7E-Why would an RO tank lose some capacity?

[Anonymous]

BTW, I have the unit filling a 7G IO bucket and the tank valve shut off, so as to confirm the unit's operation without the backpressure created by the tank. We'll see how long it takes it to fill.

Louey

 

[O P Ing]

The tank is the size of a twenty, ...The tank is supposed to hold 19G of water. ...I reduced the tank pressure accordingly. The new tank only fills to about 1 gallon, regardless of the PSI.

hi.
Maybe the tank is supposed to hold 19 gal of air???? :lol:

Well, I don't really know about this "new" design... does the manufacturer have a web site? Who makes it?

From the description of your RO operation, it should not shut down and restart every few seconds, even when operating again a regular (3 gal) holding tank. It should continuously producing brine (waste water), not intermittantly.

My suggestions:
1, Talk/write to the new tank and ask them rather or not it is suppose to work with residential RO system, and at what setting.

2, Talk/write to the RO system and tell them your observation, and see if they can confirm my suspection.

Sometime when there is a permeate pump on the RO system, the brine output may look like non-continuous from the permeate pump. But most people don't have the permeate pump because their setup does not take advantage of it.

 

[Anonymous]

The website is here: http://www.flotecwater.com/

It's a model FP7110T.

My RO does have a permeate pump. That's is why it works in spurts, instread of continous.

I'll call the 1-800 tomorrow.

 

[Anonymous]

BTW, that 7G bucket has only about 5G in it so far. 5G after 10 hours. Tank is shut off. I think there's a problem with the RO that's not related to the tank. I have replacements filters for evreything except the membranre. Should I change them all out assuming something is clogged?

Louey

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
The pressure tank should be fine for what you want to do, but the volume and pressure of the output of your RO is the problem. You need to call the RO people to see if they can help you out. Does your RO have a pressure gauage on the membrane housing? You need to find out the pressure of your permeate, and if it is low (not enough to fill the tank to capacity at reasonable pre-charged pressure), you need to find out where is the cause of the pressure drop (due to clogging when the RO is on).

Run the RO to an open vessle (like what you did with the 7 gal bucket), and read the pressure of the gauage on the RO housing before and after the RO turns on (controlled by a ball valve, for example). The number will let you find out rathere your prefilters are clogged (not likely). Now, move the pressure gauage to the permeate side, but get rid of your permeate pump for now. Attach the permeate output to the pressure tank. Read the pressure before and after the RO turns off (it should shuts off automatically if you have a ASO valuve). This will let you find out rather your RO memberane is the problem (most likely).

Don't throw away the RO membrane until you are absolutely sure that it is the problem. I know someone who throw thing out after ordering a new membrane, only to find out the at the filter with brand new membrane has the same problem (ouch!). Good luck.