Cali Kid Corals

RO system troubleshooting

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I’m going to win. I am.
 
It’s finally working. I think I had a bad membrane. Bought a new membrane from Neptune and installed it just like the last one. Now, I’m getting a reasonable amount of product water at 17 TDS (expected). The waste amount is not outrageous and the pressure is within range.
 
I bought a second membrane to try and reduce waste, but now I'm thinking I would rather reduce TDS.
My source water is at 400 TDS and I'm getting 40 out of one membrane. (In the beginning, I was getting 17, not sure what's up now)

Does it make sense to run the water through two membranes? Product of A running as supply for B. Waste from A & B would join into a single waste line.
How does this affect auto flush?
 
svreef said:
I bought a second membrane to try and reduce waste, but now I'm thinking I would rather reduce TDS.
My source water is at 400 TDS and I'm getting 40 out of one membrane. (In the beginning, I was getting 17, not sure what's up now)

Does it make sense to run the water through two membranes? Product of A running as supply for B. Waste from A & B would join into a single waste line.
How does this affect auto flush?
Click to expand...
No problem with autoflush... you restrict on the very last membrane so the 3 chained would act as a single membrane at better reduction ratios... I run 3 myself and get great ratios and water product
 
svreef said:
I bought a second membrane to try and reduce waste, but now I'm thinking I would rather reduce TDS.
My source water is at 400 TDS and I'm getting 40 out of one membrane. (In the beginning, I was getting 17, not sure what's up now)

Does it make sense to run the water through two membranes? Product of A running as supply for B. Waste from A & B would join into a single waste line.
How does this affect auto flush?
Click to expand...
Do you have high enough pressure? Without a booster pump this morning the TDS after the membranes was almost 50 but with the booster pump I get 13
 
Auto Shutoff Valve:
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www.bulkreefsupply.com

Installing an Auto Shut Off Valve

Auto shut off valves use a small amount of pressure created by your float valve to shut off the water supply to your RO membrane. Follow these instructions to install an auto shut off valve on your RO system. First note the top and bottom of the shut off valve, the bottom has screws and the
www.bulkreefsupply.com www.bulkreefsupply.com
 
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FYI: My auto shutoff valve works fine, but occasionally vibrates audibly, but not loudly, when off.
Most likely because of a rather long tube out to the RO barrel.
Although that can be handy to remember to shut it all off.
 
So damn frustrated. This is what I did today:

Installed a waste bypass line with a valve, so I can flush the membrane manually - without relying on the Smart Buddie to do it. Flushed the membrane several times.

Replaced the sediment filter.

Replaced the membrane with a brand new one (in a brand new housing) and ran it for an hour, discarding the product.

Added the original membrane (which is just a few weeks old) after the new membrane, so that the product from the first is the supply for the second.

Still...I'm getting over 100 TDS out. The supply water is and has always been around 400 TDS.

When I first installed this BRS RO system and the Smart Buddie, I was getting 400 TDS in and 17 TDS out - it worked that way for months, until it didn't.
 
Did you test just the new new membrane alone? For troubleshooting purposes it would be good to isolate them. You could have a pinhole leak in the “old” new membrane due to a manufacturing defect. Having 2 membranes in a system combines their output so you can’t tell which one is faulty.

Also probably too obvious, but are you letting it run for a couple min before checking the TDS? It starts high and slowly comes down, aka TDS creep.
 
I had a similar thing happen this week. I flushed the membranes for half an hour also, then since I recently changed carbon blocks and sediment filter, ran water leaving the carbon for quite awhile - again. I kept checking it and had high TDS entering the DI stage and thought my membranes had been damaged. Eventually it got back to normal after more and more rinsing and running booster pump. Could your carbon be exhausted? I read your posts and don't think carbon was mentioned.
 
svreef said:
So damn frustrated. This is what I did today:

Installed a waste bypass line with a valve, so I can flush the membrane manually - without relying on the Smart Buddie to do it. Flushed the membrane several times.

Replaced the sediment filter.

Replaced the membrane with a brand new one (in a brand new housing) and ran it for an hour, discarding the product.

Added the original membrane (which is just a few weeks old) after the new membrane, so that the product from the first is the supply for the second.

Still...I'm getting over 100 TDS out. The supply water is and has always been around 400 TDS.

When I first installed this BRS RO system and the Smart Buddie, I was getting 400 TDS in and 17 TDS out - it worked that way for months, until it didn't.
Click to expand...
Did you ever change your flow restrictor to match the new membrane?
 
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