Chlorine Levels

[Jeff_L]

Maybe he meant to wait to replace your sediment filter? I usually replace my charcoal, wait two weeks, then replace my sediment filter. After changing out charcoal, you want everything in there to settle into place and any small chunks which find their way to be blocked out by your old sediment filter. 2 weeks is sufficient, then put a new one in.

 

[teamplex65]

We asumed the carbon was bad since it had never been changed. We also increased the size of the tank. Thanks for the response on the membranes and sediment filter. I read all of the forum topics on the subject here and never saw anyone say to wait two weeks.

I will change them monday and start getting some awesome TDS numbers. I tested my competition and they are all above 60 right now, and I cant stand being above 60 right now.

 

[pitzerwm]

You need to get all of the "fines" out of the carbon filter first, right?

 

[MEP001]

That's what the flushing and the prefilter are for.

 

[Washmee]

Before you throw those membranes out, I would suggest you examine the way they are installed in the cannisters. Its possible that the o-rings have moved and are now letting High TDS water get mixed into the treated water. I had this happen once and all I did was reposition the membrane in the cannister and it was fixed. This can occur if the membrane has a blockage which prevents the water from flowing through and instead it forces its way past the o-rings. This happened to me when my sediment filter started to disintergate and the fibers blocked the membrane.

 

[teamplex65]

OK, we finished the maintenance of the entire Spot Free system.

After we replaced the Charcoal in the tank to remove Chlorine we immedeatly replaced the Sedimentary filter. We then let it run for 1 week.

Today we replaced the 3 Membranes and Sedimentary Filter. The sedimentary filter was almost black. I will be changing it again in a few days until it stops being black, and will check it every few weeks after that.

The 3 40" membranes we replaced as well. The first membrane was installed correctly and the brine seal looked great. The second brine seal was pulled back over itself, allowing bad water to escape by. The third membrane was installed completly upside down and the brine seal was pulled back over itself.

We removed the old ones, lubed the brine seal and reinstalled all of the new membranes in the correct direction, and from the correct end (to stop the brine seal from folding back over itself).

We rejected all of the water for 10-15 minutes so there was minimum pressure on the filters as they soaked with water. We then adjusted the reject/claim valve to where we are rejecting 5 gallons per minute, and making 2.5 gallons per minute at 165 psi. We let that water run on the ground for 15 minutes. Before we were maiking water at 97 TDS. In the 15 minutes we let it run on the ground it went from 19 at the very beginning all the way down to 1 TDS.

We also tested for free and total chlorine at the reject and it is 0.

I listed the numbers below, do they all look ok?

Reject 5gpm
Making 2.5 gpm so that is a 2:1 ratio, is that good?

The pressure was 165, we have always been told to stay below 180.

TDS of 1, I know that is good.

Thank you everyone for the help. I was glad to find something wrong when we removed the membranes so it felt like we fixed something. I love that I understand the system now and have a plan and checklists in place to monitor it much closer now.

 

[MEP001]

Today we replaced the 3 Membranes and Sedimentary Filter. The sedimentary filter was almost black. I will be changing it again in a few days until it stops being black, and will check it every few weeks after that.

That's normal; you'll probably find that the next time you change it, it won't be so dirty.

Reject 5gpm
Making 2.5 gpm so that is a 2:1 ratio, is that good?

It depends on the system; if it recirculates a portion of the reject back through the membranes you can set it at 1:1. If all the reject goes straight to the drain, 2:1 is good. You'd save a lot of water by adding a valve to return some of the reject back to the pump.

The pressure was 165, we have always been told to stay below 180.

The pressure depends mainly on the membrane housings. Metal can handle 200 PSI; some of the PVC or fiberglass ones are only rated to 180. Apparently the membranes can handle much more pressure than that; someone who thought he knew what he was doing kept adjusting our RO system to reject 1:1 and in doing so had the pressure at 350 PSI, but it never harmed anything.

 

[teamplex65]

Thank you MEP.

I hope not to ever hit 350 PSI, wow thats crazy. I will check but I do not believe it recirculates. I will look into how difficult it would be to recirculate the water back through the filters.

I am just happy to be creating actual spot free water again.

 

[MEP001]

I will look into how difficult it would be to recirculate the water back through the filters.

I like to use a bypass regulator and send the bypass to the inlet of the pump. That regulator sets the system pressure and the original valve controls the reject flow. It's not complicated at all.