Do you need air gap for reverse osmosis?
Just like your dishwasher, water filtration systems like reverse osmosis and water softening can back-siphon wastewater into their units. Plumbing codes require water softening systems to air gap their drain lines and it’s strongly recommended you include an air gap in any under-sink reverse osmosis system.
What does an air gap faucet do for reverse osmosis?
Air gap faucets were designed to prevent backflow into your reverse osmosis unit by incorporating a “backflow prevention” method called an “air gap”. In the event of clogging, a small amount of air, rather than dirty water, would go back into the RO system, thus protecting the system. Both types of faucets have their advantages and disadvantages.
What to consider when choosing a reverse osmosis faucet?
Other than style and finish, there is only one other major factor to consider when choosing a faucet for your reverse osmosis system: air gap or non-air gap. In order to decide which type of faucet is right for you, we should first understand what an air gap is, and what it is designed to prevent).
Do you need an air gap in a sink faucet?
If you have a reverse osmosis unit, you may or may not want an air gap faucet. Air gap faucets have their advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of the air gap is to assure that no water from a stopped-up sink drain can possibly be forced or siphoned backward into your reverse osmosis unit via its drain connection.
Where does the water go in a ro faucet?
The term air-gap refers to the “gap” in the drain line of an RO system to prevent back-flow from your household sewage line into your RO system. The drain water flows out of your reverse osmosis system into one tube of the air-gap, passes over the gap, and then down the other tube into the sink drain piping.
How does air gap faucets work?
With an air gap faucet, the drain line water from the RO membrane is routed up to the bottom of the faucet where it drops into a non-pressurized trough and then flows by gravity down to the sink drain. Whereas a non-air gap faucet sends the drain line water from the RO membrane directly into the sink drain.
What is a non air gap faucet?
A non-air gap faucet only has the drinking water line connected to it . Again, this air-gap faucet design came about so that in the event of a sink drain being clogged and backed up, the air gap installed in the RO discharge line would pull a small amount of air rather than the dirty water back into the RO unit.
What is the air gap on a faucet?
An air gap is the unobstructed space between a wall outlet and an open vessel or flood level of a fixture. An example of an air gap is the space between a faucet and the sink rim. This gap prevents the reverse flow of contaminated water from the sink back into the faucet without some modification of the system.
