Booster pump & Psi pressure

Hey I've got me a 150 gpd small osmosis system which slowed right down to dripping really slow where I'm nit really getting anything. I've changed the 3 pre filters, had a new membrane last month but is now at around 85ppm (is this too high and causing it) but my echen booster pump says operating pressure 70psi and my tap is at 30psi so would that mean no matter what it's around 100 if all the way up as a cheap little £2 pso reader I added goes up to 150 when it did release water fully so I turn it down. I wasnt sure if it's with me having water down too low and then reader is off? Any help would be great

tino8358 said:

Hey I've got me a 150 gpd small osmosis system which slowed right down to dripping really slow where I'm nit really getting anything. I've changed the 3 pre filters, had a new membrane last month but is now at around 85ppm (is this too high and causing it) but my echen booster pump says operating pressure 70psi and my tap is at 30psi so would that mean no matter what it's around 100 if all the way up as a cheap little £2 pso reader I added goes up to 150 when it did release water fully so I turn it down. I wasnt sure if it's with me having water down too low and then reader is off? Any help would be great

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@spruce is the man for this one hopefully he will see it and give you an answer 

Unfortunately your R/O is typically inadequate for pure water production even in a soft water area, I have done a quick search for were you live according to the web you live in one of hardest water areas in the UK so a tap tds of anywhere from 150ppm to over 300ppm if you know what  your tap water tds is please let us know 

Hey thanks for reply my water tds is at 247 and it was doing it pretty decent beforehand and filling this 350 litre tank for me in around 30 hours and with the weekend me not working this was doing fine for me over the last 7 months work wise. I'm not totally sure on when a membrane should be changed, is there a certain number for this. I'm looking at larger system but dont understand the process of leaving a flush valve open to a certain point? Which is why I haven't made the jump yet

@spruce is the man, prepare to have your mind blown and be dumb founded most of usually are with his well written replies also have a read through https://windowcleaningforums.co.uk/forums/topic/26751-ro-production-nightmare/#comments & https://windowcleaningforums.co.uk/forums/topic/28233-wcw-for-ro-filters/#comments both posts are packed with info 

Iron Giant said:

@spruce is the man, prepare to have your mind blown and be dumb founded most of usually are with his well written replies 

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I've blown my own mind and running a migraine atm. ? I did see your post yesterday evening but with this migraine starting yesterday I couldn't decipher what you were saying tbh. I also didn't understand what a £2 pso reader was.

I also didn't recognise what the tube was above the membrane housing but on looking today it looks like a resin di vessel?

My suggestion @tino8358 is that you need to try to identify where the restriction is to begin with. So you need to start at the beginning of the process.

Is there enough water getting to the r/o? Remove the inlet pipe and look at the flow.

If that's fine then focus on the prefilters. Remove the pipe into the membrane and see what the flow of water is. If that's ok then the problem is either membrane related or flush valve related. Have you left to flush valve open? How much water is coming out of the waste pipe? My 450gpd had a restrictor with a 3 waste to 1 pure ratio. (3 litres waste to 1 litre pure.)

Remove the pure outlet going into your vessel cartridge and run the system. Easiest way is to retrieve 2 large plastic milk containers from the recycle bin. Feed the pure outlet from the membrane into one and the waste after the restrictor/valve into the other and run the system. If the waste fills up fast but not the pure side then its flush valve related.

If that's OK then see if the restriction is at the resin cartridge by comparing flow flow in to the flow out.

The membrane replacement probably won't be the cause of a restriction but could be a pure tds issue if the pure was mixing with so waste water. It might be an idea to remove the membrane, lubricate the 2 small seals on the end of the shaft and the large seal on the other end with a thin smear of silicon grease or vaseline. When reassembling it needs to be pushed in until it 'clicks' into position.

Under normal conditions your r/o should be removing between 97 and 98% of the total dissolved solids in your water. With your water at 247ppm the pure from the r/o should be around 7ppm (97%) which the resin will remove leaving you with 0ppm.

The efficiency of your membrane will deteriorate over time. They suggest that when the membrane drops to 94% efficiency is a good time to consider a replacement membrane. At 94% your pure from the membrane would be around 15ppm.

When the resin in your di cartridge is spent the tds from your vessel will rise.

I hope this makes sense. I will visit this reply later and see if it makes sense to me when this migraine goes.