Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Systems offer truly amazing technology to give your family super pure drinking water, but they make water very slowly which is why the tank becomes so important -- it helps get purified drinking water to your family much more quickly.
TIP: Before proceeding with your RO tank replacement, make sure that you understand how a Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water system works first by checking out my YouTube video here.
WHEN SHOULD YOU REPLACE YOUR RO TANK?
You would want to replace your RO tank if it’s no longer filling up or pushing out the water you need for your family, or if you run out of capacity too early.
PRO TIP: If you find that you get very little water from your Reverse Osmosis tank, before the flow slows to a trickle you might be able to recharge it by following the advice in another video of mine here.
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that new RO tanks do not come with the shut off pre-installed because we don’t know what size tubing you have going to the tank.
At Water eStore, we have lots of
tank sizes available here and the two most common
shut off valves can be found
here. If you’re not sure which one you need, just measure the width or diameter of your tubing with a ruler.
Once you have everything ready, you can get started on removing your old RO tank and replacing it with a new one.
HOW TO: Remove your old RO tank.
- Shut off the flow to the tank.
- Shut off the flow of water going to your Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water system.
- Open the faucet to release the pressure.
- Place some towels under the tank as there will be a little water spilled.
-
Disconnect the tank from the tubing by following the procedure outlined in
this video.
HOW TO: Install your new RO tank.
- Wrap Teflon tape around the threads, about 3 turns.
- Screw on the tank shut off valve.
- Push the tubing into the tank shut off valve and pull back to make sure that it is tight.
-
Turn on the water to the Reverse Osmosis drinking water system and monitor it over the next couple of hours to make sure there are no leaks as the tank fills with water and pressure increases.
PRO TIP: You can even add a second tank to your existing tank to increase flow and capacity by adding a Tee to connect them together. Just make sure you get the right size Tee for your size of tubing!
There you have it. Gary The Water Guy's simple step-by-step guide to installing a new Reverse Osmosis drinking water system tank.
FUN FACT: Most of our Reverse Osmosis (RO) drinking water systems and their replacement filters and membranes are
Made in USA and we offer FREE shipping coast to coast in Canada. Whether you are looking for a small inline water filter for your Reverse Osmosis drinking water system or a full set of filters, we have what you need, all at discount prices.
We also offer replacement filters for many popular brands. Be sure to check out our combo and multipack filters which will save you even more by purchasing a complete set of replacement filters for your Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System.
For my next video on Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Systems click here and I’ll see you there!
Video Transcription
Gary The Water Guy:
Are you finding that very little water is coming out of your reverse osmosis faucet? Maybe you're finding that your reverse osmosis tank is full, but hardly any water's coming out. Or maybe it's just not filling up at all. Maybe your reverse osmosis tank is just too small for your family. How long do those tanks last anyway? Well in this video I'm going to show you how to replace your reverse osmosis tank, starting right now.
Gary The Water Guy:
Hi, I'm Gary The Water Guy. And I simplify water filtration to help you conquer crappy water for your family. This video's for the home do it yourselfer, plumber, water treatment professional, really anyone that wants to replace their defective reverse osmosis tank, add a second tank, or maybe upgrade to a large tank like this 14 gallon one back here to give more capacity for your family.
Gary The Water Guy:
Reverse osmosis systems offer truly amazing technology that makes super pure drinking water for your family. The problem is, it makes water relatively slowly. And that's why you need a storage tank to store the water, but also re-pressurize it so it can flow out quickly to your faucet.
Gary The Water Guy:
If you're not sure how reverse osmosis drinking water systems work, check the link to my video in the description down below. If you find that when you open the faucet the water comes out fairly quickly at first, but then slows right down to a trickle, you may be able to recharge that tank. And I've got this great YouTube video that I'll put a link to in the description down below that shows you how.
Gary The Water Guy:
I'll put some links to the items that you need in the description down below. But the first thing you're going to need to decide is what size tubing is going from your tank, to the last filter, to your faucet. And there's basically two different kinds of tubing that's used in the 99% of all reverse osmosis systems. There's the larger size, which is this one here, which is three-eighths. And then there's the smaller size which is over here, which is a quarter of an inch.
Gary The Water Guy:
So it's pretty easy to determine which one you have, just take a ruler and measure it. Because you're just measuring the outside diameter. So the next thing you're going to need to decide is, what size tank do you want?
Gary The Water Guy:
Do you want to replace it with the same size tank as what you had before? Maybe a four gallon tank. Or maybe now's the time to upgrade to the larger, like I say, 14 gallon tank. There's nine gallon tanks. Again, I'll put the links in the description down below. So once you've decided on the tank and the tubing, you need to order a shutoff too.
Gary The Water Guy:
So there's a couple of different sizes of shutoffs. Again, it depends on what size tubing you have. So you can see the holes in these two shutoffs are different size, because one's for quarter-inch and one's for three-eighths of an inch. The fittings themselves look the same, and where it screws onto the tank is the same. But keep in mind that the tanks don't come with the fittings, you have to order the shutoff and the tank separately, and then screw it on to the tank. So as long as the tank has a quarter inch nipple on for attaching the shutoff, any fitting will fit.
Gary The Water Guy:
So to remove the old tank, you're going to need to shut off the flow to the reverse osmosis system. So you probably have a shutoff that looks something like this. Typically has a ball valve on the end like this. And again, you just flip the valve 90 degrees to shut off the flow going to the reverse osmosis system. And then what you're going to do is, you're going to shut off the tank.
Gary The Water Guy:
So again, there's a ball valve at the top of the tank, and you turn it 90 degrees, and that shuts off the flow. Now in rare situations, I've seen where there's no shut-off on the top of the tank. And if you have no off on the top of the tank, then obviously you can't shut it off. So then you just have to proceed to the next step, which is shutting off the water coming from the faucet here. I'll put it a little bit closer so you can see it a little bit better.
Gary The Water Guy:
So you just open up the faucet and let the water run. And it'll slow right down to a trickle, and it'll slow right down to nothing. And then you're ready to proceed. So then you're going to need to disconnect the tubing from the tank. And to do that take the tubing and push it in. And there's a little collar right here, right beside where it enters into the fitting.
Gary The Water Guy:
So you're going to push that in with your fingernails. While you're pushing in, you're going to pull out on the tubing, and that's going to yank it out from the tank. Now, if you're not sure how that works, I do have a video that shows you how to work with quick connect fittings. And again, I'll put a link in the description down below so you can check it out there.
Gary The Water Guy:
Now at this point you can decide whether you want to reuse the same shutoff or you want to put a new one on. Might be a good idea to put a new one on. And all you do is unscrew this one from your tank if you want to reuse it. Then to put the new fitting on your new tank, you're going to use some Teflon tape. And here it is here, get it started.
Gary The Water Guy:
All right, you're going to put it on the top of your tank, and you're going to give it three turns, like that. Once you've given it three turns, then you grab your new or your replacement shut off, whichever you've decided to use, and thread that on.
Gary The Water Guy:
Now, you can over-tighten this. It's pretty tough to do, but you can't over-tighten it. But just tighten it as tight as you can get it, get it as tight as you can get it. And then you're going to, obviously, you're going to check for leaks once you put it on. But that's about as tight as you can get it. And then you're ready to attach to the tubing. So again, you grab your tubing and you attach it here.
Gary The Water Guy:
Now, if you're adding a second tank, what you would want to do is, you'd want to put a T in the line going to this tank. So again, you have to make sure you get the right size T. So this is a three-eighth inch T, which works with, obviously, three-eighth inch tubing. So again, what you would do is, you would need to cut the tubing going to your tank. And I'll ... See, here, I've got these cutters. You can use cutters like this, they work really great.
Gary The Water Guy:
Or if you don't have something like that, then you can just use a sharp knife like an X-Acto Knife, something like that and open this up. And if you're going to use that, I always suggest to use a piece of wood underneath it. You need to make a nice square cut. Needs to be a nice square end when you cut it.
Gary The Water Guy:
All right. So then what you can do is, like I say, you can cut the tubing like so. And then you can run a piece into, woops, over here. And then what you can do is, you can run the tubing into the tank. So again, when you're using this tubing you'll feel some resistance, but then you keep going to push it all the way home. And then you add your T, and then you would just add a short piece of tubing to go to your second tank.
Gary The Water Guy:
And then you can put a second tank here. You can actually put a second tank anywhere along. You can put it closer to the reverse osmosis system, you can put a right beside this one. It really doesn't matter. And then from here you would connect it back up to the tubing that comes from your RO system.
Gary The Water Guy:
Then to put it back into service, you're going to want to make sure your faucet is closed. And then you're going to open this valve here. If you've got a second tank, obviously open that one too. You're going to open up the supply from the reverse osmosis system. And remember, it's going to take a while to fill. Once it fills you're going to have full pressure. While it's filling, be sure you check up here to make sure that there's no leaks, or any leaks at your connections.
Gary The Water Guy:
For my next video on reverse osmosis click over here and I'll see you there.
