Quote:
Originally Posted by mikellini
You should really change your carbon block more often, most of them are rated for 20k gallons at 50% efficiency or so, which means that by that time, they are letting 50% of what they should be stopping through. Plus that rating is for continuous operation, so if it sits for some time it will reduce the number somewhat. Plus there's clogging of the micron filter before the block (will happen to some degree even with a sediment filter of equal micron size before it), bacterial growth etc. And it's a 9 dollar part.
BRS has a great series of videos on carbon blocks and rodi systems, a true wealth of information. Myself, I change my sediment filter when water pressure drops from 60 psi to 50 psi, and the carbon filter every second time I change the sediment filter. Probably works out to every 1000 gallons for the sediment, and 2000 for the carbon
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I thought the main purpose of the carbon block was to protect the RO membrane from chlorine. I have a swimming pool test kit for chlorine that I used before changing the carbon last time & it still showed negative. I didn't wait until exactly 20,000 gallons on the last one, but close. I still use RO water from the system at 1 TDS for drinking etc. with no health issues that I'm aware of. I realize the filter is not that costly, but still like to get the most out of the thing before relinquishing it to the landfill. Besides, the water coming through my tap is supposedly fit for human consumption. A bunch of videos from a vendor are unlikely to make me change my errant ways! Folks are free to change them as often as they see fit, I'm merely documenting my experience. YMMV. And that's where my trusty spreadsheet comes in handy. I don't have a smart phone or iphone, so it's what I do.