RODI help. Well water problems?

reefer1970

New member
I have a 5 stage rodi that in my last house did 75 gpd with city water. I'm in a new house with well water which I expected would be slower but the waste water ratio is way off. I made 40 gallons at first with little issue except for being a little slow ( all new filters and resin).Output went to almost nothing after 40 gallons so I assumed the now red colored sediment filter was clogging things. Changed that and it improved but now I'm getting 16 gallons of waste for every gallon of purified. 1 gallon purified per hour 7 tds in/ 0 out.
Could the DI be clogged? That chamber seems to take time to fill with wAter. Or could the membrane be clogged? Would backflowing the membrane correct that if so or only prevent a clog? Thanx, sorry for the multiple times questions


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Not sure of the psi, I'm sure it's not great but more concerned with the 16-1 waste water ratio


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low psi leads to high waste water ratio

I'd guess you're really low.. check it out.. I got the pump from BRS and it works great
 
My water comes from a cistern,that gets filled with rain water(the TDS is 200).After RODI filtering the TDS is 0.However it makes sense if I'm starting with dirty water the sediment filter will need frequent changing.So that is the first thing You tried,hoping you would see results right away,however now you are flushing all your water down the drain,practically(16:1).My guess is there is another filter clogged in the chain,however since the r/0 filter is the most expensive one,I would change everything else,and see if it makes things proper again. Years ago the RODI system I used to use ,at my last house,would sometimes clog after just two weeks(sediment/carbon) filters.I didn't have this problem often,maybe,3 times in 9 years.The store always took those back and replaced them.After the free replacements worked fine.I usually hope to get 3 months out of a sediment/ carbon filter.
 
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Get a pressure gauge for your RODI unit. Like Hoopster said, low pressure causes output problems. I had to buy a booster pump where I lived before because I only had about 25 PSI and I was only getting like 5 gallons a day. You need your pressure up around 50-60 PSI.
 
I have a 5 stage rodi that in my last house did 75 gpd with city water. I'm in a new house with well water which I expected would be slower but the waste water ratio is way off. I made 40 gallons at first with little issue except for being a little slow ( all new filters and resin).Output went to almost nothing after 40 gallons so I assumed the now red colored sediment filter was clogging things. Changed that and it improved but now I'm getting 16 gallons of waste for every gallon of purified. 1 gallon purified per hour 7 tds in/ 0 out.
Could the DI be clogged? That chamber seems to take time to fill with wAter. Or could the membrane be clogged? Would backflowing the membrane correct that if so or only prevent a clog? Thanx, sorry for the multiple times questions


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I just realized the same problem and tracked it down to temperature. Because you are in Michigan you might have the same problem as I did because I live in Minnesota. The problem could be temperature. MY RO System is in the basement and once it got cold, my output dropped to NOTHING. Turns out the RO membrane doesn't like cold water. Once I heated it up in a bucket of warm water, it went back to normal. I am in the process of using an old tube heater to preheat the water to 77ish before it hits the RO/DI unit.
 
You will burn through DI resin with well water because of the high CO2. The amount of wast water is before the DI so any problem with that is independent of the DI canister.

I use a booster pump on my RO/DI system pump the water after the RO membrane into a 52 gallon brute and run an airstone for 24+hours before pumping the water through the DI membrane into another Brute.

Before doing the "degass" with the airstone, I was going through a canister of DI about every 100 gallons (I make about 50/week). I set up the degasser last February and have not yet had to change the DI resin.

I use a dual inline TDS meter to track the TDS after Ro and after DI (that must be zero!). TDS after RO is 2.
 
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