Water Deionizers

[Casey_99]

Anyone used water deionizers versus R/O units?
For various plumbing reasons I've not got an R/O unit. However for the last 9 months I've successfully used a water deionization column from Evolution Aqua, making the pure water up for Discus with Kent R/O right etc. I've been really happy with the results and the big advantage is just making up to 100l of water per week with drain needed for waste etc.
Unfortunately my column is exhausted and guess what, Evol.Aqua have stopped selling them.
I noticed Aqua Gleam, a car washer website, seems to have identical looking columns for sale to avoid water spots when washing cars? Will they be the same? Any ideas?

Any views on the API deionization column? A few reviews indicate it exhausts very quickly.

My water is quite soft but with about 25-35ppm NO3 and up to 5ppm PO4.

can you just buy the deionization pods for R/O units and run tap water directly through them with no waste?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[OldMan47]

Well Casey, now you know why people usually don't just use a DI column. They work great to polish the water coming from an RO but they quickly become exhausted when you run straight tap water through them. The cost of replacing them frequently is the reason that RO is much more common. The DI does a slightly better job but at a much higher cost.