RO Unit on a well

[Slick Fork]

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on maximizing RO efficiency and membrane life with well water.

Our water from the tap is 768ppm, I just put a brand new Dow Filmtec 75gpd membrane in and the reading right off the membrane is 83ppm. I have not yet tested after the DI to see what that brings it down to. I just got the tds meter so I'll be interested in seeing what sort of lifespan I'm going to get out of this membrane.

So, if anyone has any tips to improve on this, I would really love to hear from them.

[robzilla]

what psi do you have?
i've got low psi from my well and i bought a booster pump. one of my best investments, improves rejection rates and cuts down on waste water

[DanG]

if your RO system has a flush (reverse flow)option, I suggest running it every couple of days to try and flush all the crap out of the membrane.

[Doug]

I ran my well water through a large mainline filter first, then to the water softener, then to the ro. The soft water is easy on membranes and the ro removes the softener salt for drinking purpose.

My feed from the softener was split, with part feeding the ro and the rest to the house fixtures that needed no ro water. The ro was only used to feed a spigot tap at the kitchen sink and the fridge water & ice maker, plus the tanks.

[Slick Fork]

Doug;
Are you talking about one of those big cannisters that you can buy at home depot?

Robzilla;
Where did you get your pump? I may look into ordering one as our PSI sort of hovers around 30ish

Dan:
I just installed a flush kit the other day, glad to hear it wasn't a waste of money!

[Psyire]

PSI of 30 is very low, you want at least 50.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Slick Fork

Doug;
Are you talking about one of those big cannisters that you can buy at home depot?

I dont recall seeing the one they sell but would guess thats similar. Its just a large mainline prefilter. Mine came from the company that installed my equipment but they are pretty much standard. I purchased filters for around $12 from a wholesale plumbing outfit here and changed them 3 or 4 times/year. I did notice everytime I changed them, the old ones were sure full of crud from the well.

[bassman]

Originally Posted by Doug

I ran my well water through a large mainline filter first, then to the water softener, then to the ro. The soft water is easy on membranes and the ro removes the softener salt for drinking purpose.

My feed from the softener was split, with part feeding the ro and the rest to the house fixtures that needed no ro water. The ro was only used to feed a spigot tap at the kitchen sink and the fridge water & ice maker, plus the tanks.

I was told to never use soft water in a aquarium. It removes too many minerals. This will cause your water to draw these minerals from other sources, such as pumps.

My house is on a well too. I filter the water when it enters the house with a cannister filter, then I tee off for my RO unit before the water softener.

It's hard to tell from your post but it kind of sounds like your drinking water is softened as well? It is not recommended to drink soft water, for the same reasons. Your body needs those minerals.

Just me 2 cents, please feel free to correct me. I am by no means an expert. LOL

[Doug]

Originally Posted by bassman

I was told to never use soft water in a aquarium. It removes too many minerals. This will cause your water to draw these minerals from other sources, such as pumps.

My house is on a well too. I filter the water when it enters the house with a cannister filter, then I tee off for my RO unit before the water softener.

It's hard to tell from your post but it kind of sounds like your drinking water is softened as well? It is not recommended to drink soft water, for the same reasons. Your body needs those minerals.

Just me 2 cents, please feel free to correct me. I am by no means an expert. LOL

I never used soft water in the tank, as it ran through the ro unit first. Soft water is much easier on an ro membrane than the hard cold well water, which is murder on them. An ro/di removes everything from the water anyways, so not sure what you mean regarding the soft water removing minerals.

As a matter of fact I never filtered enough. I never ran a post di then. Big mistake as the high alk. of the well water, which a di removes, often screwed up my levels when mixed with Instant Ocean salt.

No soft water was used for human consumption, as it was passed through the ro before going to the fridge and sink. Pure soft water was teed to the rest of the house.

This was the suggested procedure. We once had a long thread on it on the chemistry forum at RC, and someone brought up similar points to you but Randy agreed with the way I have mentioned here.

I to am not an expert but just relating my experience. Perhaps someone who works in this field can add more. I have often wondered how the thousands of country folks who run water softeners and have no idea what an ro unit even is, get their drinking water. When I asked out in the country, they said they just drank it from the tap. Something I would not do also.