Tds Creeping Up

Kyle1970

Kyle1970

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Location
Ayr, Ontario
Vertex 5 stage Rodi with booster pump.
New membrane from clearance sale at Waterloo reef store in the fall.
New carbon and sediment filter along with new DI about 3 weeks ago.
Make enough water each week for top off (10gal max), and an additional 10gal for water changes every 10 days or so.

Tap water was pushing 300ppm
RO only is coming out at 250ppm
Rodi is coming out at 13ppm now. Ran at 0 for about two weeks.

Have I got a bad membrane?

Just checked in on it again, back to producing 0ppm filling the pressure tank.
 
heath

heath

Distinguished Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2012
Location
Woodstock, Ontario
maybe Pipes can chime in, he is a water expert...
I just got a tds meter and my ro (no di) is around 20ppm coming out and the water going in is well over 350ppm..
 
Pipes

Pipes

Active Member
Joined
May 21, 2015
Location
Ingersoll
Do you have a water softener? If I'm not mistaken, I think you have fairly hard water, and the biggest killer of membranes is hard water. It's not impossible to run an RO on hard water, but it really cuts down on the life span of the membrane. If possible check inside the membrane housing and see if the seat is cracked (where the membrane bottoms out). You will need a very bright flashlight and will have to look very close. If the seat is cracked then you need a new housing. A crack in the membrane seat will mean that the product water is mixing with the waste water. It is rare to have a defective membrane, but anything is possible.
 
Kyle1970

Kyle1970

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Location
Ayr, Ontario
Pipes said:
Do you have a water softener? If I'm not mistaken, I think you have fairly hard water, and the biggest killer of membranes is hard water. It's not impossible to run an RO on hard water, but it really cuts down on the life span of the membrane. If possible check inside the membrane housing and see if the seat is cracked (where the membrane bottoms out). You will need a very bright flashlight and will have to look very close. If the seat is cracked then you need a new housing. A crack in the membrane seat will mean that the product water is mixing with the waste water. It is rare to have a defective membrane, but anything is possible.
Click to expand...
Will check it out. I have new membrane ordered. Will look in when I open it up.
Thanks for the direction.
 
Kyle1970

Kyle1970

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Location
Ayr, Ontario
Got the membrane from ABD at the clearance sale.
New one I ordered from Reefsupplies.
Had to grab some Hanna reagent at the same time so combined them.
Somehow last post I missed the fact that yes I have a softener and RO runs off the softened water.

Thanks Pipes will let you know about the housing when I open it up (soon as new membrane arrives). Going to clean it out with bleach or peroxide again as well.
 
Kyle1970

Kyle1970

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Location
Ayr, Ontario
New DOW RO membrane is installed.
Cleaned out housing with some bleach.
Ran system into the drain for an hour. Going to watch everything again.
Extra bag of DI if needed again as well.
 
Kyle1970

Kyle1970

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Location
Ayr, Ontario
Made 5gal pail of water today..... TDS.... 5 by the time the pail was full.

Pulled off line feeding the DI filter,measured output at 10PPM.
So DI dropping the PPM by 5ppm.
What say you? Do I replace my DI and try for 0 again?
 
zoomster

zoomster

Active Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2014
Location
Port Rowan, Ontario
I would change the DI.
For how little you have produced it should be at 0ppm out of the DI chamber.
I am guessing that maybe your earlier issues chewed up your resin prematurely.
 
Kyle1970

Kyle1970

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Location
Ayr, Ontario
so now in addition to the membrane change, I need to look for a new high pressure switch to shut off the unit once my storage tank is full.
Anyone know where to begin looking? Will any rodi water system parts be exchangeable?
 
N

Nighthawk26

Active Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Location
Waterloo
I'm so lost with the back and forth through your troubleshooting process. Haha. Do you mean you are looking for a float valve to shut it off?
 
Kyle1970

Kyle1970

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Location
Ayr, Ontario
My system has a high pressure switch that triggers the ro/di system to turn off when my pressure tank is full.
Would work the same with an float valve. When the valve shuts the pressure in the lines would jump causing the pressure to turn the system off as well.
 
N

Nighthawk26

Active Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Location
Waterloo
Thats what I figured but he has a vertex. Should have one on there from factory.

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N

Nighthawk26

Active Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Location
Waterloo
Not sure I am following this Kyle. Your vertex comes with a pump. Did it not come with some sort of shut off for it? I had to add what you have listed because my setup did not come with a pump to begin with from BRS.
 
Sewerat

Sewerat

Super Active Member
Joined
May 22, 2014
Location
Brooksdale, Ontario
Kyle I had same issue with my vertex, and little to my surprise vertex was not helpful at all, as expected, so what I did was buy a toggle switch that I use to replace that switch but I also bought a switch from max water flow. I'll look it up and post but I have not installed or tried yet so unsure if it's correct. Switch has worked well for me


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