RO-DI noise problem

[Ricimer]

Hi!
I have a noise issue with my RO-DI. It's not the first time I notice it producing noise but it recently got problematic. It's causing a strong vibration noise from pressure I guess. When it starts producing the noise it wont stop until I open the faucet. The vibration noise stops if I open any faucet in the appartment and let the water flow for a couple seconds. After a little while the noise starts again.
Anybody familiar with this kind of problem? How to solve it?
Thanks!

 

[Ricimer]

Anybody can help?

 

[birch03]

I had a similar problem and found that where was air inside of the ro unit that had a hard time escaping. What type of RO unit do you have? What is your current PSI going into the RO unit?

 

[sivert55]

mine used to do that when i had a pressure gauge attached. I took it off and installed an auto membrane flush kit form filterguys and no more noise!

 

[Ricimer]

There is no pressure gauge per attached to it. I am going to test it later. I am going to sound stupid, but what do you mean by «what type of RO-DI»? It's a 5 stage and I removed the cartridge long time ago in the second stage. So there is one sediment filter, one carbon and then the membrane and the DI resin. I do have an auto membrane flush kit.
So I guess I should tear the RO-DI apart and put it back together?

 

[kumb knots]

I am tagging along i to am having the same issue and my seems to rattle the wall when its in the auto top off mode?It maybe in the float switch?

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Do you have a auto shut off valve? I'm guessing that is the source of the noise.

 

[Ricimer]

I do have an auto shut off valve. Should I remove it? Isn't it damageable to the membrane if I do so (back pressure on the membrane...)?

 

[Ricimer]

BTW I checked the PSI and it is 45 (or 3kg/cm2).

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

asov really doesn't do anything to protect the membrane. Can you tell if that's where the noise is coming from?

 

[Ricimer]

I dont think it is. The whole unit and tubings are shaking. Difficult to say for sure. Yesterday I flushed the membrane and left a lot of water running through the unit as well. Since then it seems much better.

 

[Ricimer]

I always tought the asov was helping to make the membrane last longer by cutting off the pressure (the 45 PSI from the main) when the unit is not producing water (i.e. pressure from the main but no flow out of the unit = great pressure on the membrane). That pressure is a bad thing on the long run, right?
BuckeyeFS, could you please give me more explanations on this?

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

The asov's job is to sense when the flow of purified water has been stopped, and automatically stop the flow of waste water.

If you manually stopped the flow of purified water and waste water, the pressure on both sides of the membrane would equalize.

Russ

 

[Ricimer]

Ok thanks. Now what if the noise came from the asov. I can't just remove it otherwise I either have to manually stop/start the flows on a regular basis... or constantly waste a lot of water in the drain. I guess that wouldn't be a problem if my solenoid would be placed before the RO-DI unit instead of after. But that's not good for me since I have two outputs after my unit: one goes to a reservoir for drinking water. If I place the solenoid before the unit, the drinking water reservoir will often be empty because the input will be stopped when the input to the aquarium is stopped...

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Let's figure out if that is where the noise is coming from, and then we can look at options to get it fixed.

Russ

 

[kumb knots]

Just chiming in the ro-di water is so pure that it dose not have any vital minerals for human consumption?Russ is this true

 

[Ricimer]

Most if not all animals are unable to get their minerals directly from water unlike plants and must ingest organic minerals already «processed» by plants (or algae) to assimilate them. To be more precise we are able to get a very little % of the minerals in water and our minerals come at 95%+ from food. Consequently it doesn't change anything to drink RO-DI water. In fact you dont really get less of what you need but what you dont want to have in it is removed so it is a good thing. It makes sense to drink it out of the RO without going through the final DI stage.

 

[Ricimer]

And finally it's still making noise...
Tonight I'll remove the asov and will report tomorrow to tell you if it's still making noise without it.

 

[Ricimer]

Ok, I confirm that the asov was the cause of the noise. I removed it and no more noise. I replaced it and there was noise again. Removed again and no noise. So it's the cause for sure.
Russ, that hint was really a piece of gold. Now, does it simply mean that the asov is defective and that I only need to buy a new one? BTW, I guess that right now water is wasted in the drain because the asov is removed... but the funny thing is that I can't hear it at all (water running down the drain...).

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Without the ASOV -yes - water is going to the drain - you'll want to shut off supply water to the system or you'll will waste lots of water.

What you hear is likely the ASOV shutting off and coming back on repeatedly. Either the ASOV has gone bad, or the valve at the end of your DI tube is leaking a bit, or the check valve is leaking a bit.

Russ