Doesn't matter....you should have seen a drop in tds.

With proper installation your whole house filter system should be adequate for what your trying to do.

Do yourself a favor and take a pressure reading. As I stated, these filters need pressure to work properly.

I use a SpectraPure RODI system. I ran RO only for years until upgrading this year to DI and 180 gallons per day. I dumped the cheesey 4 gallon tank and went with a 25 (RO only) that pushes water to the upstairs sink and refrigerator. DI is stored in a 65 gallon tank. I run DI or RO in my humidifier depending on where I am standing when I want to refill the jug. No difference between the two in terms of dehumidifier performance, which is excellent. I do all my mixes with DI water but its not neccessary, RO will work fine.

The SpectraPure systems are nice. I have had 3 now. The original RO here, a unit I took to Beijing, and now this sweet upgraded system. My water pressure was not adequate for the new one so I added a boost pump, but for the 65 gallon per day RO unit it replaced a boost was not neccessary.

The flavor of the RO water is so superior to tap I cannot stand to drink water from the tap. As a side note the humidity in Beijing is so low in winter it will crack your skin. We run 2 massive humidifiers in a two bedroom apartment and pay a service to come in and clean them twice a year. When the housekeeper fills them with RO like she is supposed to, there is zero need to clean and no white dust. It took a while to show her how if she would use the right water she didn't have to dust the house as much..

Dunno where you are located, but if you have good air quality when it rains why dont you just use rain water from a bucket/tank and bring it inside. Fresh rain water is as good as distilled and its $free.99. The rainiwater wont kill you your plants or your humidifier and is just as good as distilled and in some cases RO

You can obviously go and spend more of your hard earned money on filtration kits and other shit thats more than likely made in China if it makes you feel good.... but you dont have to. As long as you dont live in a city or in China, or next to a volcano eruption you could more than likely have good distilled rainwater in your backyard bucket right now. If you want to see how good your rainwater is you may also have local water testing centers that do free testings on tap and rainwater for you. I have such a free testing center by me (limited to one test a year), and my rain water is 10-40 at any given point fresh and my tap is hard (100-150) with no chlorine/chloramine or softener usage.

Mother nature can save you time and money if you learn to rub her right and respect her.

Tips on how to rub her right and get safe distilled rain water "foh free":
1. When not in use, keep your rain water bucket(s) dry, clean and with the lid on.
2. a.Check your weather forcast for rain and leave your buckets out for it anywhere from a day to an hour before the rain hits
b.when it rains check you air pollution index (on most cellphone weather widgets), low air pollution means good water.
3. After rain, examine your water, dont use old stagnant rain water that is off colored or cloudy or full of unknown bug larva, you want as fresh and as clear as possible. If the water is dirty, toss it and clean the bucket with vinegar. If it has recognizable mosquitos larva or basic green algae, its fine for your plants if used, but not for say...your humidifier or hydro.
4. Only leave your rainwater bucket out when you are due for rain, otherwise leave it in a dark area with the lid affixed
5. Clean your rainwater bucket every couple of refills and whenever contamination or cloudy/algae water takes place
6. If you plan on storing buckets of rainwater, store them in a dark place to prevent algae and keep the lids on to prevent evaporation. The lid also prevents bugs and air pollution from contaminating the water. Note that non-aquatic plants dont mind algae and mosquito larva, but your humidifier or your hydro setup might not thank you.

While any RODI will do, I can second for SpectraPure. I have used their RODI in my planted aquariums without issue for 2 years now. Someone else mentioned another good one as well that I have saved for future consideration incase my SpectraPure breaks or starts malfunctioning.. but that hasnt happened yet.

Note, till now I have only used actual RODI water for my aquariums, but since I already have mine setup for the fee-ish tanks, I will consider using RODI for my humidifier after the issue you just described with the carbon filter, just to be safe.
However, also note that I see no need or benefit in using RODI for watering my non-aquatic plants. When it comes to my horticulture plants, if I have rainwater on hand, I utilize a 25-50% tap mix just to beef up the tds/ppm a bit for the plants needs,. If I dont have enough rainwater on hand, then I use my hard tapwater as is and call it a day.

@PiffinOut 150 ppm (.3 ec) tap water is likely perfect for gardening. Its the recommended ppm for buffering the medium.

i use my 150 ppm 8.0 ph well water with no ph adjustment and plants do great.

A whole house filter system is just a sediment filter and a carbon filter. It does not remove TDS. Only a RO or a distiller will remove TDS.
If the RO has slowed down, you need to replace the pre filter and quite possibly the membrane. A TDS meter comparing supply water to the RO output will determine when the membrane needs changing. Depending on the source water, one membrane could last one year or I’ve seen them last 5 years.

MIMedGrower said:

@PiffinOut 150 ppm (.3 ec) tap water is likely perfect for gardening. Its the recommended ppm for buffering the medium.

i use my 150 ppm 8.0 ph well water with no ph adjustment and plants do great.

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Awesome. Good to know Ive got some good sauce. Always knew there would be perks to living at the top of a hill with well water.

Dub_City405 said:

RO allday everyday hook it up at your house. And get easy RO water from the sink.

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I get my RO Water from Walmart.