R/O water smells skunky

[asylumdown]

Hmm, all this talk about bypassing stages and flushing... I have a Vertex 100gpd RO/DI unit, it has an automated flush function that comes on for 15 seconds when you turn the unit on, and every 15 minutes of operation, but is it possible for me to manually flush it/bypass the resin?

I don't measure the TDS going in, but I do know that this pre-filter went from white to burnt orange about 3X faster than it normally does. I replaced the RO membrane about 6 months ago, which is why I thought I'd get more out of it, but it really seems to be burning through DI resin now. However, I do 45-50 gallon water changes every single week plus whatever is evaporating from my tank, so I think I probably go through more water than most people.

And in this case, it was a sustained 22pm. I did a water change, which practically drains my RO tank, and in the process I noticed the smell. I checked the unit, (which was already starting to re-fill my RO tank), and it was at 22ppm. I turned it off, and switched out the pre-filter and carbon cartridge (my next set of DI and R/O membranes haven't arrived yet), and turned it back on. For 5 minutes it skyrocketed up to 50ppm, and then very rapidly came back down to 22. By the time I went to bed, it was reading 17ppm, but today it's showing 33ppm.

What's the best way to run the unit? For example, my auto-top off pump is in my R/O storage bin, so as it tops off my tank, the R/O unit is always kicking on to replace the lost water, but it's only ever producing tiny amounts at a time. Is that bad? WOuld it be better to cut the water supply to the RO unit and let the storage tank empty a fair ways before re-filling it? I'm not sure if the way I'm running it is contributing to how quickly it's going through media, or if I'm just using more water than most and have crappy source water.