RO auto shutoff still producing waste water
 

I can figure out why. I replaced the shutoff valve and the check valve.

The float valve works perfectly and the shutoff valve causes the pressure guage to drop to zero but my RO unit continues to produce waste water.

Does anyone know why? Is there a leak in the system or something?

tagging along, mine does the same thing.. I always thought it was supposed to shut off all water completely? maybe were wrong...

No, mine use to shutoff completely like it should for the first five year I owned it. This is a recent malfunction

well i just got mine and i thought the same, but there where some other issue and i did a test on mine. first, seems any air leaks dont let the ASO close right. i believe i fixed that part. i added a ball value to the good water line and turned it off and within about 4 min the weaste water stoped.

i dont think it a good way to shut off the water, so i am thinking about adding a ro switch as a main shut-off and using the ro auto shut off as a backup shut-off.

but sense i am still not sure how ASO works completely and could be mistaken , i will ride along as well

My rodi unit was doing the same thing. Even after it shuts off it would continue with wastewater for a while. Being hooked up to my kalk reactor that's continually dripping, it was constantly running wastewater. I finally hooked up a solenoid on the input side of the rodi, run it for an hour 4 times a day, just on a timer. Works great and did see a decrease on the ol water bill!

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8953847#post8953847 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishdave739 [/i]
[B]My rodi unit was doing the same thing. Even after it shuts off it would continue with wastewater for a while. Being hooked up to my kalk reactor that's continually dripping, it was constantly running wastewater. I finally hooked up a solenoid on the input side of the rodi, run it for an hour 4 times a day, just on a timer. Works great and did see a decrease on the ol water bill! [/B][/QUOS

Same thing here.

There are a few reasons why this happens IME.

1. Feed water pressure is too low (40 psi or lower)
2. Feed water temperature is too cold. Nothing you can do about this one.
3. Pressure in the storage tank or the unit is too low. You may need to drain and recharge the system again.
4. Filters are clogged.
5. Faulty or worn auto shutoff valve.

You have me confused. I was thinking about using the auto shut off but now wondering if will work in my application. (filtered water to my Kalk reactor, unfiltered waste to my cichlid tanks)

Is the auto shut off on the main incomming hose to the filtering system or is on the filtered water line. From the feelings I'm getting from this thread it sounds like it is on the filtered line only. To me the sensable place to put it is the main incomming water line so when it shuts off the system simply has no new water to process.

Dennis

auto shut off is a valve that senses a pressure increase after the membrane. if so it shuts off the water flowing into the auto shut off valve. this allows you to use a valve after the membrane to control on/off ro di water and not continuously produce waste water. with out the auto shut off, on/off controll must take place before the membrane if stopping the production of waste water is desired.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8954241#post8954241 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dhnguyen [/i]
[B]There are a few reasons why this happens IME.

1. Feed water pressure is too low (40 psi or lower)
2. Feed water temperature is too cold. Nothing you can do about this one.
3. Pressure in the storage tank or the unit is too low. You may need to drain and recharge the system again.
4. Filters are clogged.
5. Faulty or worn auto shutoff valve. [/B][/QUOTE]

1. I'm running at about 45psi to get a 1:3 product water:waste water ratio

2. Why would this matter exactly, it was working properly in my current house for over a year?

3. I'm running a float valve in a trash can, the float valve is stopping the flow when the can is full

4. The RO is only about 6 months, I could probably change the DI, carbon and sediment block but which ones would cause this and why?

5. I replaced the shutoff valve and the check valve, I still have the same problem

More than likely the sediment and carbon filters are the ones if indeed your filters are clogged. You can disconnect the line just before the RO membrane and see if the water pressure seems to be the same as the feed water coming in. If it is noticably less then the filters are definitely clogged and should be replaced.

How well your RO filter works is directly affected by your feed water pressure, quality, as well as temperature. The lower the temperature the lesser the pressure and less water production through the filter.

[url]http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/infocenter.htm[/url]

did you hook the new one up right?

im not an expert, i am only using logic.

reason that a clog filter may cause valve to not close may be due to flow.

cold water may cause seals to stiffen or seats to contract.

so you may reroute the water through the valve first and then through the filters. only as a test. sediment in the valve may cause it to fail so a filter before it during normal operation would be desireable.

I'm going to try bypassing all my filter blocks and test the shutoff valve when I get home tonight. I wish I would have thought of that before buying new shutoff and check valves. I guess I figured since I went 5 years with out changing filters previously that these 6 month old ones couldn't be the problem. We'll see

Thanks, Nick

I also had this problem with my ro/di unit brand new. What I did was to use the ro/di water in one side of the shutoff, and waste line in the other side. I think the problem I had was too much pressure on the feed to the ro unit, and the shutoff couldn't handle shutting down that much pressure. By shutting off the waste line instead, there was no way for water to flow. And no excess waste water produced. Just my .02

i had one problem with mine. it would take a while to shut off on occasion. i gave it a wack with the handle of a screwdriver and that was that. i dont use one now.

Dirty prefilter and or low water pressure will cause this.

Don

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8956055#post8956055 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Donw [/i]
[B]Dirty prefilter and or low water pressure will cause this.

Don [/B][/QUOTE]

your correct!

I replaced the prefilter and carbon block, my working pressure went from 45psi to 65psi and the shutoff now works properly. Thanks for everyone's help. My wife will be glad to know that our waterbill should return to normal:)

Thanks again everyone,

Nick

Well I had been using two seperate RO sustems for some time a 65 GPD Sileniam and a 35 gallon per day unit. These ran constantly for me for about 4 years.

What I had found was that the 65 GPD unit would slow down at about the 4 month mark and if I ran it for a full 6 months it would be lucky to produce a gallon a day.

The 35 gpd usint had a longer life span for me roughly a year between changing elements.

In my experimentation to get better results out of these systems I tried several things,

1. hot water input - increased yield ratio to waste but the RO element life was cut into less than half.

2. Increasing the pressure of the incoming water. Found a definate gane when I went from 30psi to 45psi but higher than that did not seem to help.

3. Changing the micron filters and switching to 1 micron instead of the 5 or 10 I had before. Yield increased, waste water decreased, Ro element life doubled however I was lucky to get a month out of the micron filters. However 12 micron filters are cheaper than 1 RO element.

On the cut off. What I'm planning on doing is using a plunger type cut off (DIY) and put it on the input to the filteration system.So when it shuts off everything shuts off and there will be no added waste water.

Dennis

The autoshutoff has a pressure selenoid that senses back pressure that closes a valve. That selenoid valve should be attached to the feed water so that when the float closes causing back pressure the incoming water is turned off. If the feed water is not turned off, water will continue to flow through the unit and down the drain.

I assume from your last post that the PSI back presssure was not sufficient to close the selenoid until you replaced your filters. Glad you worked it out.

Mike

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8963467#post8963467 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MCary [/i]
[B]The autoshutoff has a pressure selenoid that senses back pressure that closes a valve. That selenoid valve should be attached to the feed water so that when the float closes causing back pressure the incoming water is turned off. If the feed water is not turned off, water will continue to flow through the unit and down the drain.

I assume from your last post that the PSI back presssure was not sufficient to close the selenoid until you replaced your filters. Glad you worked it out.

Mike [/B][/QUOTE]

You summed it prefectly.

I think I figured out the reason I never had this problem before. The prefilters I'm now using are 1 micron, I think what ever I was using before was something higher like 10 micron. These 1 micron blocks clog up alot quicker.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8963955#post8963955 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reeferhead [/i]
[B]You summed it prefectly.

I think I figured out the reason I never had this problem before. The prefilters I'm now using are 1 micron, I think what ever I was using before was something higher like 10 micron. These 1 micron blocks clog up alot quicker. [/B][/QUOTE]

Yes there is a bigt difference between the two. Also the RO element will last a lot longer if you use the 1 micron filter. Some people with realy dirty water will run the 10 micron then the 1 micron to reduce some of the particals that the 1 micron will clog up with. This actually would give you a longer life on the 1 micron filter. A lot of this though is a matter of what impurities are present in your water and in what density.

Dennis

My tap water TDS is about 330ppm. The 1 micron filter lasted about 4 months before I started having problems.