RO Buddie membrane and flow restrictor help

[eag]

I have had for many years an RO Buddie 50gpd system that always performed as advertised. I recently disassembled and reassembled it, during which time I replaced the membrane. I ran water through the membrane to flush the stuff it comes with, after which I detached and reattached the flow restrictor. Since then, the clean water flow is very low, and the waste water flow very high (unsure how it performed during flushing). I think there is a problem with the flow restrictor ... anyone else had one fail? This system is probably about 6 years old.

I went searching for flow restrictors on amazon, brs, etc and am confused. My system has a 450cc restrictor. BRS doesn't carry one that exact size, and many restrictors I'm finding don't specify the GPD. When I do find GPD, the guidance is way off, suggesting a 450cc restrictor is for a higher GPD.

Is the RO Buddie "special" in some way that violates the standard GPD guidance? Is it OK to just straight swap it for another 450cc restrictor and not worry about these other details? Thanks in advance

 

[UMALUM]

Ok so I have the same unit and the same thing happened to mine. Come to find out it wasn't the restrictor but actually the membrane. I made the mistake of buying the cheaper membranes off amazon and they wouldn't work. For some reason the buddies won't except the knockoff / cheaper membrane.

Now if your sure it's not the membrane causing this I have 3 brand new restrictors sitting here and wouldn't mind sending you one if you can't find one elsewhere.

 

[eag]

Oh wow ok thanks for this!! I did order from Amazon, but have had this order on repeat for a while and never a problem. Let me try switching the membrane out first. I will report back

 

[eag]

TL;DR: @UMALUM was right, it was a bad membrane, however it was an official AquaticLife membrane ordered from Amazon

The old membrane had an immense negative pressure under it and was hard to remove. I had another AquaticLife membrane on hand, which I installed. The problem was immediately solved. Interestingly, I noticed that the prior (bad) membrane flushed a ton of milky white stuff out in the beginning, which this new (good) membrane did not.

Thanks so much for the pointer @UMALUM, you saved me a couple days no doubt!!