[tangmang23]

well I'm getting ready to change the membrane in my RO system. I'm a bit disappointed, from the date of purchase which was late feb of 2009 until about a week ago, my TFC membrane needs to be replaced already. is this normal?? as far as GPH goes I've done less then the change after so many gph amount on the membrane suggests. Anyways, I'm looking for membranes that are of very high quality, for pure water reasons and low TDS, and are also compatible with my coralife 3 stage system. I remember talking about spectrapure membranes, would those work in this RO unit.

 

[hansmatt]

I believe the spectrapure will fit most of the units, but can't tell you for sure...that is based on the length. their site & customer service are great, give them a call. Premium aquatics/marine depot both sell their membranes, maybe F&S too. The longevity of membranes also depends upon the prefilters you use before the RO...I think I have a .5micron, along with a carbon block, then the RO, then two stages of DI...I have not changed my RO membrane or DI in 2 years (but did the prefilter & carbon), and still have TDS of less than 1...the incoming TDS is around 300ish I think.

 

[OLDETOWNENORTHPETS]

Wow, Jason tested my RO here and it is has a tds of 5-7. I have not changed the RO membranes in over 3 years. Like Matt I do change the prefilters and do mine every 6 months.

 

[reefcrazy8587]

wow.....do not drink unfiltered water in Onalaska LOL. The highest I have gotten here has been 7.

 

[Afish4u]

well I'm getting ready to change the membrane in my RO system. I'm a bit disappointed, from the date of purchase which was late feb of 2009 until about a week ago, my TFC membrane needs to be replaced already. is this normal?? as far as GPH goes I've done less then the change after so many gph amount on the membrane suggests. Anyways, I'm looking for membranes that are of very high quality, for pure water reasons and low TDS, and are also compatible with my coralife 3 stage system. I remember talking about spectrapure membranes, would those work in this RO unit.

how do you know that it needs to be replaced already. When you installed the membrane did you have it pushed in hard all the way? I know of a person that had problems with their coralife also but they didn't have the membrane in all the way. It took alot of pushing. Something really sounds odd. I have a coralife 50 gpd membrane new and sealed here I could sell to you cheap. I would first check out the tds meter and verify that its working properly (the meter that is) does the this one have the DI on it? what is its reading before and after that also. The other thing is if the membrane is bad can this be a warrenty thing? Its worth a shot.

 

[hansmatt]

wow.....do not drink unfiltered water in Onalaska LOL. The highest I have gotten here has been 7.

It's pretty unlikely that straight well/city water would give a TDS of 7, you can really only get that low with DI resin from what I understand. I'd double check your TDS meter calibration. Joe has done some recent looking into RO systems...I'd say he is a good resource to ask.

I know of some people who have gotten away with using well water, and for some people it does work fine. That being said, water is a pretty important part of our systems, and if there are issues, that is often the cause.

 

[condiman]

Ya I agree check to make sure its pushed in all the way and make sure your tubing is put on correctly. I have gotten a few units where the tubing has been put on wrong.

 

[reefcrazy8587]

AAAAHHHAAA. Thanks for getting me to look at that again matt. They had the incoming TDS meter in between the pre filters. so I took it out and put it in so it reads the water right out of the faucet, before it gets to any of the filters and sure enough I get a reading of about 147. And 0 going out.

 

[hansmatt]

AAAAHHHAAA. Thanks for getting me to look at that again matt. They had the incoming TDS meter in between the pre filters. so I took it out and put it in so it reads the water right out of the faucet, before it gets to any of the filters and sure enough I get a reading of about 147. And 0 going out.

aaahaaa! Good...glad you could get a "fix"...That is a nice, relatively low number...well water? I know some people get lucky with pretty good water, and their filters last much longer, as there is less to clean out. I think NYC area has numbers in the 700ish range...or something huge. yuck

 

[reefcrazy8587]

wow-(that was nathan up there btw...) this is tamika-- I am not sure what **** Valley Water is-never asked. I think it if funny that the company put it on wrong-since they asked me if I wanted them to install it...

 

[pogodzib]

With the water that is typical in this area, your RO membrane should last 2-3 years without any problems, unless you have your RO water fed through the hot water supply, which would ruin the membrane. Are you sure that your RO membrane needs to be replaced and not just your other filters or DI? What is the tap water TDS and water is the TDS directly after the RO membrane?

 

[ZMattie]

AAAAHHHAAA. Thanks for getting me to look at that again matt. They had the incoming TDS meter in between the pre filters. so I took it out and put it in so it reads the water right out of the faucet, before it gets to any of the filters and sure enough I get a reading of about 147. And 0 going out.

lol Tell me how.... Mine is reading the same yours was! IM NOT GOOD with anything like that, so call me and walk me though it?? lol

 

[tangmang23]

well i dont know for sure that it needs to be changed, but its making far more water then it used two when it was broken in new lol. about 15gpd more then the membrane is good for. its a 25gpd system and i came close to filling a 44gallon brute can, empty, in less then 20 hours lol. started it at 11pm and had to shut if of at around 7pm the next night.

i removed the tubing, checked to make sure its all connected correctly and it is. The membrane wont go in any further or im going to push it through the plastic casing lol. Long story short, higher quality membranes are of much better water producing quality anyways right?? i think for that reason alone id like a new membrane after all the issues ive had in the past. I would like to test the water sometime for sure just to KNOW what my water is lol. Guessing in this hobby is no good.

break down of the system.
25gpd
.1micron prefilter
carbon block
membrane

as of now, no DI canister, looking for an addon carbon and DI canister for the future.

 

[pogodzib]

The ONLY way that you will know that quality of the water being produced by your RO unit is to test it using a TDS meter. There are several of us around that own one. I'd let you use mine, but the ones that I own are either in-line or the batteries are dead. If you want to pay for the cost of new batteries, I'll give you my hand held unit for very cheap.

 

[schneijt]

You say that your membrane is making more water than it used to. First of all, that's not a sign of a bad membrane. When membranes go "bad," that means they're clogging with the tiny particles they're removing. So, the older a membrane gets, the SLOWER it will produce water.

I can think of only two reasonable explanations for the increased water production. First of all, have you tested your flow restrictor? You should be right around 4:1 waste to pure ratio. That means that for every gallon of purified water your RO membrane produces, you should be producing roughly four gallons of waste water. If your waste ratio is less than 4:1, you will see more "good" water coming out of your membrane, but it also means that you will have more particulate waste clogging up your membrane, thereby reducing its effective lifespan.

The other thing I'd like to point out is that it's Spring now. RO ratings are for water at roughly 60psi and 70 degrees. Since the ground is warming up, you will see increased production. In fact, you should have been seeing LESS than 25gpd when the unit was new, because it's so cold out in winter and the water coming into your house is quite cold that time of year. Anyway, I digress...

I'm betting that you're seeing more than 25gpd because the water is warming up coming into your house, and because you probably have a faulty flow restrictor. As has already been said, you need a TDS meter to know for sure how well your membrane is performing. I'm 99.9% sure that your membrane isn't in bad shape, but something else is awry with your RO system.

-Joe

 

[tangmang23]

i was on line last night and ordered a few things, i got a dual Di canister, one has di the other has silica buster in it. I also ordered a pressure guage to put on the unit so i can monitor the PSI all the time. The dual DI canister setup has a TDS meter built into it. This will read before and after DI so this will tell me the quality of the ro membrane. I changed out my 1 micron for a .5 micron. This slowed the water down significantly which is fine because i want the most pure water i can get. Now the end result water is a drip instead of a stream, so hopefully that fixed it. I dont know exactly what a flow restrictor is, where is this found on the unit itself, normally??

 

[hansmatt]

I drip...I mean my RO line drips
Maybe 1 drop per second or better, and that is on a 90gpd spectrapure system.

 

[schneijt]

A flow restrictor restricts flow. (Receives Nobel Prize in science.)

Without a flow restrictor, all of the water entering your membrane would leave via the "waste" line. The flow restrictor backs up the flow, forcing the water through the membrane and purifying it. So, you should have a contraption of some sort on the waste line coming out of the membrane's housing.

The best way to test your flow restrictor is to put the waste line in a bucket and the RO's output line in another bucket. Run the unit for an hour or so, and then measure the volume of water in each bucket. You want to have roughly four times as much "bad" water as purified water.

-Joe

 

[tangmang23]

A flow restrictor restricts flow. (Receives Nobel Prize in science.)

Without a flow restrictor, all of the water entering your membrane would leave via the "waste" line. The flow restrictor backs up the flow, forcing the water through the membrane and purifying it. So, you should have a contraption of some sort on the waste line coming out of the membrane's housing.

The best way to test your flow restrictor is to put the waste line in a bucket and the RO's output line in another bucket. Run the unit for an hour or so, and then measure the volume of water in each bucket. You want to have roughly four times as much "bad" water as purified water.

-Joe

does it really restrict water though, how can we be absolutely sure.:lol:

anyways, there is no actual device, what it is is a plastic plug inside the casing with what looks like a pin sized hole, much smaller the the ID of the tubing anyways. Everthing seems to be working okayish for now, im just running the unit and making sure its making water lol. I do need some help on how to hook up the DI canister to the RO unit. should it be right after the RO membrane to the DI canister, and do you use your RO membrane good water line for that? doesnt seem like there would be a lot of pressure there for good filtering?

 

[schneijt]

Trust me, if you put a DI canister on the seemingly pressure-less pure water line coming out of your membrane, it'll have the pressure to force water through the DI and out the other side. It'll take a while to slowly fill up the DI canister and exit, but it will. It may slightly lower your total GPH of your system, but not by much, and the DI guarantees the purest possible water from your system (though it will need to be changed after you see the TDS increase to 2-3 tds).

-Joe