Strange result with 4 stage DI setup

[gobble]

The people I'm going to get through support chat won't have a clue. Isn't this the reason they have a forum?

 

[TheEngineer]

You don’t know until you try.

 

[gobble]

I'm measuring TDS of 3 out of the RO membrane, 4 after cation/anion, and 4 after pro series mixed bed. Is it possible the mixed bed resin just doesn't show a color change like it's supposed to? Does the canister (3rd from left) in this picture look depleted?

 

[MTBake]

I'm measuring TDS of 3 out of the RO membrane, 4 after cation/anion, and 4 after pro series mixed bed. Is it possible the mixed bed resin just doesn't show a color change like it's supposed to? Does the canister (3rd from left) in this picture look depleted?

The third canister from the left didn't look filled properly. Was it packed down nice and tight? What is that at the top? The white foam piece?

Water flows from left to right in that pic?

 

[gobble]

There was maybe 3/4" of gap between the resin and the white foam piece. I just removed it and packed it tight with extra resin. That canister is the pro series mixed bed and yes the water does flow from left to right.

Although for the time being I have reordered it to put cation/anion in the dual setup with the pro series mixed bed and regular mixed bed on the left side. I've reworked the plumbing and have done this just for the purpose of being able to put a TDS meter after the pro series mixed bed resin. The picture was before I did this.

After adding more pro series mixed bed to the canister, I'm getting TDS of 2 off the RO membrane, 3 after cation/anion, and 3 after the pro series mixed bed.

If you're just going off TDS measurements, THE PRO SERIES RESINS MAKE MY WATER WORSE!

 

[Jamie7907]

If the resins aren’t packed in right, such as yours it will allow the water to “channel” rendering the affected cartridges effectively useless. The problem isn’t the resins it’s the user not knowing what they’re doing when refilling a cartridge.

 

[gobble]

I’ve been doing this for 3 years I know how to pack resin. It was packed tight just a small bit short of the foam. Now it’s packed tight as can be and same bad result.

 

[Ryanbrs]

Unless someone can prove me wrong, I don't think the BRS pro series resins perform as advertised.

After 30 gallons of water -

output water from RO membrane = 2 TDS
output water from NEW pro series cation resin = 10! TDS
output water from anion resin = 2 TDS
output water from pro series mixed bed (still blue/purple color) = ? don't know
output water from regular mixed bed = 0 TDS

However, 1/3 of the regular mixed bed resin was used up in 30 gallons of water when the output water from the RO filter was 2 TDS!!! This is consistent with the usage back when I was simply using only regular mixed bed resin. I don't believe the pro series cation/anion/mixed bed is helping at all.

What's going on?

Hi ,

I think it would be best to call in, I'd ask for Jason. If he can't help he will probably grab me. These types of situations can be identified with a quick back and forth on the phone. It's much more difficult with the slow turn around on forum posts.

I do have a few points to share.

• There is zero value measuring TDS after the first cation stage because all that's happened is the cations have been exchanged with hydrogens which form acids. The acids will have a stronger electrical charge so the TDS meter will actually read much higher. Keep in mind the TDS meter is just giving an estimate of TDS based on electrical conductivity. It's not designed to work in odd instances where all of the cations have been exchanged for hydrogen.
• After the anion resin, it should be near zero with sodium being the most common element that gets through.
• There is not a ton of value in going with two mixed beds after the single beds like that. You will have to change the first one when dye indicates depletion and you do want the dye in the resin type that depletes first.
• I would make 100% sure it is purple resin then blue. It wont work the other way.
• The two resins in the single beds are the same as those in the mixed beds; they just are not mixed. The single bed with cation followed by anion is used in all kinds of applications.

 

[Ryanbrs]

For what is worth we have about 16 minutes on how these resins work here : )

 

[Ryanbrs]

The people I'm going to get through support chat won't have a clue. Isn't this the reason they have a forum?

I wish it was clearer but forums are really more for the reefing community to engage with other reefers and not the greatest solution for customer service. Chats and calls get answered within minutes and emails get answered within 2 business hours, all much better options. In cases like this where there is an experience that falls outside of the standard it's best to call because it can be difficult to identify the oddball issues. These types of issues are almost always the result of something unique about the water supply or install.

 

[gobble]

After all this it ended up that I had cation followed by cation followed by the mixed beds. Duh. I had ordered a big bag of cation when I was in need of anion. Too much for me to keep track of I guess. Now I'm 2 RO, 3 cation, 0 anion, 0 mixed bed.

Sorry for wasting everyone's time.

 

[MTBake]

After all this it ended up that I had cation followed by cation followed by the mixed beds. Duh. I had ordered a big bag of cation when I was in need of anion. Too much for me to keep track of I guess. Now I'm 2 RO, 3 cation, 0 anion, 0 mixed bed.

Sorry for wasting everyone's time.

Really glad you got it all figured out!

 

[Zack@BRS]

Really glad you got it all figured out!

+1

Glad it was something you could make sense of. There are some really mysterious issues that can pop up sometimes.

 

[Ryanbrs]

After all this it ended up that I had cation followed by cation followed by the mixed beds. Duh. I had ordered a big bag of cation when I was in need of anion. Too much for me to keep track of I guess. Now I'm 2 RO, 3 cation, 0 anion, 0 mixed bed.

Sorry for wasting everyone's time.

It's almost always something silly like that. Glad we could help