Commercial reverse osmosis water treatment is quite complex because very large amounts of water are processed daily. There are many stringent requirements for the input water quality for commercial ROs compared to residential RO systems. Commercial RO systems (at over 400 GPD flow rates) would always require pre-treatment of the incoming water to assure a flawless operation and membrane/system longevity. The appropriate pre-treatment depends on local water quality. The most commonly used pre-treatments are water softeners and back-washing carbon filters for treating hard and chlorinated water. Other specialty filters can be used when specific contaminants are present. For example, if you have above 0.5 ppm of iron in your water, you would need an iron-removal filter in front of the commercial RO system. When sizing a system, particularly if system output is critical for you, you need to understand that the actual flow rate GPD (Gallons Per Day) of any reverse osmosis system depends on the water pressure, input water temperature and your water conditions (whether appropriate pre-treatment is applied). While the industry standard temperature is set at 77 °F, we know that not everyone has 77 °F input water. Below is a water temperature compensation chart for you to calculate the nominal GPD of your RO system at different temperatures.
INSTRUCTIONS: find your water temperature and its factor, divide the RO system GPD by that factor, and you will get the temperature-corrected output.