Rodi clogged?

[reefercorey]

So I finally got an rodi filter. Its used from someone on here. I went to try it out and only get waste water and nothing out of the blue tube. What am i doing wrong? Or maybe could it be clogged somewhere? Any ideas on how to fix this

 

[Dekon]

Is there a valve on the output?

 

[reefercorey]

I dont think so. I know very little about rodi's but the water makes it through the first two chanbers and into the horizontal chamber that is all white (im not sure what its called) but from there only waste comes out and no water seems to make it to the last two chambers

 

[phg1960]

The horizontal chamber is the ro membrane. It sounds like there is no flow restrictor on the waste tube. The restrictor causes pressure to build up at the membrane forcing some of the water to pass through. The rest is wasted. Without the restrictor, all your input will flow to the waste line.

What ro unit did you buy?

The first thing I would do is block the waste water line and see if water passes into the other chambers and out the blue line. You should be able to block the waste water just with your thumb. If that doesn't produce water in a minute or two, you may have some other blockage.

Try the above and report your findings.

 

[reefercorey]

Its a 5 stage rodi from BRS. I blocked the waste line and water very slowly started to flow into the chambers after the ro membrane. These chambers are about half filled with water. The pressure from the waste water eventually became enough where it was pushing water out regardless of trying to block it. I did this a few times but wasn't really making any progress in getting water from the rodi line

 

[phg1960]

Ok, try removing the canister after the membrane and see if you have flow out of the membrane that way. Put a bucket or bowl under the chamber fitting that you removed the canister from. Does water flow through without you blocking the waste line?

 

[Marshall O]

Also, how much water pressure do you have? Are you on city water or well?

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk

 

[reefercorey]

I put it away for today but i will try this after work tomorrow and will post my results. My guesses are that something is clogged or that I dont have enough pressure but I am very new to these things. Thanks for your help, will post tomorrow

 

[reefercorey]

City water and not sure of the pressure because there is no gauge. I know my pressure isn't great but I thought that would just decrease performance not completely stop rodi flow, no?

 

[phg1960]

Is this the unit you have? It's the only 5 stage unit they have listed.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-5-stage-drinking-water-ro-system-75gpd.html

 

[reefercorey]

Not that one. Its Matrikx 5 stage rodi... now that i look, i dont see it on BRS. I just see replacement media on there

 

[reefercorey]

Looks just like this one except it only has one carbon block
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-6-stage-universal-plus-ro-di-system-75gpd.html

 

[phg1960]

Yes, then pull the first DI canister and check for flow. If none remove the membrane and retry. The endcap of the membrane housing unscrews and the membrane can be pulled out. I usually need a pair of pliers to grab and pull it out.

 

[JohnK]

It is likely that your unit has one or more valves that can be opened to flush the membrane. If you have the wrong valve(s) open you will get what you describe. If you can post a few pics of the unit and all the lines on it we can probably help you figure it out.

 

[reefercorey]

http://s1079.photobucket.com/user/Reefercorey/library/Mobile Uploads

Someone on another site mentioned i have the flow restrictor on the input instead of the waste so i will try to switch that after work

 

[JohnK]

Is this the unit you have? It's the only 5 stage unit they have listed.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-5-stage-drinking-water-ro-system-75gpd.html

Yes, third pic, the plastic cylinder thing in the middle of the red tube. This would explain your problem

Note, there are multiple completely different types of flow restrictor. There are the ones like in the pic, also little guys that actually sit inside one of the plastic fittings on the membrane housing. You only want one, and it should be matched to your membrane's flow rate. Considering that you ended up with a flow restrictor in completely the wrong place, I wouldn't assume that you don't have one of the other kind in there as well.

This might be helpful;
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/instructions/article/Changing-the-flow-restrictor-on-your-membrane

 

[phg1960]

It looks like you tubing is all wrong. The input to the RO is the single ended side. The output (center) and waste (off center) are on the opposite side. The third pic seems to show a red or orange line with a restrictor on it. Is that a faucet connector at the end?

Just to clarify the flow should go like this. Tap water into the sediment filter out to the carbon block out to the RO membrane and out to the DI resin. It's arguable if the last sediment filter is even needed.

 

[reefercorey]

The way the tubing is is the way I got it so i just assumed it was correct haha guess not. Yes, the red is the intake (or what i was told) with a hose adapter

 

[phg1960]

Here's a basic diagram of the flow. This is only a four stage system. You can decide what you want to do about the 5th.

 

[reefercorey]

So i was so excited, I fixed the flow restrictor and got water from the system! At first the input tds was 177 and the output was like 17. I figured I'd run it for an hour and check the tds again and my output went to 33 and is now at 71 and still rising!