Aquasafe ?
 

The output on my 6 stage RO/DI has shut down to nothing in less than two months. At first it was crappy and I bought a booster pump, which doubled my outflow, but now it's back to basically nothing.

I do go through a lot of water so I was thinking some of my filters might be plugged, but now I can't find Aquasafe on ebay or a website url.

Can someone direct me to them ?

Address for there ebay store:

http://stores.ebay.com/The-Aqua-Safe-Pure-Water-Shop


Address for there website:

http://www.aquasafecanada.com/

HTH :biggrin:

When that happens to me, I go to Wal-mart and get a new 5 micron prefilter. Mine clog often, especially in the summer. My cartridges are clear, so I can see when the filter is dirty.

Can you back flush your system? Some units come with a back flush option.

ro
 

Aquasafe recommendations are pretty accurate. That is, on average use of 5g/day, the filters are to be changed every 6 months. Recently I came across the same problem where the output water was reduced to almost nothing. It puzzled me for days, I checked pratically every parts, and then it occurred to me to read the instructions. What do you know, changing all the filters fixed the problem. The filters were into the sixth month of use and I had lost track of time. I guess with someone like myself who doesn't own a TSD meter, keeping track of gal/day usage can be helpfull in determining when to change filters.

In your case Deb, clogging after two months is quite a fast rate. You must be using 10-15gal/day. Any idea how much per day you're using.

Does anyone know if there is a "counter" available that can say how many gals of water have been produced?

You guys actually get 6 months out of your filters?! Damn. I have to change my filters every 3 - 4 weeks. the prefilter gets soooo clogged up so fast out here.

my output gets cut in half after a week of making 15g per day. My psi will slowly drop from 65ish to 30.... down to 10 in a month if I let it.

RO
 

Calgary water is quite clean. Six months is stretching it a bit, but five months for sure at 5g/day.

Well, I figure I use up to 15 gallons a day :eek: , so it's probably just cartridge time. I do have a backflush and use that regularly.

I hope I can switch the clear cannisters onto the unit so I can see the filters more easily.

I do have a TDS meter and it stills reads zero tho? So I'll start with the sediment filter.

Thanks guys.

ro
 

LostMind, it seems like an expensive hobby for you just to obtain clean water. Changing filters every month is something I'd hate to deal with :mad:

Deb, TSD meters, and eletronic measuring devices alike, are tools that require period calibration. I have little trust in them myself. Their readings are highly dependent on the calibration as well as the power supply. IMO, the human senses are sometimes a better tool. :mrgreen: :biggrin:

Deb lost her sense's long ago... :lol: .

I looked into flow meters last year and found a place in Montreal that carried a unit practical for aquarium use. litremeter.com or somethin' like that. That's where the practicality ended though...they were a couple hundred bucks a piece. :eek:. It would be a cool addition to the "water treatment facility" though. :cool:

Deb I took apart my old kent unit and added a 15micron prefilter before my aquasafe unit. It's a clear cannister and I change the 15 micron unit about every 3 months. It's amazing how dirty the prefilter's in the unit and the extra one I added get! :eek:

Where did you get the 15 micron Jon?

You can get them at home depot. they come in a 2 pack for about $12 I believe. They are in the water heater/plumbing ish section.

Sometimes they are labled 15 to 30 micron and sometimes 10 to 25 micron. I'm not fussy as it's just to get the big crap out.

My aquasafe has never clogged in 6 months. I estimate that I've pulled at least 1000 gal from it. It still can put out 5 gal every 3.5 hours. I flush it for about 20min once a week. We have really good water pressure at our house, so maybe that's the difference. Maybe I should order some new filters all the same.

BTW, it's the 6 stage 75 GPD unit.

i have a different problem on my ro unit from aquasafe .. sometimes i find it processing water for hours i have to turn the flush switch on and off to shut the system from processing water
anyone having the same problem?

Jesse, mine's been doing the same. I'm assuming it's a calcium build-up inside the shut-off, (back-flush), valve. Mine will often shut off when the washing machine is turned on, causing a sudden pressure drop.
One of these days I should look at fixin' that though, our water bill doubled last month. :eek: I repaired a leaky toilet hoping that was the major culprit...

I have a question. Why are the sediment filters 5 micron and the carbon 1 micron. Wouldn't the carbon clog up too quickly then?

Anyway, I changed the first sediment filter and it was barely tan colored. No change in water flow. The pressure pump rocks, no problem there, but there is definitely a blockage somewhere.. :confused:

I guess I'll change them all out...again.... :rolleyes:

They have water bills in calgary I though it was a flat rate down there. there goes my plans of moving and building a 10,000g dive tanmk in a shed. well I guess I will have to stick to small tanks.
Do you need a ro-di unit sold far aquarium use or can you buy a normal one?

Jesse, this might be worth a try. I took my shut-off/back flush valve off ond soaked it in vinegar overnight. It's been working great since.
Snaggle, if you're concerned about the water bill, just do what Steve, (Buk-a neer) did. Go meet the new neighbour... :rolleyes: :lol: .

I swapped out all the other filters tonite, and with some hose swapping, we determined it is the membrane that is shot after two months. :eek:

I have been back flushing it regularly.

I guess I'll see what they have to say. :sad:

Deb, does the RO membrane come out of the housing...? :confused: . I have never had to take mine apart. I thought my instructions read the membrane is removable but it's extremely difficult given the expansion once saturated. This of course was the bit where the manual recomends replacing the entire unit once something fails as opposed to replacing only the required parts... :rolleyes: . Just a long shot but perhaps there's blockage in the housing inlet or outlet ?

Hey Deb......... don't forget the tempurature of the input water has an effect on your output. The colder it is the less production you will get.

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

Yes Victor, I do remember that from last winter. :eek: But it's not that cold here yet, and the output is far less than the middle of last winter.

Doug, maybe I can use my membrane housing from my old unit then?

thanks i'll try that tonight
how do you know when ur membranes gone? tds meter? crappy i should get me one of those meters
i base ev'rything on what happens on my tank .. once algae starts growing usually means time to replace cartrigde filters... algae dissapear after three consicutive water changes

Hey Deb,

Did you fix your problem?

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

After going through some checklists etc with AquaSafe, we finally tried another membrane and the unit works fine. I don't know if the membrane was defective or what. So far, they haven't replaced it.

I just wanted to let everyone know that Aquasafe replaced the membrane for me :mrgreen:

Same problem and after speaking with Aquasafe I have pinpointed it to plugged prefilters. Drops the pressure making the shutoffvalve not perform.

My Aquasafe system was doing something similar. It would fill the resevoir tank and then shut off only to drain the entire tank out the drain line and start over again. It would do this continually unless I shut off the water supply to the unit. It turned out to be the check valve on the outlet of the memnbrane. I contacted Aquasafe and they sent me out a new one. It works fine again.