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Drop in RODI production

NanoCrazed

NanoCrazed

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My 75GPD RODI setup suddenly dropped significantly in production yet the waste water rate seem decent.

Any ideas for trouble shooting?

I checked for leaks and couldn't find one. The RO membrane and the whole unit in fact has only been in service since September

Only thing i did recently is install an auto shutoff with float switch and few weeks ago, which worked fine upon install.

Baffled.
 
NanoCrazed said:
My 75GPD RODI setup suddenly dropped significantly in production yet the waste water rate seem decent.

Any ideas for trouble shooting?

I checked for leaks and couldn't find one. The RO membrane and the whole unit in fact has only been in service since September

Only thing i did recently is install an auto shutoff with float switch and few weeks ago, which worked fine upon install.

Baffled.
Click to expand...

Clogged or partially blocked RO/DI line somewhere?
 
NanoCrazed said:
My 75GPD RODI setup suddenly dropped significantly in production yet the waste water rate seem decent.

Any ideas for trouble shooting?

I checked for leaks and couldn't find one. The RO membrane and the whole unit in fact has only been in service since September

Only thing i did recently is install an auto shutoff with float switch and few weeks ago, which worked fine upon install.

Baffled.
Click to expand...
Either water pressure on the input dropped or time to change your membrane...I think..
Do you have tds on input and output of the membrane and other states? Do you see higher TDS on the membrane output then before?
Do you have pressure meter on the input of the rodi?
 
My guess is probably the sediment filter... i finally got motivated to install a pressure gauge on my unit.

In coming from the tap is 56 psi. Not shabby for default city pressure (Mountain View)

But the output after the carbon block is a trickle relative to what I would expect with a 56psi input.

Just going to order a new sediment filter and try it out. Can't hurt.

In the meantime, I tapped my under sink unit to make some emergency water with a small DI stage.

Just in case, I replaced the DI resin with fresh resin. I didn't have enough resin to completely pack the housing so running it vertically with input on top to trickle down through the resin in order to maximize contact time of the water with the resin. My undersink unit is 500GPD, so was worried that the flow rate would be too high for the resin to process otherwise.


20200419_215046.jpg
 
When the water pressure drops, the membrane tends to reject more water thus diminishing the product, hopefully changing the sediment filters solves the issue.
It will be usefull if you can add a second pressure gauge just before the membrane.
 
ofzakaria said:
Either water pressure on the input dropped or time to change your membrane...I think..
Do you have tds on input and output of the membrane and other states? Do you see higher TDS on the membrane output then before?
Do you have pressure meter on the input of the rodi?
Click to expand...
I have a TDS meter but haven't installed it on my system yet. My unit is outdoors and so need to put in a waterproof housing after i move my rodi unit to next to my detached office. (Was going to tap the sprinkler line between the main and the sprinkler solenoids... )

I might just go ahead and install the unit given that it probably won't rain for awhile at the moment.
 
xcaret said:
When the water pressure drops, the membrane tends to reject more water thus diminishing the product, hopefully changing the sediment filters solves the issue.
It will be usefull if you can add a second pressure gauge just before the membrane.
Click to expand...
I might just order a second gauge and do that...

Thank goodness i have a backup option. Else i would be pretty desperate. Normally i would head to WholeFoods and buy rodi but with shelter in place, it be a huge pain to wait in line just for a few gallons of rodi...

After this, i am going to leave my ball valve and tap in place under the sink. Never know when ai would need some emergency water again... :)

But man, a 1:1 ratio on my 500GPD unit makes me want to get one just for my tanks. I would feel so much better about making water with minimum waste...
 
Is the canister that holds your sediment filter a clear brown canister? Or is that brown the sediment filter? Because if it's the later, that is WAY too brown to not change out.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Is the canister that holds your sediment filter a clear brown canister? Or is that brown the sediment filter? Because if it's the later, that is WAY too brown to not change out.
Click to expand...
You mean the one under my sink? It's a bitbof both. It's a bluish clear housing and sediment filter is colored... only been in service since end of December so figured have more life out of it
 
NanoCrazed said:
I might just order a second gauge and do that...

Thank goodness i have a backup option. Else i would be pretty desperate. Normally i would head to WholeFoods and buy rodi but with shelter in place, it be a huge pain to wait in line just for a few gallons of rodi...

After this, i am going to leave my ball valve and tap in place under the sink. Never know when ai would need some emergency water again... :)

But man, a 1:1 ratio on my 500GPD unit makes me want to get one just for my tanks. I would feel so much better about making water with minimum waste...
Click to expand...
I get just about 1:1 with 3 membranes in series and a booster pump at 80-85 psi
 
NanoCrazed said:
You mean the one under my sink? It's a bitbof both. It's a bluish clear housing and sediment filter is colored... only been in service since end of December so figured have more life out of it
Click to expand...
Sediment filter it's colored brown? You sure about that? Never seen a sediment filter colored anything but white. And if your place has old crusty pipes, or the city did work on plumbing near you absolutely could prematurely get clogged.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Sediment filter it's colored brown? You sure about that? Never seen a sediment filter colored anything but white. And if your place has old crusty pipes, or the city did work on plumbing near you absolutely could prematurely get clogged.
Click to expand...
Lol. No... meaning they colored brown but since only been in use for a short while with small volumes so far, still has life. I've probably only made about 40G of RO total, if that

The blue case doesn't help visually since colors it more too i bet.

My rodi gets daily use these days since i have it filling up a 34 Gal brute with float. But my kitchen unit is only used for drinking and cooking... until I tapped it last night that is.
 
Rethinking my water setup... chloramine is used in the treatment.

I always just left it to the membrane and di resin to do the job. But now might do some upgrading... thinking 1 micron sediment, 1 micron chloramine carbon filter, and another 1 micron filter (adding another canister).

Only concern is head pressure reduction with the additional stage... since i don't have a booster...yet.
 
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