Money down the drain.....

[Beddattery]

Gentleman.....gotta love this business. Sometimes I feel that I am stuck in an infinity loop playing "Wack a mole".Solve a problem...cause another up stream.

My problem....I lost the production pump for RO water. After replacement my flow meters for both production AND reject are maxed out. Production is at 1.1 gpm but reject is maxed at better than 2 gpm. With the amount going into my reject holding tank (300 gallon capacity) it has to be more like 3-5 gpm. Holding tank is constantly dumping into the overflow when producing RO Water.Your next question will be what was it doing BEFORE the pump was replaced......1 gallon production.....1.8 reject. TDS reading is 4.

This is a Coleman super saver with single 4x40 membrane. Found the install manual on line and it suggests that you increase the pressure to the pump using the regulator to increase production and lower reject volume. Set the pressure to 170 and still no decrease to reject.

Any suggestions...???

 

[chaz]

What’s your current tds as measured in storage tank? Sounds like u may have a bad back flow or the “prime”valve is in the open position. A bad reading at the storage tank will be an indicator of this issue. Let us know......

 

[Washmee]

Did you accidentally install a higher flow pump than your original?

 

[soapy]

Does your system have part of the reject water plumbed back in to the incoming water? Many of the most efficient systems do this.

 

[Beddattery]

Thank you all for the response.....

I will check the TDS level in the storage tank....

The pump part number....sta- rite HPS10E.....is the same

I will to check the system to see if it has the ability to return some of the reject back to incoming.....

 

[pgrzes]

A super Saver pumpstand should have 3 flow meters, product, reject and bypass. The bypass is t'd into the production pump supply line. My system has 2 membranes and I flow about 1.5/2 gal product to 3 gal reject. I have the bypas almost completely closed. My incoming water is extremely hard(350-400) even after the softener and charcoal tanks. I run in my storage tank from 5-35 tds depending on pressure and bypass settings. I am not a fan of the adjustment valve they use on that stand but have not found a good replacement for it. Once its set it should be good for some time though.

 

[Greg Pack]

Could be several things. I would keep reducing pressure until and try to get an acceptable ratio and then check TDS.

 

[MEP001]

A super Saver pumpstand should have 3 flow meters, product, reject and bypass. The bypass is t'd into the production pump supply line. My system has 2 membranes and I flow about 1.5/2 gal product to 3 gal reject. I have the bypas almost completely closed. My incoming water is extremely hard(350-400) even after the softener and charcoal tanks. I run in my storage tank from 5-35 tds depending on pressure and bypass settings. I am not a fan of the adjustment valve they use on that stand but have not found a good replacement for it. Once its set it should be good for some time though.

Not specifically on the Coleman system, but I've used a ball valve to control the recirculate to the pump and a bypass regulator to control system pressure, and I've done it reversed with the regulator bypassing some reject back to the pump and controlling reject flow with the ball valve. The former is a little easier to set, both seem to work equally well.

Beddattery, what is the system pressure? You don't want to exceed 200 PSI.

 

[bryan church]

It sounds like you may have a ruptured membrane.

 

[MEP001]

A ruptured membrane would cause a very large amount of product flow at a high TDS. His product flow and TDS reading is normal.

 

[bryan church]

His reject flow is very high, and he never told us his TDS after installing new pump.

 

[MEP001]

His reject flow is very high, and he never told us his TDS after installing new pump.

High reject wouldn't be from a blown membrane. Water flows around and through the layers at a high rate if nothing restricts it. He did say "TDS reading is 4," which I took to mean the reading now, not before changing the pump.

 

[Beddattery]

Again...thank you for your input

To answer some of your questions....

My super saver has 2 flow meters....product scale is 1GPM....reject is 2GPM. This system does not appear to have a bypass regulator. I do not see where it can return the reject back into the pump system.

I adjusted the regulator up from my standard 170 to 195 PSI and still no change in reject flow...now at better than 2 GPM.

Current TDS reading in spot free tank is 4

If i adjust the pressure down using the regulator the product level will drop to .7 GPM but the reject stays at better than 2GPM. The concern is it wont keep up with demand. Busy time of year in Florida....pollen season.

 

[MEP001]

Maybe the regulator is bad. I've never been able to understand the mess of hoses coming and going to it. There may be a valve that recirculates a portion of the reject back to the pump, or maybe that's the purpose of the regulator and there's a valve that controls the reject, but something in there is likely your problem.

 

[Washmee]

Your pump is rated for about 3gpm at 195 psi, so it is highly unlikely at that pressure you are discharging more than 2gpm of reject water. The way those pumps work is the lower the pressure the higher the gpm. Try replacing the pressure gauge on the regulator. Maybe it is giving you a false reading.

 

[Greg Pack]

Not specifically on the Coleman system, but I've used a ball valve to control the recirculate to the pump and a bypass regulator to control system pressure, and I've done it reversed with the regulator bypassing some reject back to the pump and controlling reject flow with the ball valve. The former is a little easier to set, both seem to work equally well.

I think I did the same thing on mine.

 

[Beddattery]

Still working on the problem of high volume of reject.....

Some one suggested a throttle valve on the pump outlet side, The newer systems offer a simple ball valve to regulate the pressure.

Before I spend time and money.....do you think that would help?

 

[MEP001]

I worked on a system the same as yours that had a bad regulator, so bad that it was producing almost nothing. I clamped a vice grip on the reject line going into the bottom of the flow meter to get the pressure up where it was supposed to be until I could get a regulator for it.

 

[Beddattery]

Thank you all again for your input......

Problem solved.....by adding a throttle valve to the output side of the booster pump I am able to adjust the pressure to where the product water is now 1.1 GPM and the reject is 1.8 GPM. I was told by an " expert" that the best I could see is 1.1 GPM and 5.0 GPM respectively thru a single membrane. ( yes the expert sells RO systems). Like anything else I have found in this business...you need to find....THE GUY...that knows what he is doing.

Hope this helps others.....

 

[MEP001]

Your "expert" has created a strain on the pump where instead you could have tee'd a return line from the reject back to the inlet of the pump. That has two benefits, it will slightly increase your production rate and it will let you run product/reject at 1:1 with less waste.

(I'm also an expert)