RO booster pump advice

I bought a 4040 RO with a HF5 membrane a few months back. My tap pressure reads approx 50psi. The RO is in the garage at the front of my house and the tap is at the back. I’ve run 15 meters of hose to the RO. Originally I had a hose reel and couldn’t get past 35PSI, once the reel was removed the actual hose gives me just over 40 PSI. This is measuring just after the prefilters and before the membrane. Once I set it to 55/45 I’m running anywhere between 30 & 35 PSI.

when I bought it I had a TDS of 175-210 and got an output of 9-12. This rose over the summer & fluctuated between 210 & 420. This wasn’t too bad as I would just wait for the TDS to drop back to 210 and get 12 out but recently it’s been consistently between 350 and 410 and I’m struggling to get below 30 output. I’ve checked and tested every part of the RO and been on the phone to Doug at Daqua and I’m confident it’s all set up well. I am assuming I’m getting such a shocking output because I’m running at 30-35PSI.

im considering buying a booster pump, I reckon this will pay for itself in the resin saved. Does anyone have any other suggestions and can anyone recommend a good pump. I currently use a solenoid shut off, will this work with a booster pump?

Hi Paddy, have you flushed your system lately? Have you changed your pre filters? A solenoid shut off will work with a booster pump. I bought a booster from Gardiners as my pressure went down to 20psi. Local water board were doing repairs and it went down from 40psi to 20psi. A week after I bought the pump the water board also finished work and my pressure at the tap went up to 60psi ?. I still use the booster as it brings down the TDS by 1 or 2. It probably negates the saving as I'm using electricity.

Tuffers said:

Hi Paddy, have you flushed your system lately? Have you changed your pre filters? A solenoid shut off will work with a booster pump. I bought a booster from Gardiners as my pressure went down to 20psi. Local water board were doing repairs and it went down from 40psi to 20psi. A week after I bought the pump the water board also finished work and my pressure at the tap went up to 60psi ?. I still use the booster as it brings down the TDS by 1 or 2. It probably negates the saving as I'm using electricity.

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Don’t worry I remember everything you showed me. I’ve flushed it regularly. Minimum of five minutes before use and regularly I give it a good hour. With the increase in tap TDS Doug was concerned there may have been damage to the membrane but there are no signs of a cloudy or orange output from the waste.

I’ve added a flow meter that measures the amount of water that goes in, I’m changing the sediment after 25K litres and the carbon after 75K.

i remember your booster but they don’t sell them on the Gardiners website anymore. I saw a post on Clean it up recommending the Clarke CBM240E. I’ve found one for £320 at Machine Mart but the post was from 2015 so not sure if there’s a better option nowadays.

I know that’s a shocking output but it is running at 30PSI most of the time, don’t fancy changing the membrane yet, it’s only had a couple of hundred thousand litres through it.

A little cheaper here and a known company. Machine Mart seem to be focusing away from trade customers to retail customers and their pricing reflects this.

https://www.anglianpumping.com/product/water-boosting-pumps/cbm240e-230v-7230670

These pumps have an electronic controller as you can see. When your solenoid valves switches the r/o off the solenoid valve senses that the flow of water has stopped and so switches the pump off. The solenoid valve and the pump aren't electrically linked or wired up together. The pump just reacts to what the solenoid valve does.

In the early days this was the pump that GAPS water recommended for users of 4040 systems.

Maybe @Tuffers could look on the side of his Worx pump and tell us what model pump it is. Xline also had them on their system but they also no longer do them either.

Booster pumps are available from other suppliers such as Grippa Tank but with the added electronic gobbins are around £600.

The other thing you need to be aware of is that they are noisy, and so you need to be conscious that you could start to annoy neighbours with the pump running for 2 or 3 hours at a time.

spruce said:

A little cheaper here and a known company. Machine Mart seem to be focusing away from trade customers to retail customers and their pricing reflects this.
 
https://www.anglianpumping.com/product/water-boosting-pumps/cbm240e-230v-7230670
 
These pumps have an electronic controller as you can see. When your solenoid valves switches the r/o off the solenoid valve senses that the flow of water has stopped and so switches the pump off. The solenoid valve and the pump aren't electrically linked or wired up together. The pump just reacts to what the solenoid valve does.
 
In the early days this was the pump that GAPS water recommended for users of 4040 systems.
 
Maybe [mention=196]Tuffers[/mention] could look on the side of his Worx pump and tell us what model pump it is. Xline also had them on their system but they also no longer do them either.
 
Booster pumps are available from other suppliers such as Grippa Tank but with the added electronic gobbins are around £600.
 
The other thing you need to be aware of is that they are noisy, and so you need to be conscious that you could start to annoy neighbours with the pump running for 2 or 3 hours at a time.

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The noise is no big deal, I will just have to run it during the day instead of the evening or overnight. I’m in a semi and the garage is on the side of the house that isn’t attached so it shouldn’t have too much of an impact.

Where would you fit the solenoid, before or after? I looked at a booster pump in a box from water genie but it warns you not to turn it on without water in it because it will shatter the motor. Don’t like the look of that one anyway but wouldn’t want to shatter the motor if I fit the solenoid in the wrong place


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Tuffers said:

View attachment 14830

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Thanks but can you put a photo up of the Wortex maodel plate please.

Wortex have different pumps and I've never found out which pump they use.

@spruce

I can’t find that one anywhere. They only seem to sell the JX80 model now. The only alternative I could to the water genie one was this;

https://www.wintecs.co.uk/water-fed-pole-window-cleaning/pumps-and-controllers/pump-and-pump-boxes/streamline-booster-pump-xle4040-system/

Looks a bit cheap though [emoji30] I didn’t think it would be this hard to find!!!


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Here you go @P4dstar https://www.lunesdale-pumps.co.uk/electric-motor-driven-centrifugal-pumps/20032-wortex-mjx135-m-stage-centrifugal-s-steel-pump-90lpm-58m-head-wp1536420.html. You'll need to buy both and wire it up.

Tuffers said:

Here you go @P4dstar https://www.lunesdale-pumps.co.uk/electric-motor-driven-centrifugal-pumps/20032-wortex-mjx135-m-stage-centrifugal-s-steel-pump-90lpm-58m-head-wp1536420.html. You'll need to buy both and wire it up.

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Well done @Tuffers. Do you mean the pump and the controller? Wiring it up sounds complicated haha

P4dstar said:

Well done @Tuffers. Do you mean the pump and the controller? Wiring it up sounds complicated haha

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That's why I bought it already configured ?. You can come and have a look at mine if you're up this way.

Tuffers said:

That's why I bought it already configured ?. You can come and have a look at mine if you're up this way.

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I do owe you a pint or your help with the RO so perhaps that’s a good idea. That Clarke one looks more appealing knowing it’s already configured ? found him for a similar price too;

https://www.anglianpumping.com/product_v2/water-boosting-pumps/cbm240e-230v-7230670

Still haven't got round to ordering this. In the meantime my input TDS has dropped to 135. I accidentally left my RO flushing for 2 hours earlier and my output is now 6... If it was like this all year I wouldn't even consider a booster pump as it would never pay for itself.

The thing i'm struggling to understand is why my input TDS fluctuates from this to 350 regularly. Yesterday I went to fill the tank and found I was at 356, literally just 24 hours apart.... Baffled!

Different reservoirs

Part Timer said:

Different reservoirs

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Any idea what resources i'd look up to find out? During summer it fluctuated as high as 450 ?

P4dstar said:

Any idea what resources i'd look up to find out? During summer it fluctuated as high as 450 ?

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Depends if you're registered as a business with the water supplier ?

Part Timer said:

Depends if you're registered as a business with the water supplier ?

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Me no speeka de Engleesh ?

I googled the reservoirs, it would appear there is only one in Gloucestershire according to Wikipedia, according to Google there are several. I'll just keep on waiting for it to drop as I have been. I do need to get that pump though for when it rises again.

P4dstar said:

The thing i'm struggling to understand is why my input TDS fluctuates from this to 350 regularly. Yesterday I went to fill the tank and found I was at 356, literally just 24 hours apart.... Baffled!

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I've had the exact same problems mate. When I first got my van system my tap TDS was 80ppm consistently. June hit and it went upto 350+!! I was so pi***d off. However the past couple of weeks it's now fluctuating generally between 80 and 250. It literally changes from hour to hour! It's currently sitting at 190ppm. I just wish I knew what on earth, and why it's fluctuating so much. I rang the water board back when it first shot up and they couldn't give me a definitive answer! Now, because of this I was also thinking about installing a booster pump (I'm getting 35psi into my RO), but I'm currently using a double DI setup as well as an RO. 

Suhrly said:

I've had the exact same problems mate. When I first got my van system my tap TDS was 80ppm consistently. June hit and it went upto 350+!! I was so pi***d off. However the past couple of weeks it's now fluctuating generally between 80 and 250. It literally changes from hour to hour! It's currently sitting at 190ppm. I just wish I knew what on earth, and why it's fluctuating so much. I rang the water board back when it first shot up and they couldn't give me a definitive answer! Now, because of this I was also thinking about installing a booster pump (I'm getting 35psi into my RO), but I'm currently using a double DI setup as well as an RO. 

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I asked the chaps who were working down the road once because I thought it was to do with a new estate they're building. I'm at 30-35 PSI into mine too. Whats your output when the TDS is at its highest? Are you on a 4040?

P4dstar said:

I asked the chaps who were working down the road once because I thought it was to do with a new estate they're building. I'm at 30-35 PSI into mine too. Whats your output when the TDS is at its highest? Are you on a 4040?

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Yeah, 4040. My output is diabolical when my TDS is high. When it's something like 450ppm, which it basically was all summer, it was coming out of my RO at around 70ppm. Think I worked out my RO is only operating at around 85% efficiency with my PSI being so low. I knew I needed to do something so instead of going the pump option (for now) I ordered another DI vessel to help with the resin. I'm still contemplating another pump though. Current set up is Tap > pre filters > RO > DI > DI > tank.