RO Buddy - Time to Replace Membrane

[horseplay]

Hi guys I need some help from the experts. I have the 4 stage RO Buddy from Aquatic Life. Sediment, Carbon, Membrane and DI. Recently the production has been reduced significantly. When new it was able to produce 50 GPD.

I estimate that it has produced about 300 gallon of RO water so far. I have replaced the DI resin two times. I just replaced both the sediment and carbon stages still the production is still very slow, maybe half of what it was before.

Is it time to change the membrane? When I had the full size BRS system I never had to change membrane for 5 years and thousands of gallons.

 

[Sponge]

Hi guys I need some help from the experts. I have the 4 stage RO Buddy from Aquatic Life. Sediment, Carbon, Membrane and DI. Recently the production has been reduced significantly. When new it was able to produce 50 GPD.

I estimate that it has produced about 300 gallon of RO water so far. I have replaced the DI resin two times. I just replaced both the sediment and carbon stages still the production is still very slow, maybe half of what it was before.

Is it time to change the membrane? When I had the full size BRS system I never had to change membrane for 5 years and thousands of gallons.

I do not know the RO buddy. But for sure. If you have significant reduction in production. It is the membrane.

 

[Mark_C]

Joe,
Ran the RO buddy for a few years. It sounds like the membrane. Whenever I replaced it production was back up.

 

[horseplay]

Thanks! A brand new unit is $60 the membrane is $31. The other 3 stages can be bought together for $32. So it’s probably a good idea to buy a new unit again.

 

[horseplay]

Anyone installed a flush valve for this unit or recommendations?

The waste water line has a piece which has a mark of 450 on it. I am assuming this is the flow restrictor. I see BRS has flush valve with 400ML and 550ML capacity. The 550 is for 75GPD units.

I think in a system like this the RO membrane does the majority of the work and lacking a flush valve to remove deposit must have contributed to its early demise.

 

[horseplay]

On a second thought I am just going to remove the restrictor and flush it for 3 minutes and see if it helps.

 

[amado]

The BRS canisters for the rodi is a lot bigger than aquatic life. I was changing too often with aquatic life so I got the BRS 7 stage.
your source water is always changing. You can’t control what’s coming in from your tap if you are on public water. So it’s always best to replace the membrane often.

in the winter your RO production will also be slow.

 

[horseplay]

amado - I try to save a few bucks and this is going thru membrane too fast. Like I said before, when I had the BRS I never changed membrane, that's 5+ years of thousands of gallons.

I flushed the water and it seems to have producing faster. It's doing about 30 GPD now. I created a flush system with some spare parts.

The biggest unknown is the carbon and sediment filters. You have no idea when to have them replaced.

 

[horseplay]

 

[amado]

Make sure you run a tds meter to make sure you are at zero

 

[DEL]

til this day I've used only Airwaterice units. never had issues.