RO question Please help!!
 

I just started up my RO unit and I was wondering if your RO water drips into the bucket or do you get some flow. Mine is a coral life 24 gallons per day RO unit. It has been running for about 15 minutes and is dripping into the bucket. Is this normal.

Thanks
Josh

I just timed it.

For clean RO water to fill 1 cup or 250 ml it took 8 minutes
For waste water to fill 1 cup it took 5 seconds.

These seems a little fishy to me.

If it is to make 24 gallons per day it would have to product 4000 ml per hour.

mine is making about 60 minutes / 8 minutes = 7.5
7.5 x 250 ml= 1875ml.

That means that the production is almost cut in half from what is advertised.

Waste water on the other hand is at 60 minutes / 5 seconds= 720
720 x 250 ml =180,000 ml which is equal to 45 gallons per hour.
Thats alot of waste water.

Does this seem right to you or is my math off.
Either way its crapy and I think RO/DI units suck.

Josh

I'd recheck your math. 45gph of waste is wrong. Also, what is the input temp and pressure from your tap? This makes a difference.
BTW, problem algae suck more :D

Josh your membrane will take a while to get "fully wet?" I think may be the correct term. You have to run it for a while before you get full output.
Also the colder water will reduce your output.
My 60gpd unit takes 8 hours to make 18g of ro/di water.
My wastewater is a strong flow and my product water is a slowdrip/stream.

Canadian Man.
have you ever calculated the amount of waste water your unit produces.

Just wanted to add a couple more things.

I have in total run the RO unit for about 45 minutes over a week. While it has not been in use the water has remained in the RO unit. I dont know if this would help to soak the membrane.

Its running cold water but not extremely cold with a flow rate from the hose of about half.

Never calculated it cause I am scared at the res :? ult!

Waste should be roughly 4:1

Right now Im no where near a 4 to 1 ratio. It took 8 minutes to fill a cup with RO water and 5 seconds to fill it with waste water.

Josh

Josh do you have a flush valve ? and if so isit open or closed when you are doing this.. sounds like you have a membrain flush bypass and you have it open


Steve

Which reminds me of a little story....no never mind.......I left that stupid flush valve open....AGAIN......talk about waste... :roll:

I dont believe there are any valves on it.
Where would it be located if there was.

The unit works as follows
Enters left lower chamber and flows into right lower chamber which flows into upper chamber ( I believe the membrane is located here) and then is divided into either waste and or RO water.

Josh

You will want to have you water input fully open. The units are designed to run at aprox 60psi. You will only get aprox 75% of what the rating is listed for output. The output numbers are based on specific pressures,tds,and water temp. If you have really dirty water in your area you will also seee more waste than the 4:1 ratio that most people get. Hope this helps

Okay then, how many gallons of good water are you going to get before you have to change the membrane. Also, mine is just a RO unit. Is it really worth going to a RO/DI unit?

Our water quality is problie much better then most city water as we live in the country. We are not on a well but a small water system.
Im going to test the water temp later today after school and post it here.
Josh

Seriak A RO/DI unit will give you a purer water. With my unit I have a TDS reading of 001
Josh You should take a TDS reading of your water. This will tell you what the quality will be like. You should also check the water pressure of the system if you can as well the temp.

Home work has gotten in the way tonight, Im swamped to the RO unit testing is going to have to be put off for a while but ill see how it goes.

Im going to try and increase the pressure to full and get a temp reading on the water coming out. More later
Josh