[H2GoKent]

The other cost to consider is in time spent, if it you fiddle with your RO for an hour that's an hour you're not earning.

I supply pure water to window cleaners and because I make a lot of water there are economies of scale so I can do it cheaper than a householder but of course I charge slightly more and that's my profit margin.
The savings you can make by making your own aren't that great, and once you allow for time spent I would say you're better off buying, if you have a reliable source of water you don't even have to think about it

Then again I suppose I would say that wouldn't I! But I do believe it to be true

Yes of course you would say that 

You know full well you are not better off buying. You have extra fuel cost to go fill up for a start and at current fuel prices you could well spend £5/£10 or more driving just to get your water.

Let's take me as an example, nearest spotless water is 15 miles away that's best part of a tenner of fuel plus an hour round trip then god knows what they charge for 500l of pure.

Compare to producing 500l of my own for probably less than a fiver .

The use of the phrase 'better off' matters as well. If you save £10 a month by making your own but you spend an hour making it then you are not better off making your own, I don't work for £10 an hour and I'm sure you don't.
It also depends where your fill up is and what if you have people who work for you?
As I said originally it is cheaper to make your own in cash terms, but you're not better off spending time messing about making water and worrying about it if it's going to reduce the amount of time spent earning.
You could service your own van and save money, but is it a good use of your time?
Actually, this isn't a good use of mine 

But it doesn’t take any time at all to make water , just connect one hose to the van plug in the mains power turn on tap and booster pump and it does  it all it’s self, and switches off when the tanks are full , I fill 3 vans a day and it takes 5 muinits .

And if you run out of water half way through the day? What happens then? 
Genuine question, not being funny.
Are you saying you can process the water to fill your van in 5 minutes or can connect up to start the process in five minutes?

[zesty]

Ok this is a good estimate for a weekly cost, I use about 550 litres per day.

My actual water itself costs me £3.10 per cubic metre, and I use about 2,750 litres per week and you will put approx 50% to waste, so the water itself will be around:
(£3.10 x 2) x 2.750 = £17.05

That £3.10 includes the sewerage charge (which is calculated based on usage so you can't avoid it), but does not include standing charges as you have to pay them anyway.

Then I change my prefilters once every 2 months, they cost approx £4.60 for a 10" carbon and about £2 for a 5 micron filter.  So, £3.30 per month is about £77p per week.

Resin, well a 25LTR bag of resin lasts me about 7 months and costs about £100 as my 4040 RO gets the water down to about 9ppm.  Thats about £3.30 per week.

Then there's the RO membranes themselves, mine last about 5 years and cost £316.  So that's £1.21 per week.

So your rough weekly estimate:
Water : £17.05
Prefilters : £0.77
Resin : £3.30
RO Membrane : £1.21

TOTAL WEEKLY COST: £22.33

Or 0.8 p per litre.

As for time spent, switching the water on at the end of the day takes about 20 seconds.

Changing the filters takes about 20 mins every other month

Changing the membrane takes about 40 minutes every 5 years.

Changing the resin about 30 mins every 7 months.

So, total time taken equates to about 15 mins per month.

My advice would never ever be reliant on someone else for something as essential as pure water. Plus it will always always be cheaper to produce yourself.

And what’s this “an hour making it” lol! It takes seconds to switch on.

I have a separate  meter and only pay  for the water no sewage charge on the water for the van works out a lot cheaper

So is your waste going to a soak away?

[Splash & dash]

The other cost to consider is in time spent, if it you fiddle with your RO for an hour that's an hour you're not earning.

I supply pure water to window cleaners and because I make a lot of water there are economies of scale so I can do it cheaper than a householder but of course I charge slightly more and that's my profit margin.
The savings you can make by making your own aren't that great, and once you allow for time spent I would say you're better off buying, if you have a reliable source of water you don't even have to think about it

Then again I suppose I would say that wouldn't I! But I do believe it to be true

Yes of course you would say that 

You know full well you are not better off buying. You have extra fuel cost to go fill up for a start and at current fuel prices you could well spend £5/£10 or more driving just to get your water.

Let's take me as an example, nearest spotless water is 15 miles away that's best part of a tenner of fuel plus an hour round trip then god knows what they charge for 500l of pure.

Compare to producing 500l of my own for probably less than a fiver .

The use of the phrase 'better off' matters as well. If you save £10 a month by making your own but you spend an hour making it then you are not better off making your own, I don't work for £10 an hour and I'm sure you don't.
It also depends where your fill up is and what if you have people who work for you?
As I said originally it is cheaper to make your own in cash terms, but you're not better off spending time messing about making water and worrying about it if it's going to reduce the amount of time spent earning.
You could service your own van and save money, but is it a good use of your time?
Actually, this isn't a good use of mine 

But it doesn’t take any time at all to make water , just connect one hose to the van plug in the mains power turn on tap and booster pump and it does  it all it’s self, and switches off when the tanks are full , I fill 3 vans a day and it takes 5 muinits .

And if you run out of water half way through the day? What happens then? 
Genuine question, not being funny.
Are you saying you can process the water to fill your van in 5 minutes or can connect up to start the process in five minutes?

We don’t run out vans have 1,000 , 650 and 600 ltr tanks , we also have filtration ( full ro set up) in every van so when doing large commercial we top up as we are going .
We connect up and start producing water in less than 5 muinits , with booster pumps we can produce 1,000 ltr of pure in 2 hours

[Splash & dash]

Ok this is a good estimate for a weekly cost, I use about 550 litres per day.

My actual water itself costs me £3.10 per cubic metre, and I use about 2,750 litres per week and you will put approx 50% to waste, so the water itself will be around:
(£3.10 x 2) x 2.750 = £17.05

That £3.10 includes the sewerage charge (which is calculated based on usage so you can't avoid it), but does not include standing charges as you have to pay them anyway.

Then I change my prefilters once every 2 months, they cost approx £4.60 for a 10" carbon and about £2 for a 5 micron filter.  So, £3.30 per month is about £77p per week.

Resin, well a 25LTR bag of resin lasts me about 7 months and costs about £100 as my 4040 RO gets the water down to about 9ppm.  Thats about £3.30 per week.

Then there's the RO membranes themselves, mine last about 5 years and cost £316.  So that's £1.21 per week.

So your rough weekly estimate:
Water : £17.05
Prefilters : £0.77
Resin : £3.30
RO Membrane : £1.21

TOTAL WEEKLY COST: £22.33

Or 0.8 p per litre.

As for time spent, switching the water on at the end of the day takes about 20 seconds.

Changing the filters takes about 20 mins every other month

Changing the membrane takes about 40 minutes every 5 years.

Changing the resin about 30 mins every 7 months.

So, total time taken equates to about 15 mins per month.

My advice would never ever be reliant on someone else for something as essential as pure water. Plus it will always always be cheaper to produce yourself.

And what’s this “an hour making it” lol! It takes seconds to switch on.

I have a separate  meter and only pay  for the water no sewage charge on the water for the van works out a lot cheaper

So is your waste going to a soak away?

It goes on the garden providing it doesn’t go down the water authorities drains they cannot charge you the sewage part of the bill .

[zesty]

Yeah I’ve heard this can differ with supplier, not sure how Anglian water do it, think some use a sub meter before RO.

[dazmond]

It costs me around £650 a year in resin and water costs(I'm on a meter)DI only....

It's not cost effective to buy an RO for me.my tap tds is 024 and the waste water alone would bump up my water bill a lot.plus no room for an RO anyway.

[H2GoKent]

It costs me around £650 a year in resin and water costs(I'm on a meter)DI only....

It's not cost effective to buy an RO for me.my tap tds is 024 and the waste water alone would bump up my water bill a lot.plus no room for an RO anyway.

Tap water TDS of 24, I'm feeling jealous.

[Smudger]

Yeah I’ve heard this can differ with supplier, not sure how Anglian water do it, think some use a sub meter before RO.

Anglian are ok with it

[zesty]

Yeah I’ve heard this can differ with supplier, not sure how Anglian water do it, think some use a sub meter before RO.

Anglian are ok with it

Just gotta work out if it will end up costing me more by purifying myself.

I have a 750l tank, so it costs me £15 for whole tank from my mate, let’s say I take 700l as it’s never empty.

I reckon I give him £60-75 a month as I am a low water user. I can make a tank last 5 days if I’m careful, no idea how, as everyone else seems to do 500l a day!

Anyway, with the filter changes, resin, RO replacements etc, I’m not convinced it’ll work out much cheaper over a year?

[Splash & dash]

Yeah I’ve heard this can differ with supplier, not sure how Anglian water do it, think some use a sub meter before RO.

Anglian are ok with it

Just gotta work out if it will end up costing me more by purifying myself.

I have a 750l tank, so it costs me £15 for whole tank from my mate, let’s say I take 700l as it’s never empty.

I reckon I give him £60-75 a month as I am a low water user. I can make a tank last 5 days if I’m careful, no idea how, as everyone else seems to do 500l a day!

Anyway, with the filter changes, resin, RO replacements etc, I’m not convinced it’ll work out much cheaper over a year?

With all the money you are making from softwashing  etc I wouldn’t worry about it just buy what you need and put it down as a business  expense 😂😂😂😂

[KS Cleaning]

I want to know what it costs you per month or year if easier.

Include water rate

All your filters/maintenance

New RO etc

Resin

The whole lot, let me know what it costs you. Preferably from those who are in hard water areas.

I’m deciding whether to carry on buying from a mate who a 5 min drive away, or produce my own.

I only pay him £15 for 700l and I’ve not got any of the faff of maintenance or new filters etc.

I’m unconvinced it’ll be better to purify myself, but I may do if it works out considerably cheaper.

If you get a receipt from your mate, that would make a significant saving.

[Frankybadboy]

The other cost to consider is in time spent, if it you fiddle with your RO for an hour that's an hour you're not earning.

I supply pure water to window cleaners and because I make a lot of water there are economies of scale so I can do it cheaper than a householder but of course I charge slightly more and that's my profit margin.
The savings you can make by making your own aren't that great, and once you allow for time spent I would say you're better off buying, if you have a reliable source of water you don't even have to think about it

Then again I suppose I would say that wouldn't I! But I do believe it to be true

Fully Automated system 

10 mins to change resin twice a year

filters changes 3 times a year 10 mins

membrane once every 2 years 30 mins

hardly any cost,than time spent drive to and from and waiting to fill up

[zesty]

Yeah I’ve heard this can differ with supplier, not sure how Anglian water do it, think some use a sub meter before RO.

Anglian are ok with it

Just gotta work out if it will end up costing me more by purifying myself.

I have a 750l tank, so it costs me £15 for whole tank from my mate, let’s say I take 700l as it’s never empty.

I reckon I give him £60-75 a month as I am a low water user. I can make a tank last 5 days if I’m careful, no idea how, as everyone else seems to do 500l a day!

Anyway, with the filter changes, resin, RO replacements etc, I’m not convinced it’ll work out much cheaper over a year?

With all the money you are making from softwashing  etc I wouldn’t worry about it just buy what you need and put it down as a business  expense 😂😂😂😂

Love it, just put softwash prices up as well 

[cgh window cleaning]

The other cost to consider is in time spent, if it you fiddle with your RO for an hour that's an hour you're not earning.

I supply pure water to window cleaners and because I make a lot of water there are economies of scale so I can do it cheaper than a householder but of course I charge slightly more and that's my profit margin.
The savings you can make by making your own aren't that great, and once you allow for time spent I would say you're better off buying, if you have a reliable source of water you don't even have to think about it

You sound Like the guy that set up spotless water.

Long before spotless was about I use to buy water from the guy that set it up.
He would often try and tell me it would be expensive and time consuming to do it for my self.

When I set my own system up I realised not only how much cheaper but so much more convenient it is.

[NWH]

What you on about buy it from these people it only works out about 300-350 a month for 1 man 😂😂😂😂

[zesty]

What you on about buy it from these people it only works out about 300-350 a month for 1 man 😂😂😂😂

Not for me, £15 for 700-750l is cheap. Spotless are an absolute rip. Not my mate, that’s why I’ve got the dilemma…

[NWH]

It works out peanuts compared to these people and as for time turn a tap turn on RO booster 1000ltrs in 3 hours,handy if you’re out and about on a big job if you need to top up or if you live in a flat.

[H2GoKent]

What you on about buy it from these people it only works out about 300-350 a month for 1 man 😂😂😂😂

Not for me, £15 for 700-750l is cheap. Spotless are an absolute rip. Not my mate, that’s why I’ve got the dilemma…

I'm about half the price of Spotless. 
And you can't buy time, so having a supplier can be useful as a back up
 sorry had to try and have the last word 

[Frankybadboy]

What you on about buy it from these people it only works out about 300-350 a month for 1 man 😂😂😂😂

Not for me, £15 for 700-750l is cheap. Spotless are an absolute rip. Not my mate, that’s why I’ve got the dilemma…

 sorry had to try and have the last word 

really 

[NBwcs]

This thread has been a real eye opener for me, i didn't realise how good ive got it. I have a 1000l ibc in the garage and transfer to a 500l tank in van each night.

Bought a ro compact (or equivalent) from Pure freedom 18 yrs ago.(todays price £192 divided by 18 = £10.66 pa) I change the filters every 4 months (annual cost £54), the present membranes are bringing the tds down from 400 to just 3. Ive had them for 3 yrs (£56.13 x2 divided by 3 = £37,42 pa). Because the membranes are doing their job so well, i only use 1 bag of resin a year (£118,32 pa). I use a booster pump, which say lasts 3 yrs (£123.98 divided by 3 = £41.33 pa). So thats £261.73 per annum ie a fiver a week (prices include vat) without water charges if that helps Zesty. As for time, i bet i spend alot less time on the ro than i would travelling to collect water.