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Ro flushing help

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CHWS

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Bangor
I'm new to the ro. Had my tank filled up so went to turn the water on and tested the water and it was coming out at 6. I've a 450gpd Collins. I flushed it for about a minute and it went down to 1 then 0 and then closed over the flush and it seems to be staying at 0. Is it procedure to flush them every now and then? And when the tds creeps up how do you diagnose wether it's the resin needing changed or the pre filters? 

 
My procedure is always the same

Open flush completely and turn on water

I have 2 taps on a y splitter where the product water comes out (1 to di/tank and 1 to the garden)

After about a minute shut flush completely as inline restrictor manages the flushing while running

With a 4040 you need to leave the valve open a bit

Open the tap to garden and run for a minute or so until water is as low ppm as it is gonna get before di and then shut that and open the one to di/tank

That stops the tds spike from ruining your resin too quick 

You will always get a high reading before di if you test it too quick and don't let it run for a couple of minutes

I usually open the flush for a minute when finished also to clear it out


 
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I'm new to the ro. Had my tank filled up so went to turn the water on and tested the water and it was coming out at 6. I've a 450gpd Collins. I flushed it for about a minute and it went down to 1 then 0 and then closed over the flush and it seems to be staying at 0. Is it procedure to flush them every now and then? And when the tds creeps up how do you diagnose wether it's the resin needing changed or the pre filters? 
Pre filters make no difference to tds they just remove stuff harmfull to the ro membranes

If it is high after di then the resin is saturated although giving it a good shake and roll around usually gives a bit more life

If you are getting through resin quicker than usual then test the tds of the water before di and if it is producing a lot higher than usual the membranes will be deteriorating and eventually need replacing

So basically anytime you turn the water on give it a flush?
Yeah.. i prefer to flush when i turn it off so no stuff settles in there before you next use it

 
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If the r/o is new then the membranes are soaked in a preservative. So you need to flush for a bit to begin with to get rid of the preservative.  Its also good to let the r/o run normally for a few hours, but to send the pure to waste until all the preservative is removed. Once that's done then it should settle down and perform efficiently. Sometimes it can take a few days for the membranes to settle in for some reason I have never heard an explanation for.

As far as flushing is concerned I'm not a good example to follow. My r/o is probably only flushed for a few minutes once a month. But we aren't in a hard water area and our water isn't full of lime. The membrane is nearly 5 years old and still performing at 98.8% efficiency.

 
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Just purchased collins 450gpd ro im getting 5ppm after ro thats 150ppm going in, about 30 litres per hour, do you think i need a booster lads, thanks

 
It's kind of amazing when you see people say there is no need to flush at all. I always advise when your R/O has been dormant put it the the flush mode when you start the system.

Reason behind this is if left dormant for say 12 hours the water is stagnant in the r/o system. As soon as you turn the tap on you will have very high ppm coming out then after about 5 mins it will settle down.

By flushing you save on resin.

 
It's kind of amazing when you see people say there is no need to flush at all. I always advise when your R/O has been dormant put it the the flush mode when you start the system.

Reason behind this is if left dormant for say 12 hours the water is stagnant in the r/o system. As soon as you turn the tap on you will have very high ppm coming out then after about 5 mins it will settle down.

By flushing you save on resin.


They call it tds creep don't they?

As I've posted earlier, I'm not the best example to follow when it comes to flushing. I guess I stopped worrying about it when several of us were taking water at different times during the day. I decided I would rather replace resin more often than have the other 2 cleaners (son and son in law) mess around with my settings.

In my case the initial tds from the r/o is quite high and drops quickly as you say. Our rejection rate is between 1 and 2 so the resin in a 7 liter di vessel lasts about a year even with the initial surge.

June from GAPS Water once advised that we worry too much about flushing as she says its not really necessary. Like most things, suppliers won't always agree the same solution to the same problem. I've just passed on my experience. If I was a supplier I would recommend flushing before starting the r/o each time. Your advice has to account for the conditions of each window cleaner in the country, some with soft water and some with very hard water just a few miles away from us in Hartlepool (550ppm last check.)

If I was in Hartlepool I would definitely be flushing first every time even if it meant spending a lot on a controller that automatically did it.

 
Yes Spruce correct, TDS creep.

Also having correct filters as some cheep ones are just carbon fibre dust which clog up the membranes which I have also seen.

 
Just purchased collins 450gpd ro im getting 5ppm after ro thats 150ppm going in, about 30 litres per hour, do you think i need a booster lads, thanks
Can anyone tell me if im getting somewere please, or do i need a pump, also  on the collins ro can i adjust my pure to waste ratio thanks

 
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