as much use out of them.
They're just way, way, way more efficient.
Also, it optimizes the pH in each one of these things.
So, if you have some really weird contaminant,
like ammonia gas, or super high pH in silica like
we do here in Minneapolis, it will solve all those
things for you.
So if you're one of those really oddball people
that has super oddball water, it will solve all
of your problems and be the most efficient.
And when I say oddball, I got to tell you that I am
the oddball in both cases. - (laughing)
- So Minneapolis, we have super high pH water, we have
tons of silica, we have ammonia gas because of the high
pH as well.
And then at my house, I have 550 TDS water, which means
that it's probably going to come out of there at 15 TDS,
even out of the RO system and it's going to burn through
resin.
So getting 2 to 3 times efficiency out of my resin also
means that this system is going to pay for itself,
probably in the first year.
- Right.
- Definitely two.
So best in class, best in show, best if you have super
challenging water or want the most efficient system out
there.
It does costs a little bit more but I think it pays
for, you get what you pay for.
- [Man On Left] Yeah.
So now our desired improvements for 2020,
what we'd like to see and starting first with higher
capacity membranes.
Right now we have units that go up to 200 gallons per day
but around the office we are testing with 500 gallons per
day so large volume systems.
- [Man On Right] Yeah so we got 500 gallon per day,
high-efficiency systems.
It's funny to hear actually us talk about what we'd like
to see for 2019 because we're challenging ourselves.
- (laughing) True.
- And this one's kind of been hanging out there
because we're not really sure if everybody wants
a 500 gallon per day system.
It's going to require probably a booster pump
to get that kind of flow out of it or even a high velocity
flow pump on it.
So but we'd like to get the end of that testing out there
because I think some people would like almost on demand
water, 500 gallons per day.
- Easy.
- Also, in relation to that is a big 4 inch round
chloramine filter.
- Big giant guy.
- The chloramine filters, you just go through them way, way,
way faster than you do a standard filter once you realize
you have chloramines.
If you can get a big stubby guy, that's 4 1/2 inches
by 10, it's like having four normal size carbon blocks,
lasts way longer.
I think some people out there would like that.
It'll probably be pretty expensive but you don't have
to change out the filters very often.
- Yeah.
- I think there's even big ones, there 20 by 4,
which is like 8 carbon blocks in one.
But you just know you're covered.
So we're going to explore those.
If you're interested, let us know and we can get it
prioritized, I guess.
- Speaking of carbon blocks too, a way to test my carbon
blocks, too.
So like an access port to my carbon block where all I have
to do is turn a valve and now I can run a strip
or run a chlorine chloramine test on them
and close it back up.
- So most people are good just kind of changing them out
every six to twelve months, depending on how much
you use.
- Buy a filter kit.
- But I know for those of you guys who are like reef nerdy
enough, you really want to know for sure when your
carbon block's depleted either because you want to change it
on time or because you want to get maximum use
and lifespan out of it, one or the other.
Right now, I'd say the best way to do it is just
test the wastewater that's coming out of your
membrane because that's water that's gone through
your carbon blocks but not through the membrane.
But even better would be like a little port that comes
off going into it and you just port off like a
- Yeah.
- Three-way ball valve, port off a little for testing.
Put your little chlorine test strip in
and you know for sure.
So that'd be fun to see on some new systems.
- The next one for me specifically, I know I'm going to need
this one and it's been pretty much the same in every
place I've lived the last few years, is low water pressure
in my house, in which case if I had a unit
that just already was an option booster pump included
and the auto flush already included,
I know I'm going to have to buy a booster pump.
In most cases, I kind of want a booster pump
so I can optimize my own performance, you know find
that balance between pressure and my rejection rates
and things like that.
So I just want a booster pump.
- Yeah, so booster pumps will increase the performance
on almost every system regardless so almost
what your pressure is like all the way up.
I think we rate them up to like 90 psi's the best.
So it would be nice actually if we had one that was
mounted into the bracket, had the auto flush already
installed.
Right now you just kind of screw it to the wall right
next to it.
No big deal but at the same time, I'm going to challenge
the team here, get a configuration where it's already
installed.
So you know in all the other 2019's, we challenged all those
other manufacturers out there so I really hope we can
come back in 2020 and say we did at least two of these.
- (laughing)
- Otherwise we'll look silly.
But yeah, so if you want to see any of the videos, again
we've got like 50 videos on our RO/DI.
I don't think that anybody has covered RO/DI like we have.
- Yeah.
- But especially on YouTube so you can check them out
on our website so if you go to the RO/DI category
on the website, there's a little video tab right in there,
you can see all of these videos as well as what's best
of 2019.
There's also a little hotlink right here so go check it out.