Di resin problems

[WinWiz]

When they stop performing. In my books I would change them once they get to around 94% efficiency. Anything after that you are putting off the inevitable.
Our last lot of 150 GPD membranes lasted 6 years. I bought that r/o when it was a year old. The membranes lasted me about 6 months as the previous owner didn't replace prefilters. We live in the same town with the same water supply.

Now we have 4040 and that is 2 1/2 years old - the membrane is producing water at 2ppm, exactly the same as it did when it was first commissioned.

Sediment filter get changed every 3 weeks and fiberdyne 20" carbon block about every 3 months when it has filtered 78000 liters of water. I have a water meter which counts the liters used and set off an alarm to advise when that filter needs changing.

OK, so I've changed the RO and all is well again in the world. My RO membrane from Pure Freedom is the Spectrum brand. It's 97cm long and 10cm in diameter. Model number: SRO-4040-2500-LE.

It was quite a job changing it! They don't tell you when you buy it that you will need A HAMMER to get the end cap back on. But got there in the end. After a two hour flush, it produces 11 ppm. With the booster pump on at 7psi, that drops to 8ppm. My DI then gets it down to zero ppm.

So that means that this particular model of RO from new can produce at best 8ppm when the tap water is 260ppm if I use a water softner, 2 pre filters and a booster pump. Now the question is: Does anyone know of an RO that performs better than that so that my DI Resin will last even longer?

 

[spruce]

Thanks Spruce. Your knowledge is impressive. Maybe PureFreedom were not stumped. Simply unhelpful. I got nowhere near this type of help from them. They are either disinterested, too busy or weary because they gave me a 1 year warrentee and the RO stopped working well before the year was up.
Because I use 2000 liters a week, I'm using 8000 liters from the tap.

So what you're saying is, if I was to look at system maintenance in it's entirety:

I'm on the South Coast - south of the Downs. Chalky water. So I top-up the salt for the softner every week.

In addition to that, I should:

- Change the two pre-filters every 3 months

- Flush the RO for two hours once a week

- Flush the RO twice a week for 15 min

- Change the RO when the PPM goes over 8

- Change the DI Resin when the PPM goes over 10

Does that sound good?

PureFreedom usually sell 4040's with 20" prefilters. If this is the case with you then you should be getting involved with Fiberdyne carbon block filters. They are good for about 78,ooo liters.

Unfortunately I haven't any experience with water like you chaps have on the south coast, but in the North East our water is around 125ppm and has no chalk in it. I'm able to run our r/o at 50 psi with no booster and an HF5 membrane at about 55% waste to 45% pure. Our membrane is nearly 2 1/2 years old and TBH doesn't get flushed that often.

Added at edit.

Remember a guarantee would be that the system would be working fine, which it is doing. Consumables such as membranes and prefilters wouldn't be covered unless you report an 'immediate' problem shortly after purchase.

In your case using that amount of water you will need to change your Fiberdyne every 2 months. If you were using the old GAC Carbon block filters then you need to change that every week.

Now there is a cleaning company down on the south coast called Perfect Windows in Southampton who have gone on step further. He uses a DI vessel full of acid washed charcoal as a chlorine prefilter and he swears by it. June from GAPS Water is the best person to speak to about this.

This is his email address

[email protected]

His name is Vin. He is a great guy.

With hard water like you have I would be trying to supplement my water with by rain water harvesting if that was at all possible.

When reassembling housings on 4040 housing we usually smear a very thin coating of silicone grease on the O'rings which definitely help to make reassembly easier.

I honestly believe that the 4040 is the best you can get out there at the moment for us window cleaners at a sensible price. It as produces water quickly. I filled my van this morning after son in law filled his and by 4pm my IBC tank was full. I recon we took over 800 liters.

 

[Tuffers]

^^ informative as ever :thumbsup:

 

[WinWiz]

PureFreedom usually sell 4040's with 20" prefilters. If this is the case with you then you should be getting involved with Fiberdyne carbon block filters. They are good for about 78,ooo liters.
Unfortunately I haven't any experience with water like you chaps have on the south coast, but in the North East our water is around 125ppm and has no chalk in it. I'm able to run our r/o at 50 psi with no booster and an HF5 membrane at about 55% waste to 45% pure. Our membrane is nearly 2 1/2 years old and TBH doesn't get flushed that often.

Added at edit.

Remember a guarantee would be that the system would be working fine, which it is doing. Consumables such as membranes and prefilters wouldn't be covered unless you report an 'immediate' problem shortly after purchase.

In your case using that amount of water you will need to change your Fiberdyne every 2 months. If you were using the old GAC Carbon block filters then you need to change that every week.

Now there is a cleaning company down on the south coast called Perfect Windows in Southampton who have gone on step further. He uses a DI vessel full of acid washed charcoal as a chlorine prefilter and he swears by it. June from GAPS Water is the best person to speak to about this.

This is his email address

[email protected]

His name is Vin. He is a great guy.

With hard water like you have I would be trying to supplement my water with by rain water harvesting if that was at all possible.

When reassembling housings on 4040 housing we usually smear a very thin coating of silicone grease on the O'rings which definitely help to make reassembly easier.

I honestly believe that the 4040 is the best you can get out there at the moment for us window cleaners at a sensible price. It as produces water quickly. I filled my van this morning after son in law filled his and by 4pm my IBC tank was full. I recon we took over 800 liters.

Thanks Spruce.

Pure Freedom fitted two pre-filters. I'll check with them if it was a Fiberdyne carbon block filter & a GAC Carbon block filter. (I did change them a month ago but didn't check the detail of what it was. Having googled it though, it looks very much like the ones I replaced.) It's frustrating to year that I should have been changing one of the filters every week. They told me 3 months for both pre-filters when I bought the system. But I shouldn't be surprised, it took a year for them to commit to an answer about how often to top-up the salt for the softner (once a week being the answer.)

When I compare the cost of changing one of the pre-filters every week (and the other every 2 months) with the cost of buying a new RO once a year, it seems to me that just replacing the RO once a year and forgetting about pre-filters would work out cheaper?

 

[doug atkinson]

OK, so I've changed the RO and all is well again in the world. My RO membrane from Pure Freedom is the Spectrum brand. It's 97cm long and 10cm in diameter. Model number: SRO-4040-2500-LE.It was quite a job changing it! They don't tell you when you buy it that you will need A HAMMER to get the end cap back on. But got there in the end. After a two hour flush, it produces 11 ppm. With the booster pump on at 7psi, that drops to 8ppm. My DI then gets it down to zero ppm.

So that means that this particular model of RO from new can produce at best 8ppm when the tap water is 260ppm if I use a water softner, 2 pre filters and a booster pump. Now the question is: Does anyone know of an RO that performs better than that so that my DI Resin will last even longer?

Most high quality membranes will do 98% rejection rate so yours is working spot on.

 

[Tuffers]

Did I mention my tap water TDS is 039PPM :balloondance:

 

[WinWiz]

Did I mention my tap water TDS is 039PPM :balloondance:

you live in a great area mate! good enough water so that your equipment lasts, but not so good that the customer can use their own tap water to clean their windows /emoticons/biggrin.png

 

[Tuffers]

you live in a great area mate! good enough water so that your equipment lasts, but not so good that the customer can use their own tap water to clean their windows /emoticons/biggrin.png

I won't be moving house . The funny thing is that 2 miles up the road the water comes from a different company and it's hard.

 

[Chris Dall]

Thanks Spruce. Your knowledge is impressive. Maybe PureFreedom were not stumped. Simply unhelpful. I got nowhere near this type of help from them. They are either disinterested, too busy or weary because they gave me a 1 year warrentee and the RO stopped working well before the year was up.
Because I use 2000 liters a week, I'm using 8000 liters from the tap.

So what you're saying is, if I was to look at system maintenance in it's entirety:

I'm on the South Coast - south of the Downs. Chalky water. So I top-up the salt for the softner every week.

In addition to that, I should:

- Change the two pre-filters every 3 months

- Flush the RO for two hours once a week

- Flush the RO twice a week for 15 min

- Change the RO when the PPM goes over 8

- Change the DI Resin when the PPM goes over 10

Does that sound good?

Where on south coast are you? Im probably not far from you if you need some help

 

[WinWiz]

I just found out from Pure Freedom that replacing the Carbon Block filter & Sediment Filter costs £31 including VAT. Using 8000 liters of purified water a month, those filters would need replacing every 6 weeks. So that's £256 a year. Is that worth doing? The RO unit costs roughly the same to replace yearly. So why bother with the 2 pre-filters?