Inherited CarWash with purchase of a lube shop

[Dan kamsickas]

How often are the RO membranes supposed to be replaced? This company told me rarely they told me to leave it alone. I have owned it 2 years, has never been replaced.

They're morons. There isn't a set timeline. The TDS meter is the best thing you did. When the TDS creeps above 30 and/or you have to crank the pressure over 200psi to get your output. Membranes produce 1.5-2gpm per membrane at 160-170psi depending on manufacture, water temperature, quality, etc.

 

[HeyVern]

How often are the RO membranes supposed to be replaced? This company told me rarely they told me to leave it alone. I have owned it 2 years, has never been replaced.

Mine are about 18 months old, I just replaced all of them last week. Two were still good but I replaced them anyway.

 

[DamandaKillion]

A RO with good quality membranes (98% efficient) should be able to get 650 TDS down to about 13 TDS.

Whoever did that install in your pictures should be ashamed. Looks like crap.

What’s sad. Is that’s after we cleaned a bunch of crap up. But yes!

 

[DamandaKillion]

I REALLY appreciate this input. I have been banging my head against a wall fighting to make this thing right. So much help and information from this post. THANK YOU!!

 

[The Waterboy]

Sorry for the delayed response, I just now got the notification for this thread. The TDS meter is a great tool but you don't need to concern yourself with testing the soft water or really anything at all except for the spot free water. Always test spot free water at the wand in the bay. Industry standard is any reading less than 50 ppm is considered "spot free." If you have over 50 at the wand then start going backwards to find the problem. I seriously doubt you have anything "DI" which stands for deionized water (which is VERY expensive and OVERKILL for any car wash), but you are probably referring to the water softener media tanks. Here is a rough flow chart for how most every wash is plumbed in.

Municipal water--->water softener--->activated carbon filter-->sediment filter-->reverse osmosis-->RO storage tank-->spot-free to bays
(All of the water for the wash should go through the water softener)

The RO membranes need to be fed softened (what the water softener does) and dechlorinated (what the carbon filter does) water to last. If the RO feed water is properly pre-treated, the membranes could last 10 years or more. If not properly pre-treated, the membranes could last as little as 4 months. You really should consider paying a water professional to at least make a trip out there to make sure that all of your equipment is installed properly, sized properly, set up/programmed properly, and functioning properly. There is a lot that goes into this side of a car wash and most people don't know what they are looking at. All that money spent on equipment won't matter one bit if it's not fine tuned.

 

[DamandaKillion]

Sorry for the delayed response, I just now got the notification for this thread. The TDS meter is a great tool but you don't need to concern yourself with testing the soft water or really anything at all except for the spot free water. Always test spot free water at the wand in the bay. Industry standard is any reading less than 50 ppm is considered "spot free." If you have over 50 at the wand then start going backwards to find the problem. I seriously doubt you have anything "DI" which stands for deionized water (which is VERY expensive and OVERKILL for any car wash), but you are probably referring to the water softener media tanks. Here is a rough flow chart for how most every wash is plumbed in.

Municipal water--->water softener--->activated carbon filter-->sediment filter-->reverse osmosis-->RO storage tank-->spot-free to bays
(All of the water for the wash should go through the water softener)

The RO membranes need to be fed softened (what the water softener does) and dechlorinated (what the carbon filter does) water to last. If the RO feed water is properly pre-treated, the membranes could last 10 years or more. If not properly pre-treated, the membranes could last as little as 4 months. You really should consider paying a water professional to at least make a trip out there to make sure that all of your equipment is installed properly, sized properly, set up/programmed properly, and functioning properly. There is a lot that goes into this side of a car wash and most people don't know what they are looking at. All that money spent on equipment won't matter one bit if it's not fine tuned.

I believe the blurry first one is the DI tank. It’s tucked in between both of the water tanks. There also the white tank, I have no clue what this is. I believe all water goes through it all.

It was a water professional that got me here to begin with. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with it all. I was shocked to find out almost all of the equipment in equipment room water filtration. Not actually car wash itself.

The testing is coming from the soft rinse tank. I will test from a bay though. Oddly enough I haven’t had water spot problems on self serve bays, just automatic.

I am doing some research myself so I can know what I am looking at. And make sure I am not getting hosed by the water specialist. Any learning resource suggestion would be amazing.

Thank you for your time!

PPM and TDS Same thing?