Dying RO/DI?

[Guest beatle]

I went to fill up my topoff bucket from my RO/DI trashcan and I noticed that it is not producing water. It's a Typhoon 5 stage from AWI. I've tried doing a bit of the "fast flush" but the way the house is plumbed, I cannot do this for a sustained period without flooding the basement (long story). The system does produce a very slight trickle after a bit of flushing, but it'll take forever to fill the can at this rate.

 

As I just got the system in March, I wouldn't think it would have clogged completely in 6 months time, or am I wrong? I generally use about 15g per week including water changes and topoff. That would put me at about 400 gallons so far. I don't have a TDS meter to test. Where should I start troubleshooting?

[YBeNormal]

Unless your water has very high sediment loads, I doubt that your sediment or carbon filters are clogged after only 400 gallons. Your RO membrane should also be fine unless unfiltered water is getting past your sediment and carbon chambers. The way the Typhoon 5-chamber units are designed, it would be almost impossible to unintentionally bypass these chambers, so I think we can rule that out as being the issue.

 

It is normal for RO/DI units to only produce a trickle of RO/DI water unless you have very high water pressure. In that case they might produce a very light stream of product water. The standard Typhoon III is rated at 75 gallons per day or roughly 3 gallons per hour. Low water pressure, cold water temps and clogged filters can all result in even slower production. How much slower is the water output than before? Better yet, about how many gallons/hour were you producing and about how many gallons/hours are you producing now? If your unit has a pressure gauge, what is your water pressure?

 

P.S. Even though your sediment and carbon filters may not be clogged, I usually change mine every 6-8 months. They are relatively cheap when multiple sets are purchased at once. Your RO membrane should be good for at least another year or two if it is not damaged or defective.

[Guest beatle]

I would say it's producing 1/4 of the output it originally did, perhaps less. I can hear water leaving the system through the drain so I know there is pressure. It was much colder in March when I hooked it up. If anything, I'd think production would be greater when things are warmer. I do not have a pressure gauge. I'll contact AWI today and see what they say.

[YBeNormal]

Did you reach AWI today?

[Guest beatle]

I sent them a message this morning but I was having issues with my mail server. I may have lost their response. They've been pretty prompt about replying before, so I'll follow up on the phone tomorrow.

[Grav]

I would bet a buck you need to replace pre and carbon filters

[YBeNormal]

I would bet a buck you need to replace pre and carbon filters

 

Possibly but that would be strange after only producing ~400 gallons. Then again, I guess bacteria in the source water could have multiplied in the filter cannister and coated the filters. I hesitate to recommend changing the cartridges without knowing the water pressure and making sure I understood the situation.

 

Matt,

 

You could try removing the sediment filter and testing the RO/DI output velocity, then replace it and remove the 5micron carbon, then do the same with the 1-micron carbon. If Grav is correct, you will probably find that either the first or second cartridge is clogged. This is only for testing purposes though. I would not recommend running the unit for very long with these cartridges removed.

[jnguyen4007]

Matt,

 

I do have a water pressure gauge if you want to borrow it.

 

James

[Guest beatle]

I talked to Don at AWI today. He was nice, but not especially helpful. I asked him why production would have come to a snail's pace after only 6 months and 400 gallons. He didn't have much of an answer other than that it was likely due to city water. I'm not sure if I buy that. How many of you in FFX County are replacing filters this quickly?

 

I asked how to troubleshoot the filters to see which is clogged and he recommended to remove the 1st filter, test, and if it was still clogged, put the 1st back and remove the 3rd filter.

 

James, your gauge would be really helpful if you could spare it this weekend. PM me a time and place I could pick it up.

[YBeNormal]

I think Don is approaching this from the same angle as me. Your comparison of previous and current rates of production are subjective and may also be impacted by several variables, so it's difficult to say with any degree of certainly that you need to do {something} or replace {something} at this point. If the water in the filter cannisters was contaminated by bacteria and allowed to sit for a period of time with no use, the bacteria could have multiplied and coated the filter(s). City water pressure could be lower now than it was yesterday or last week. Water temp should still be pretty warm but has probably dropped a bit over the past few weeks. All of these and probably several other factors (or none of them) could help explain the issue. We have to got through a process of elimination to figure out what is going on.

• Knowing your water pressure would help.
  
• If you can, do a test to determine how many GPH of RO/DI and RO output you are getting from the unit.
  
• Try removing filters one at a time and monitor output.
  

We'll get this figured out...

 

Oh BTW, yes, it is possible that your filters have clogged in 4 months. In fact, they could have clogged in one day of the city happened to have back flushed the system, lowered water pressure, added/changed chemicals or taken some other action that caused a large amount of sediment to be released into the water.

[jnguyen4007]

James, your gauge would be really helpful if you could spare it this weekend. PM me a time and place I could pick it up.

 

 

I pm'd you with my information.

 

James