RO/DI decision time

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11924902#post11924902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by '06Siguy
I have an update and a question.

UPDATE:
I have been making water for about three hours now and the meter shows the membrane input at 292ppm and the membrane out at 3ppm. If I'm doing the math right, that's 98.9 rejection. I would recommend the 150 GPD membrane.

QUESTION:
Can I assume that if I have a 0 TDS that there is no chlorine in the water? I don't have a chlorine tester. I'm using the default 10,5,1 filters.
Click to expand...

That is great news on the 150GPD membrane. I will try on if my 75GPD one ever fails me. It's more the variability between 150GPD membranes that concerns me. I wish they were all as good as the one you got.

Chlorine probably won't contribute much to a TDS reading so don't use a TDS meter to test for it. I assume the o TDS water you are measuring is RO/DI (otherwise you wouldn't really have needed an RO/DI unit if you tap was zero TDS right). Since it's RO/DI the carbon blocks in the unit would have removed the chlorine for you. Since you are getting zero TDS final and 98% rejection, we can assume that your unit is working properly and that no chlorine is getting through. If chlorine were getting through, your membrane would die quickly and you would see your rejection rate quickly going down.

FB
 
things are not looking good around my RO, I have not even made 100 gallons with it, my current readings are ~ 100ppm, but have been spiking over 200, my source watter is holding steady at around 650... I am afraid to make DI watter and wipe out my resin
 
Yes I agree you should hold off on making resin for now. Something definitely seems wrong with your membrane. You are still getting around 65 psi right? With decent pressure and good prefilters like you have, there is no reason why you should be getting such a low rejection rate. Have you tried anything or talk to Russ at buckeye since your last update?
 
yea, but with 29 ppm he said that was in range, it is down to 70, but my handheld is on the fritz, I left it on for a few days..woops
 
currently th water temp is 68 degrees, pressure is 70 pounds and TDS is reading out of the RO ~100, parts of my resin is starting to turn red
 
Wow, what a great thread. It made me realize the errors of my "previous" ways with my existing RO/DI...lol I do have a couple of questions but for fear of hijacking five.five-six's thread here I'll post in a new thread. Thanks again for the informative read.
 
Man five.five-six, I don't know what to tell you. Something is just drastically wrong with your membrane. You mentioned that your tds meter is on the fritz, can you try new batteries for it? Maybe leaving it turned on just drained them. Your rejection rate is so low, that it seems possible your membrane might not be seated properly in it's housing. Try reseating it if possible and inspect it just to make sure nothing looks odd about it. I feel like we are missing something big here because it's very odd for these things to get that low of a rejection rate and it seems to be getting worse. This may sound dumb but what the heck. Can you follow the line on unit and make sure Buckeye and yourself assembled and installed it properly? Have you opened it up yet to make sure they remembered to install prefilters in the housings (don't know if you have clear housings). Sometimes people can make mistakes. The worse thing you can do is replace the membrane and ruin a second one because of some problem with the system.
 
Hey thanks five.five-six. Appreciate the "jack away" offer but I already posted a new thread. Probably best since you and fishbulb2 are right in the middle of "troubleshooting" here..lol

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon. I'll be reading your updates. Good luck!!
 
THE setup is fairly basic,
the line on the left comes from the prefilters,
the one right next to it (between the two) goes to the flush kit/ restrictor/drain
the connector on the other end goes to the valvy thing and out to the di unit and my fausset


oh fuzzle, looks like I may have the membrane running backwards crap!
 
no, i was mistaken, the supply goes in the screw on end of the RO housing, the output is on the far end, and the waste is down near the output

the only thing surprising is how much force is required to get the membrane out of the housing
 
Yes it is in there pretty tight. Use needle nose pliers if you need to. So I assume you were kidding about the backwards wiring of the membrane. I also assume you are pulling out the membrane to try to reseat it and inspect it. Tell us if it helps at all. Ideally, if you lived closer I would just let you try a spare membrane of mine or try yours on my housing, or you could even borrow my tds meter to try to trouble shoot. These things are pretty straight forward but I know it's frustrating when you don't just have a lot spare parts to swap in and out.
 
well I changed out the home depot carbon block and put in the one I got (late) from BFS, then I re taped the brine seal, I am getting 17ppm out now under full flow and 36 when it is topping off my drinking reservoir my source water is 556 - 650
 
Better but still not great. So did you only have one home depot carbon block in their before or did you at least have their loose activated carbon in?
 
I had the sediment, then chloramine buster, then HD carbon. one thing I noticed while flushing the new carbon is that it lowered TDS to 450 from 600. odd
 
Wow great thread, I think it does deserve to be a sticky. I am sure you will find your problem 5,5,6, FB is very knowledgable on RO/DI units. He helped me with my q's.
 
something odd i is going on in Anaheim right now, my first pressure gauge reads 115 pounds, it has a tattle tale that says it reached 130 pounds, the 2nd gauge is pegged well passed it's 100 pound max and making some weird rattling sound
 
Sounds like your utility has a defective pressure reducing valve. Most utilities try to limit pressures to about 80 psi to protect pipes and plumbing fixtures. In fact some municialities have building codes that require developers to install pressure regulators on the incoming line to each home where pressures exceed 80 psi. How old is your home and have you checked to see if you have a pressure regulator on the incoming water line? It is very common for them to fail or require adjustment.
 
I would let the utility know and have a technician come out and confrim the pressures. If they have no ordinance or code you might want to install a pressure regulator, available at any hardware store, and set it at 60 to 80 psi to protect your plumbing fixtures.
 
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