Those who have an at home RO filter setup

[Deadalus]

On the second startup phase, you first open the water faucet, and check for leaks. Then you close the faucet and open (valve is inline position) the tank valve (gray). The RO valve is also open and it too is being flushed.

 

[RyPA]

When I open the valve on the back of the unit (with gray lines), I hear water flowing rapidly so it sounds like that's diverted from filters.

I currently have the up-front valve open (red lines) and the back (gray lines) closed, and the tank filled up after around an hour, so I am assuming this is correct. Can you look at your unit for me to confirm?

These are the valves I'm referring to

 

[Deadalus]

Another thing I wanted to check on is if the instructions are incorrect regarding where to put the rubber gaskets. They do not say to put one here, but they include one to do so, unless its an extra. It would be metal on plastic here so without teflon tape I'd imagine it would leak. I'm no plumbing expert and water connections make me nervous. I'm planning to turn off the water supply before bed and leave it off until I get home from work tomorrow, and then monitor it over the weekend.

Thanks for your recommendation on this unit and for responding

View attachment 813385

The bushing there is probably tapered (NPT). I don't have mine set up with the faucet or tank. I also don't have it connected to a shutoff valve like that one. I tee'ed off my outdoor spigot line which is in my garage and used a boiler valve which has garden hose threads.

 

[RyPA]

Ok, maybe I'll email the manufacturer. It pretty much came connected this way out of the box and I followed their instructions step by step. I am using the faucet that was included with this kit mounted on my sink for drinking/coffee/cooking/beer water.

The tank is filling up after an hour, so I'm assuming it's connected correctly.

 

[Deadalus]

I kept mine, there were four total gaskets.

Thinking further, China uses 1/2" BSP threads on their faucets (at least some of them). Strange but something I discovered after buying a faucet off Amazon. The male side of that valve has a gasket because it is needed for as the threads only hold the pieces together. The female side has a ringed groove on the inside that the gasket fits in. It's flat on the inside and possilbly seals but it does appear that the gasket goes there. The little ones both fit inside the bushing on either side.

 

[Deadalus]

You might know this but if you didn't...since I have my parts loose, the brass bushing screws all the way into the brass adapter, which is another clue these are straight threads. Tapered fittings would seat as the taper increased. You might have a tight fit with the valve being plastic but I do think you need the gasket. It might already have been inside and you didn't notice it.

 

[RyPA]

I kept mine, there were four total gaskets.

Thinking further, China uses 1/2" BSP threads on their faucets (at least some of them). Strange but something I discovered after buying a faucet off Amazon. The male side of that valve has a gasket because it is needed for as the threads only hold the pieces together. The female side has a ringed groove on the inside that the gasket fits in. It's flat on the inside and possilbly seals but it does appear that the gasket goes there. The little ones both fit inside the bushing on either side.
View attachment 813391View attachment 813392

Yeah the larger gasket looked like it belonged there so I put it in -- exactly as you illustrated. All I have left is one of the smaller gaskets, as one of them was preinstalled and appeared like it belonged there.

 

[RyPA]

I got this RO system up and running and it's awesome, thanks again for recommending it. I did my first batch using RO on Saturday. I get 15 ppm on my TDS meter, compared to 150+ on regular tap water.

 

[TimLa]

We're on a well that is basically tapping a gypsum-rich aquifer. 4150 TDS. Replaced original Kinetico water softening system with whole house RO. We're near the end-of life on the original RO membrane (near five years), which is now producing about 83 PPM TDS. Perfectly suitable for brewing. Previous house had a well at 76 PPM TDS, made many great beers there. I think your 15PPM TDS will benefit from some water chemistry adjustments.

With the Kinetico softener, we were going thru 50# of salt about 5 times a week. I estimate that 20K - 30K pounds of salt wound up in the drainfield over a ten year period.

BTW, I wish our well water was better, so an undersink RO would be sufficient. It's not. We have a 2000 GPD RO system with a 300 gallon product storage tank. It ran about $12K, installed, but was the right solution. We now flush our toilets and take showers with bottled water. A twisted part of me smiles at this.

-T

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

We're on a well that is basically tapping a gypsum-rich aquifer. 4150 TDS. Replaced original Kinetico water softening system with whole house RO. We're near the end-of life on the original RO membrane (near five years), which is now producing about 83 PPM TDS. Perfectly suitable for brewing. Previous house had a well at 76 PPM TDS, made many great beers there. I think your 15PPM TDS will benefit from some water chemistry adjustments.

With the Kinetico softener, we were going thru 50# of salt about 5 times a week. I estimate that 20K - 30K pounds of salt wound up in the drainfield over a ten year period.

BTW, I wish our well water was better, so an undersink RO would be sufficient. It's not. We have a 2000 GPD RO system with a 300 gallon product storage tank. It ran about $12K, installed, but was the right solution. We now flush our toilets and take showers with bottled water. A twisted part of me smiles at this.

-T

Wow that is some bad water! You're near the Cibola - I used to work on the Lincoln many many moons ago. Give us a call if we can help you with your RO or pretreatment gear. Surely you still have a softener before the RO, no?

 

[TimLa]

No, I no longer own a water softener.

For the curious, untreated well water analysis:

EPA METHOD 300.0: ANIONS Analyst: JRR 16984-48-8
Fluoride 0.58 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 16887-00-6
Chloride 16 0.50 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 7727-37-9
Nitrogen, Nitrite (As N) ND 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 24959-67-9
Bromide ND 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 7727-37-9
Nitrogen, Nitrate (As N) ND 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM
Phosphorus, Orthophosphate (As P) 7723-14-0 ND 10 H mg/L 20 2/13/2014 6:11:49 PM 14808-79-8
Sulfate 2100 25 * mg/L 50 2/19/2014 1:05:14 PM EPA METHOD 200.7:
DISSOLVED METALS Analyst: JLF 7440-70-2
Calcium 510 10 mg/L 10 2/12/2014 4:09:32 PM 7439-95-4
Magnesium 180 5.0 mg/L 5 2/12/2014 3:23:49 PM 7631-86-9
Silica 19 0.86 mg/L 5 2/12/2014 3:23:49 PM SM2340B:
HARDNESS Analyst: JLF
Hard_CaCO3 Hardness (As CaCO3) 2000 6.6 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:25:00 PM SM4500-H+B:
PH Analyst: JML pH pH 7.85 1.68 H pH units 1 2/12/2014 8:47:34 PM SM2540C MOD:
TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS Analyst: KS TDS Total Dissolved Solids 3150 20.0 * mg/L 1 2/13/2014 4:20:00 PM

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

No, I no longer own a water softener.

For the curious, untreated well water analysis:

EPA METHOD 300.0: ANIONS Analyst: JRR 16984-48-8
Fluoride 0.58 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 16887-00-6
Chloride 16 0.50 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 7727-37-9
Nitrogen, Nitrite (As N) ND 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 24959-67-9
Bromide ND 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM 7727-37-9
Nitrogen, Nitrate (As N) ND 0.10 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:13:44 PM
Phosphorus, Orthophosphate (As P) 7723-14-0 ND 10 H mg/L 20 2/13/2014 6:11:49 PM 14808-79-8
Sulfate 2100 25 * mg/L 50 2/19/2014 1:05:14 PM EPA METHOD 200.7:
DISSOLVED METALS Analyst: JLF 7440-70-2
Calcium 510 10 mg/L 10 2/12/2014 4:09:32 PM 7439-95-4
Magnesium 180 5.0 mg/L 5 2/12/2014 3:23:49 PM 7631-86-9
Silica 19 0.86 mg/L 5 2/12/2014 3:23:49 PM SM2340B:
HARDNESS Analyst: JLF
Hard_CaCO3 Hardness (As CaCO3) 2000 6.6 mg/L 1 2/12/2014 12:25:00 PM SM4500-H+B:
PH Analyst: JML pH pH 7.85 1.68 H pH units 1 2/12/2014 8:47:34 PM SM2540C MOD:
TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS Analyst: KS TDS Total Dissolved Solids 3150 20.0 * mg/L 1 2/13/2014 4:20:00 PM

So you're injecting an antiscalent?

 

[TimLa]

Absolutely. And that stuff ain't cheap.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

No it isn't. Which one are you using?

 

[TimLa]

Vitec 7000

 

[RyPA]

We're on a well that is basically tapping a gypsum-rich aquifer. 4150 TDS. Replaced original Kinetico water softening system with whole house RO. We're near the end-of life on the original RO membrane (near five years), which is now producing about 83 PPM TDS. Perfectly suitable for brewing. Previous house had a well at 76 PPM TDS, made many great beers there. I think your 15PPM TDS will benefit from some water chemistry adjustments.

With the Kinetico softener, we were going thru 50# of salt about 5 times a week. I estimate that 20K - 30K pounds of salt wound up in the drainfield over a ten year period.

BTW, I wish our well water was better, so an undersink RO would be sufficient. It's not. We have a 2000 GPD RO system with a 300 gallon product storage tank. It ran about $12K, installed, but was the right solution. We now flush our toilets and take showers with bottled water. A twisted part of me smiles at this.

-T

Yes, I am treating this 15ppm RO water as distilled basically, and adding adjustments for the profile I want.

 

[RyPA]

To those with an RO setup with a storage tank, how much volume of water do you get out of your counter-top faucet with a fast/powerful stream before it dies down?

Lately I am getting around 1 pint of water with a nice powerful stream, but then it fades out and pours very slowly. Meanwhile my undercounter tank feels like it's still full. Everything looks like it's connected correctly.

I removed the tube going to the tank and water began shooting out of the tank and water was coming out of the input line.

 

[day_trippr]

Those small RO pressure tanks fail with a breech of the internal bladder. Same as a well pump pressure tank...

Cheers!

 

[Agent]

If it's anything like a well pressure tank, there is a valve on the top of the tank that may need to be inflated (for lack of better terminology) to ~5psi more than your minimum desired discharge pressure.

If water comes out of there, then yeah, that bladder is toast and you have no discharge capacity remaining.

 

[RyPA]

The tank has a single tube going into it, so it both feeds the tank and is an outlet. If I remove that tube, water comes shooting out. So maybe the o2 bladder did burst and there’s just enough residual pressure to output a pint or so of water. Idk

 

[RyPA]

Is the valve to pressurize the tank that hex nut?

 

[day_trippr]

Maybe, if there's a down tube from it to the other side of the bladder/diaphragm where you want there to be air and no water...

Cheers!

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Look for a schrader valve on the side of the tank - this is where you check (and add) air pressure to the tank.

 

[RyPA]

I removed that white hex nut and there is an air valve (car/bicycle tire style) under it. I checked the pressure and it was at 0. I attempted to put air in and it almost immediately maxes out to 60psi. But this does not resolve the issue, I think there is something wrong internally and I am going to pick up a replacement tank.

I think that the 15-20 seconds of good water flow I get from the tank is just from the pressure built up from the RO water filling the tank from my household water pressure.

 

[Agent]

I removed that white hex nut and there is an air valve (car/bicycle tire style) under it. I checked the pressure and it was at 0. I attempted to put air in and it almost immediately maxes out to 60psi. But this does not resolve the issue, I think there is something wrong internally and I am going to pick up a replacement tank.

I think that the 15-20 seconds of good water flow I get from the tank is just from the pressure built up from the RO water filling the tank from my household water pressure.

That actually sounds reasonable if it's full of water yet, since there's no room for air to go. If you left the discharge open while adding air, you'd get a sense of the volume discharged by added air.

 

[day_trippr]

Your tank must be using a balloon style bladder attached to that larger white center thing in the middle of the tank bottom, leaving space around that for that air pressure line to the side. And it does sound like the bladder failed and the tank is full of water...

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

https://www.buckeyehydro.com/water-storage-tanks/

 

[RyPA]

I found this one on amazon

iSpring T32M Pressurized Water Storage Tank with Ball Valve for Reverse Osmosis RO Systems, 4 Gallon, 1/4" Tank Valve Included https://a.co/d/3Nxfkra

 

[day_trippr]

That's the style that came with my RO system. Same ratings as well. I'd say they're quite common...

Cheers!

 

[mabrungard]

Just remember that you'll only get about half the tank volume from a pressurized tank. That 4 gal tank will supply maybe 2 gal quickly and then the output will be just what the membrane can produce. Get a bigger tank if you need more immediate output. I have a 20 gal tank so that I can supply about 10 gal for my typical brew day.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Just remember that you'll only get about half the tank volume from a pressurized tank. That 4 gal tank will supply maybe 2 gal quickly and then the output will be just what the membrane can produce. Get a bigger tank if you need more immediate output. I have a 20 gal tank so that I can supply about 10 gal for my typical brew day.

correctamundo.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd be cautious about storing a lot of RO water as there's nothing in it to prevent biological projects from happening...

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

There's also nothing in it to allow biological projects to happen. If something that bugs can eat gets into your RO water, then it isn't really RO water anymore, is it?

 

[day_trippr]

Not so sure that's true. RO systems are supposed to be periodically cleaned and sanitized...

Cheers!

 

[jerrylotto]

Not so sure that's true. RO systems are supposed to be periodically cleaned and sanitized...

How do you "clean and sanitize" an RO system? I always assumed that you just changed out filters and membranes when they are spent.

 

[day_trippr]

Russ @Buckeye_Hydro has a pdf on cleaning and sanitizing RO systems with pressure tanks...

Cheers!

 

[jerrylotto]

Russ @Buckeye_Hydro has a pdf on cleaning and sanitizing RO systems with pressure tanks..

Ah, mine is a tankless system adopted from a countertop RO 5 stage unit.

 

[day_trippr]

Lol! You're not getting off that easily He has a separate pdf for thankless systems...

https://www.buckeyehydro.com/content/Sanitizing_RO_RODI.pdf
Cheers!

 

[Agent]

Lol! You're not getting off that easily He has a separate pdf for thankless systems...

Those dang unappreciative RO systems!

 

[day_trippr]

Doh! Automunged!