New RO Unit questions

[RJS]

Aloha Brewers,

I just purchased a $200 RO Unit from Amazon in hopes that it saves work for me. Our brew days are creeping over one barrel of production and ive been driving to town to fill up 15 gallon barrels of RO. While cheap, its the cost of going in to town that was the hassle.


So i installed it on a 50psi waterline (they recommend minimum 40psi) and man is it slow. So far after draining the system for the recommended time i have clocked it at a little over 2 gallons an hour. So to get the 30 gallons i need i run the unit for 14 hours, setting a timer to switch out barrels since i bypass the tank.

Nice being able to resume other work instead of making the trip but was hoping the unit would be faster.

any RO unit users experience this? Did you buy the small RO pump for the water inlet?

 

[Chrisl77]

How many gallons per day is the membrane rated for? Kind of sounds like you have a 50 gpd membrane. If it uses a generic membrane you could change the membrane to a 100 gpd. You could also get a float valve for your barrel then you would not have to babysit the unit. If you need to fill 2 barrels get 2 float valves and put a t in the line.

 

[RJS]

ah thanks Chris.

Ya i have the 50GPD unit. Will def look at the float valve. Your saying the 4th stage membrane controls flow? So a bigger membrane means more GPD. I didnt realize that.


Edit: i see the 100 gpd membrane on amazon and recommended flow restrictor for that size. I get the two, switch em out, and boom, faster water? Sounds great.

 

[Chrisl77]

Yes if you switch out the membrane and flow restrictor you will get more flow. I would still get the float valve it will save you from having to check it. Once the barrel fills up the valve will shut it self off.

 

[GotPushrods]

Do your barrels have drain ports at the bottom? You could connect both together with a hose and it will fill both at once... Handy little trick. No barrel switching. Use a float valve and you won't need a timer at all!

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

You can get (we stock) residential scale membranes up to 150 gpd that all are identical in size, and will fit into the housing you have. Looks like you have already discovered that you need to match your flow restrictor to your membrane.

Our 24 to 100 gpd membranes (Filmtec brand) are factory spec'ed at 50 psi and 77F water. Colder water and/or lower temperature will yield slower pure water production.

Our 150 gpd membranes are factory spec'ed at 65 psi and 77F.

Hopefully you bought an RO with a pressure gauge.

If you need faster production from any of these membranes, you can add a booster pump.

If you want to see how many gpd your membrane should produce give your pressure and your water temperature, click on the "CALCULATOR" link on our homepage.

Russ