No water coming out of the blue hose on my 4 Stage Value 150GPD Water Saver RO/DI System

The_Paradox · Jul 10, 2023

Gtinnel said:
Also, I can’t stress enough with this being attached to your faucet be very, very careful never to run hot water through the membrane. Hot water will instantly ruin the membranes.

I probably should not have, but I assumed he turned the hot water off at the valve.

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

Woodyman said:
Leave the tap on, are you getting a consistent trickle when on? Or does it seem inconsistent?

With the tap on I'm getting no water out of the blue line.

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

The_Paradox said:
I probably should not have, but I assumed he turned the hot water off at the valve.

Yes, I turned the Hot water valve off under the sink. Also, prior to that can confirm I have been using only cold water!

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

Woodyman said:
Let's take this one step at a time.

1. I assume you have flow from the faucet.
2. When hooking up from faucet to the sediment do you get flow through the first housing?
3. Does the carbon housing have flow?

I'm assuming the answer is yes to all of the above since earlier you mentioned having a pressure reading on your RO housing. If so what is the pressure on the RO.housing read?

Next disconnect permeate line (product water) from the RO, does it have any flow? (Temporarily bypass the DI housing for now)

If not, when you installed the RO membrane did you hear a "click" or "pop"? If not it's not fully installed.

We'll go from there after you check the above.

Thanks Woodyman, Ill get back to you this afternoon with an update!

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

Gtinnel said:
As best I can tell from the pictures everything is hooked up properly. I am assuming this was completely assembled and the membranes were installed when you received it?

Ignoring horribly incorrect plumbing if you have waste (concentrate) water coming out then water is making it to your membranes. If water is making it to your membranes then there shouldn’t be anything prevent it from making it through the membrane and out the filtered (permeate) side. 50psi is really pretty low for a dual membrane setup especially. I am beginning to wonder if lack of pressure is your issue. Aside from something completely stupid like the plastic wrapper left on a membrane or di canister lack of pressure is all I can think of.

With this being new I would try reaching out to BRS for assistance.

Also, I can’t stress enough with this being attached to your faucet be very, very careful never to run hot water through the membrane. Hot water will instantly ruin the membranes.

Yea, I tried it on my outside line where I normally run my garden hose and the pressure was at 60+ PSI. Still wasn't working, but again not sure if that's even sufficient. I'll try a few more things and then reach out to BRS if nothing changes!

Woodyman · Jul 10, 2023

Imthatguybrandon said:
Thanks Woodyman, Ill get back to you this afternoon with an update!

When you get a chance to tonight first verify the RO membranes are fully seated into the housings, and we'll go from there with troubleshooting.

Gtinnel · Jul 10, 2023

Imthatguybrandon said:
Yea, I tried it on my outside line where I normally run my garden hose and the pressure was at 60+ PSI. Still wasn't working, but again not sure if that's even sufficient. I'll try a few more things and then reach out to BRS if nothing changes!

My guess is that 60 isn’t enough for the membranes to work efficiently, but I would think it would be enough that you’d see some water making it through the filter though.

MnFish1 · Jul 10, 2023

Woodyman said:
When you get a chance to tonight first verify the RO membranes are fully seated into the housings, and we'll go from there with troubleshooting.

If the membrane is not properly seated more water could be going to the waste. Have you tried taking it out and checking it?

Imthatguybrandon said:
With the tap on I'm getting no water out of the blue line.

If the RO membrane is not correctly seated - it can theoretically cause this - I would open that up and check.

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

Woodyman said:
When you get a chance to tonight first verify the RO membranes are fully seated into the housings, and we'll go from there with troubleshooting.

Alright, so I confirmed that both membranes were seated properly in the Housing. I opened both, and confirmed that there was a lot of water in there. So I removed the membrane drained the water and seated them both back in the housing.

I also tried a different line (washer machine line) in the house and got up to about 50 PSI, but still no water. I have attached both pics.

Image 1 is the membrane out of the housing before I put it back in. The second is the pressure gauge.

I did read on the BRS site that for this model, they have a minimum of 65 PSI as a requirement. Now, I do not know if that's a hard rule or a just a recommendation. If, it is then I can grab a booster pump kit which in theory should solve my issue. But it seems some people are saying that I should be getting some water even at 50PSI?

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

MnFish1 said:
If the membrane is not properly seated more water could be going to the waste. Have you tried taking it out and checking it?

If the RO membrane is not correctly seated - it can theoretically cause this - I would open that up and check.

Updated the thread, I opened both they seemed that they were seated properly, rained the water out and put them back in.

Woodyman · Jul 10, 2023

Imthatguybrandon said:
Updated the thread, I opened both they seemed that they were seated properly, rained the water out and put them back in.

Just to confirm you did get the "click" when you pushed them in all the way correct?

Woodyman · Jul 10, 2023

First obviously a booster is your best bet, but you can produce without it. Typically the minimum operating pressure is around 40psi depending on your specific membrane.

So just as a test keep it hooked up to the 50psi connection. Do the following and let us know what happens:

1. Remove the feed side to the RO membrane and turn your water source back on. Do you get flow through the first 2 housings (sediment & carbon)? If yes proceed to step 2. If not stop and let us know.

2. Reconnect the feed side to your first RO housing. Disconnect the permeate (RO water) side, are you getting any flow? Even a trickle counts. Remember just 1 RO housing not both.

Follow up with results from 1/2 above and we'll continue step by step to get this figured out for you.

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

Woodyman said:
Just to confirm you did get the "click" when you pushed them in all the way correct?

Yes, heard the click, there is a little hole in the bottom of the housing where the bottom side of the membrane slots into. That's where that click sound came from.

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

Woodyman said:
First obviously a booster is your best bet, but you can produce without it. Typically the minimum operating pressure is around 40psi depending on your specific membrane.

So just as a test keep it hooked up to the 50psi connection. Do the following and let us know what happens:

1. Remove the feed side to the RO membrane and turn your water source back on. Do you get flow through the first 2 housings (sediment & carbon)? If yes proceed to step 2. If not stop and let us know.

2. Reconnect the feed side to your first RO housing. Disconnect the permeate (RO water) side, are you getting any flow? Even a trickle counts. Remember just 1 RO housing not both.

Follow up with results from 1/2 above and we'll continue step by step to get this figured out for you.

Copy, i'll get this done shortly!

Woodyman · Jul 10, 2023

Imthatguybrandon said:
Yes, heard the click, there is a little hole in the bottom of the housing where the bottom side of the membrane slots into. That's where that click sound came from.

Great!

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

Imthatguybrandon said:
Copy, i'll get this done shortly!

This might be a stupid question, but when you say feed side are you referring to this? 1 or 2? Also just to mention my sediment housing was full of water so I did open and pour out all the water previously!

Woodyman · Jul 10, 2023

Imthatguybrandon said:
This might be a stupid question, but when you say feed side are you referring to this? 1 or 2? Also just to mention my sediment housing was full of water so I did open and pour out all the water previously!

#2 the one going into the screw on cap.

Then also disconnect the blue line coming out the other end. You should start getting water production.

Imthatguybrandon · Jul 10, 2023

@Woodyman
Okay so all three blocks filled up with water (the sediment and both carbon blocks) and water started to drip consistently out of the circled blue line. When I did shut off the water the third carbon filter water level went down about 70& but the 1st and 2nd housing stayed full.

Woodyman · Jul 10, 2023

Imthatguybrandon said:
@Woodyman
Okay so all three blocks filled up with water (the sediment and both carbon blocks) and water started to drip consistently out of the circled blue line. When I did shut off the water the third carbon filter water level went down about 70& but the 1st and 2nd housing stayed full.

Until you get a booster you'll be better off just plumbing that blue line into your DI. Your pressure isn't sufficient to feed 2 RO housings and the DI, at least not at a suitable speed.

If you want to verify the 2nd RO housing is setup you could swap the feed line to the second housing, you should get the same result.

Otherwise your up and running, just at a low production speed since your pressure is low. I'm not sure of the accuracy on those BRS gauges so it could always +/- what it actually shows.