Gardiners Fibredyne Prefilter

[Tuffers]

FAO @Alex Gardiner, @spruce or @doug atkinson. If I bought one of these 20" Fibredyne CFB PLUS Sediment/Carbon Pre-Filter - Sediment & Carbon Filters - Water Treatment - Pure Water Systems - All Products Gardiner Pole Systems what would I do with my spare prefilter housing? Would I leave it empty or maybe put a cheap sediment filter in it?

One other question; if my prefilters are knackered would that affect the water pressure going into the RO membrane? My pressure going into the membrane has dropped considerably over the last few days and the TDS has risen to 020PPM from around 014PPM. I've tested the water pressure from the tap going into the system and it reads around 50psi while coming out of the RO it reads around 30psi but it was at 38psi earlier in the week.

I'm changing my prefilters tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if my water pressure goes up after fitting them.

 

[spruce]

Please see comments inside copy of original post.

FAO @Alex Gardiner, @spruce or @doug atkinson.

If I bought one of these 20" Fibredyne CFB PLUS Sediment/Carbon Pre-Filter - Sediment & Carbon Filters - Water Treatment - Pure Water Systems - All Products Gardiner Pole Systems what would I do with my spare prefilter housing? Would I leave it empty or maybe put a cheap sediment filter in it?

Yes, leave it empty. In our case we have a rather high sediment in our water so we leave the sediment filter in the first housing. Everyone one of us on Teesside that I know off has to use a sediment prefilter. On occasion, I have changed my sediment filter every month and the Fiberdyne prefilter every 3 months according to water usage.

One other question; if my prefilters are knackered would that affect the water pressure going into the RO membrane?

My experience is that as our sediment prefilter clogged up it reduced the flow of water through the prefilters. Reducing the flow would also reduce the pressure exerted onto the membranes making them less efficient. I have a pressure gauge on each side of my prefilters. When the prefilters are changed the pressure registers the same on both gauges. As the month/months go on the pressure gauge after the Fiberdyne starts registering a lower and lower pressure due to the silted up sediment filter. Our water pressure is 50psi and when the gauge after the Fiberdyne drops by 10 psi I change the sediment filter. Once that's done the gauges register the same again.

 


So for me having a blocked prefilter will effect the tds reading of the pure from the membrane.

My pressure going into the membrane has dropped considerably over the last few days and the TDS has risen to 020PPM from around 014PPM. I've tested the water pressure from the tap going into the system and it reads around 50psi while coming out of the RO it reads around 30psi but it was at 38psi earlier in the week.

I'm changing my prefilters tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if my water pressure goes up after fitting them.

I expect you will experience the same as I do. You have a higher tds tap water input than we do so the effect on pure output will be more significant.

 

[Den]

Nice answer Spruce I often wondered the same questions tuffers just asked as I want to upgrade my RO system in the summer.

 

[Tuffers]

Thanks @spruce I'll let you know if the pressure rises later today. My system usually makes 100L per hour but last night it only made 100L in over 2 hours, so I shut the system off until I change the prefilters.

 

[Tuffers]

Update: prefilters have been changed and system been flushed. Water pressure going into RO is slightly up. It's now reading 30psi instead of original 40psi. TDS coming out of RO is now 019PPM (it was 020 last night). TDS coming out of RO last week was 014PPM. There are no kinks in hose going to the system and at the tap the pressure is 50psi so why is the pressure down? Would a new RO membrane help in any way?

 

[spruce]

i would try and tweek the waste from the r/o and see if that helps.

Someone else from another forum also said he had the same thing but the pressure came up after a couple of days. Never did understand why.

 

[Tuffers]

i would try and tweek the waste from the r/o and see if that helps.
Someone else from another forum also said he had the same thing but the pressure came up after a couple of days. Never did understand why.

I've got the valve almost closed at the moment, just to get the pressure up more.

 

[doug atkinson]

If you have a lot of sediment in your water I would advise putting a sediment filter before the CFB plus filter. Our local water supply as it is full of sediment so CFB filters do not last as per specification.

 

[Tuffers]

If you have a lot of sediment in your water I would advise putting a sediment filter before the CFB plus filter. Our local water supply as it is full of sediment so CFB filters do not last as per specification.

Water pressure is still about 30psi, PPM coming out of RO is 022. Gate valve leaks when almost closed. Could this be the problem with low pressure ie something has broken inside the valve and letting too much water through?

What size gate valve would I need? I can't see any writing on the outside of it.

 

[spruce]

Water pressure is still about 30psi, PPM coming out of RO is 022. Gate valve leaks when almost closed. Could this be the problem with low pressure ie something has broken inside the valve and letting too much water through?
What size gate valve would I need? I can't see any writing on the outside of it.

You could go down to a local plumbing supply outlet and buy a 1/2" bsp female brass gate valve. Then just swap it over.

Here's an example

1/2 Inch BSP Gate Valve | British Standard Pipe Thread | FxF Brass Gate-Valve | eBay

Please remind me again. You got the system from Purefreedom didn't you? If you did, I didn't realise that PureFreedom drill quite a big hole in the valve plate. This limited the amount of water that could be shut off. (The hole is drilled to stop the waste valve from being completely shut damaging the r/o membrane.)

If you go this way you must remember that you should never shut the waste gate valve completely.

 

[Tuffers]

You could go down to a local plumbing supply outlet and buy a 1/2" bsp female brass gate valve. Then just swap it over.
Here's an example

1/2 Inch BSP Gate Valve | British Standard Pipe Thread | FxF Brass Gate-Valve | eBay

Please remind me again. You got the system from Purefreedom didn't you? If you did, I didn't realise that PureFreedom drill quite a big hole in the valve plate. This limited the amount of water that could be shut off. (The hole is drilled to stop the waste valve from being completely shut damaging the r/o membrane.)

If you go this way you must remember that you should never shut the waste gate valve completely.

Yes it's a PF setup. I'll buy a new gate valve and see how it goes. Cheers spruce.