ariellemermaid
Well-Known Member
I've been making my own DI water for about 5 years. Source water was always very high quality with low TDS and I've never needed to replace anything. Granted, the carbon/GAC is probably long used up, but the sediment filter was still bright white, pre-membrane pressure was 45-50 with just a few TDS, and I was making 0 TDS water. After the hurricane though, things have gone a little south and I've just moved my RO system to a new home. I found all of a sudden the sediment filter was really dirty and my pre-membrane pressure was like 2 PSI. So now I need some RO maintenance and I have some questions.
1) My new home's PSI is 45. After replacing the pre-filters, the pre-RO pressure is 40. Now, I could increase the home pressure to 50 (if I can find the pressure control valve) which would presumably get me 45 pre-RO which would be closer to the recommended 50. Although, is the 50 recommendation source pressure or pre-RO pressure? Anyway, with these numbers should I consider a booster pump, increase the home's pressure, or is 40 good enough?
2) I got some semi-emergency whirlpool pre filters from Lowe's (the fish are still at my old house and I need to get them re-homed this week). 5 micron sediment and "<1 micron" carbon x2. What my system came with is sediment, GAC, and carbon. How important is the "GAC" vs. just 2 regular carbon stages? When I look on Amazon for kits I'm seeing that a lot of them just include identical carbon x2 but other sources include the GAC.
3) I'm having a TDS problem. Input TDS at the new home is much worse now that I'm on city water; I'm in the 35 range. Pre-RO TDS is 3, but final TDS is still 1-2 (assuming my in-line meter is still accurate). My DI is about half orange and still looks like it has life left. I would expect that even an old membrane + DI should be able to remove 3 TDS. I assume I just need a new RO membrane and I've ordered one, but do I need to replace the half-used DI resin as well? What role does DI resin play in TDS?
1) My new home's PSI is 45. After replacing the pre-filters, the pre-RO pressure is 40. Now, I could increase the home pressure to 50 (if I can find the pressure control valve) which would presumably get me 45 pre-RO which would be closer to the recommended 50. Although, is the 50 recommendation source pressure or pre-RO pressure? Anyway, with these numbers should I consider a booster pump, increase the home's pressure, or is 40 good enough?
2) I got some semi-emergency whirlpool pre filters from Lowe's (the fish are still at my old house and I need to get them re-homed this week). 5 micron sediment and "<1 micron" carbon x2. What my system came with is sediment, GAC, and carbon. How important is the "GAC" vs. just 2 regular carbon stages? When I look on Amazon for kits I'm seeing that a lot of them just include identical carbon x2 but other sources include the GAC.
3) I'm having a TDS problem. Input TDS at the new home is much worse now that I'm on city water; I'm in the 35 range. Pre-RO TDS is 3, but final TDS is still 1-2 (assuming my in-line meter is still accurate). My DI is about half orange and still looks like it has life left. I would expect that even an old membrane + DI should be able to remove 3 TDS. I assume I just need a new RO membrane and I've ordered one, but do I need to replace the half-used DI resin as well? What role does DI resin play in TDS?
