RO booster not working?

[Buckeye Hydro]

2 PM Eastern is fine here. Would be best if you are in front of the system when you call.

Unless you have soft, or softened water, there is no justification for choking off the concentrate flow. If you use two 75's in series, with hard water, then go no lower than a 100 gpd restrictor. That's also what I was referring to with my 'This is not how any of this is supposed to work!" comment.

Russ

 

[Irishman]

If you use two 75's in series, with hard water, then go no lower than a 100 gpd restrictor.
Russ

My two membranes are 100 GPD in series, what size restrictor do you recommend? Do I need a restrictor off both waste lines or just one line since the other waste line is going into the other membrane?

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

If you run membranes in series, meaning concentrate from first membrane feeding the second, then by definition you only use a single flow restrictor. With two 100's, I'd go no smaller than a 150 gpd restrictor.
http://www.buckeyehydro.com/capillary-flow-restrictors/

Russ

 

[Irishman]

If you run membranes in series, meaning concentrate from first membrane feeding the second, then by definition you only use a single flow restrictor. With two 100's, I'd go no smaller than a 150 gpd restrictor.
http://www.buckeyehydro.com/capillary-flow-restrictors/

Russ

Is there any disadvantages of running the barrel style flow restrictor?

 

[TriggerFinger]

Why isn’t there a tube coming out of this canister?

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Think of the barrel as a housing. It really does nothing other than hold the restrictor. You'll find the barrel types are about twice as expensive as a capillary flow restrictor, and they offer zero advantage. So price is one thing.

Secondly, it depends on what's in that little housing. A number of years ago, there were problems with the barrel restrictors being very inaccurate. We've never (over the last 20+ years) used them, so we didn't worry about that too much.

Lastly, capillary restrictors offer you some adjustability in that the length of the capillary tube can be shortened (cut) to allow for greater concentrate flow.
Russ

 

[Irishman]

Why isn’t there a tube coming out of this canister?

That's the feed line adapter.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Why isn’t there a tube coming out of this canister?

That should have the feedwater tube in it bringing water from your home's plumbing.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

With the water on, and now using your canister wrench, start to unscrew the canister, just enough to break the seal with the O-ring. This will allow the air to escape. The clear canister, you'll see the water climbing up the canister....no problem. With the white ones, have a small towel handy and as soon as you see water seeping out the top of the canister, tighten it back up.

Just so no one gets confused...
What redfish describes above is how you burp air from a housing with an axial flow cartridge like your DI carts. With radial flow carts like your sediment filter and your carbon blocks, no need to follow this procedure - just turn the water on and the water flow will remove the air.

Russ

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

I just talked with the Irishman (OP) and walked him through some rerouting of his plumbing based upon what I saw in the picks.

Just for fun - who can spot the major plumbing mistake on his system shown in the pics? It has nothing to do with the dual membrane set up.

Russ

 

[RobW]

Not a fan of plumbing the membranes in series in these little residential scale systems with hard feedwater. It's a mis-application of a common practice with commercial systems.

Why? What's the problem?

 

[RobW]

I just talked with the Irishman (OP) and walked him through some rerouting of his plumbing based upon what I saw in the picks.

Just for fun - who can spot the major plumbing mistake on his system shown in the pics? It has nothing to do with the dual membrane

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Why? What's the problem?

Unless you have soft, or softened water, there is no justification for choking off the concentrate flow as in done with these systems sold by a particular vendor. If you use two 75's in series, with hard water, then go no lower than a 100 gpd restrictor. That's also what I was referring to with my 'This is not how any of this is supposed to work!" comment.

 

[RobW]

Unless you have soft, or softened water, there is no justification for choking off the concentrate flow as in done with these systems sold by a particular vendor. If you use two 75's in series, with hard water, then go no lower than a 100 gpd restrictor. That's also what I was referring to with my 'This is not how any of this is supposed to work!" comment.

So what kind of product to waste water ratio are you looking at when you change to the 100 gpd restrictor? I have a 150 gpd 7 stage system.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

You want a 3:1 or a 4:1

By they way, you don't need to plumb a second membrane in series to get that - just change your $4 flow restrictor.

 

[Irishman]

Finally got my RO unit working, without booster pump I’m at 66 PSI. Probably going to throw that in the mix tomorrow. Just happy to get my problem solved. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

 

[stacksoner]

Depends what your goal is

My goal with making RODI water, like everyone else's, is to have the apparatus predict next week's winning Powerball numbers. If this doesn't happen, I usually settle for having it produce 0 TDS water.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

I usually settle for having it produce 0 TDS water.

One membrane will work just fine.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Just for fun - who can spot the major plumbing mistake on his system shown in the pics? It has nothing to do with the dual membrane set up.
Russ

Hi ASOV was plumbed backwards - with the low pressure permeate going into the high pressure side of the valve.