Help with RO DI

[AirAngel]

I bought the R/O sytem from the lady parting the tank out. It has taken me most all day to figure out how plumb it as some of the lines where disconnected. I even left a disconnected part there that I didnt know went with it. I think that part is called a polisher, has some fluid brown stuff in it.
So I havent gotten that part yet as its about 40 miles away.

I finally got 5 gallons of water this afternoon from the system and tested it with a tds meter a member gave me.
Its reading 23 ppm. I tested my tap and its about 100 ppm.

How do I get it to zero??

 

[SmyrnaReefer]

Did you buy new filters for it? Plus the do resin part you forgot will help a lot also...

 

[AirAngel]

Did you buy new filters for it? Plus the do resin part you forgot will help a lot also...

Hmm..new filters. No
I didnt forget the part, someone had disconnected it and Im ignorant about this stuff.
I didnt want to take something that wasnt mine.
I should have just bought a new one with gas money involved. :-(

 

[SmyrnaReefer]

It hadn't been hooked up for a while I don't think

 

[AirAngel]

Is 23 dangerous?? Im broke.

 

[11purewater]

If it hasn't been hooked up for a while you need to run more water and test directly off the membrane product line before it goes into last carbon or DI cartridge to get a accurate reading and the stream should be steady not a drip,drip...drip pause ....drip.23 is better than 100 but will eat up your DI cartridge prematurely.should be less than 3ppm.

 

[Luckfish]

Even though $ is tight you may want to consider getting in on the BRS group buy. You can get the micron filter, carbon block and new DI resin for about $20 (less if it does not have the DI stage). As long as the RO membrane is still good this would probably put you in the 2-4 ppm range.

 

[AirAngel]

If it hasn't been hooked up for a while you need to run more water and test directly off the membrane product line before it goes into last carbon or DI cartridge to get a accurate reading and the stream should be steady not a drip,drip...drip pause ....drip.23 is better than 100 but will eat up your DI cartridge prematurely.should be less than 3ppm.

Plz understand Im a noob and dont fully know what is what or exactly how it works.
Can you identify the components and give me a tutorial plz??

 

[11purewater]

Post a pic of the system,that way we're looking at the same thing.:smile:

 

[AirAngel]

for some reason my comp isnt reading my camera card now. :sad: It has three canisters and one on top.

 

[AirAngel]

I found this earlier on the net. All my water was going straight thru earlier. I saw the flow restrictor and said oh thats what that funny part is. Installed it and got water in the jug. :-)

 

[AirAngel]

Typical Plumbing Diagram for Reverse Osmosis like this minus storage outlet

 

[Luckfish]

The 3 canisters hanging down are probably a sediment filter and the2 carbon filters. The water enters into the sediment filter and passes through the other 2. It then goes to the one on top; the RO membrane. this should have 2 hoses coming off of it and usually they are different colors; orange for the reject water and blue for the filtered water. Most membranes operate on a 4:1 ratio, they kick out 4 gallons of reject water to every 1 gallon of filtered.

 

[AirAngel]

OK
I guess the resin part is what was missing (hoping she will mail them to me). It is 2 small cylinders filled with brown junk tied in series. Do they go in series after the membrane?

 

[Rayzback]

Depending on how dirty the water is coming out of the tap, and how much you run through it...the three canisters on the RO side could last 6 months or more. The membrane at the top is usually good for 2-3 years. You'll hook the DI to where the water exits the RO.

It's a good idea to have a TDS meter if your going to make your own RODI. I think the RO should reduce the to TDS to 5%-10% of the tap water TDS.. And most people shoot for zero TDS exiting the DI side.