how long do rodi filter last

greg0385

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I just put new 4-stage filters in my old rodi unit. I made 90 gallons of good water and my tds meter says 1tds. So if its a 4 to 1 ratio that would mean that 360 gallon of bad water went down the drain. My well water pressure is not as high as i would want, my psi gauge reads 40psi. I plan on buying a booster but if my new 200gallon tank build at this rate im going to replace my filters 2 more times just to fill it up.
I believe there more wrong then just my house pressure causing this problem especially since incoming water reads only 16 tds.
Any help would be great
greg
 
Yea as soon as it did i got 1tds but i only got 16tds incoming and it only made 90 gallons of good water before becoming exhausted. I thought it would last longer than that
 
Something seems wrong to me if you only made 90 gallons before its exhausted. I make 100s of gallons before I start reading 1 on the TDS.
 
Something seems wrong to me if you only made 90 gallons before its exhausted. I make 100s of gallons before I start reading 1 on the TDS.

well it made 90 gallons and is now reading 1tds and it was 0tds til the di color changing resin was exhausted. So maybe thats just normal and thats fine i just wanted to make sure before buying more filters instead of fixing the problem.
 
How old is your RO membrane? Or was that replaced as well? If the membrane isn't doing its job it would cause the DI resin to become exhausted faster.
 
Couldn't hurt. I'd get a membrane flush kit with it to prolong the life of the membrane.
 
Mine has a valve on the top after the membrane and is inline on the waste line. I didnt know what it was other than when i turned the valve i didnt get any good water, how often should i had use that and how long
 
I run mine for about 30 seconds every once in a while to help clean it out. My membrane was replaced in March I think and I'm still getting 0 TDS water...granted I've replaced my other filters maybe twice since then as well.
 
I have to replace my sediment, carbon, and di resins about every 3weeks, and my ro membrane everysix months. It just depends on how much evap you replace, the quality of your local water, and the size of your unit. I have a 150gpd unit for my 125g but I have two 400w halides so I have around 1-2 gallons of evap a day.
 
I have to replace my sediment, carbon, and di resins about every 3weeks, and my ro membrane everysix months. It just depends on how much evap you replace, the quality of your local water, and the size of your unit. I have a 150gpd unit for my 125g but I have two 400w halides so I have around 1-2 gallons of evap a day.

I'm throwing in 4-6g everyday and I only replace my filters once a year and my membrane once every two it depend more on the quality of equipment you're using really! Also a bad Idea to have your RO hooked directly up to your top off as it will burn through DI resin quickly do to tds creep store water in a container and use it for your top off also another way to make your DI last longer is run a T before your DI with a valve so you can run your unit for 5-10 minutes before each use it will almost double your DI resin life!
 
I can only assume you have a dual inline TDS meter since you don't say and they should be installed so you are reading the RO only water on the IN probe and RO/DI on the out probe.
I have found from years of experience you can fillter between 3000 and 6000 total TDS per full 16 oz of DI resin so at 16 TDS in you can expect between 180 and 360 gallons at 0 TDS per pound of resin under perfect conditions. Perfect conditions means a 98% rejection rate RO membrane, low or no CO2, normal pH, normal temperatures and 50 psi or higher.
You are using domestic well water so you may have a strike or two against you already since well water is traditionally higher in TDS, more often than not has high CO2, may have other than normal pH and temperatures may be outside normal.

Sediment filters and carbon blocks have very little to absolutely nothing to do with TDS, the yare there to protect the RO membrane which removes 90 to 98% of the TDS and which in turn protects the DI resin which polishes off the final 2 to 10% of the TDS. To capture or remove TDS you need an efficient RO membrane and high quality DI resin.

You have a strike against you with the low pressure, it should be at least 50 psi and 60-100 would be much better. What is your tap water TDS, your RO only TDS and your RO/DI TDS? What is your actual measured water pressure? What is your water temperature? What is youir actual measured waste ratio, not what was claimed when you purchased the system?

What DI resin are you using and is it fresh? If you just purchased it, was it damp and vacuum sealed in a plastic or foil bag? If you have had it awhile did you keep it vacuum sealed in a seal a meal type bag in the back of the refrigerator and is it less than 6 months old? Is it a brand name resin purchased from a reliable vendor or did you get it on ebay or a similar site?

There are huge differences in DI resins and resin quality just as there are differences in RO membranes and how well they work.

Flush kits or valves are a waste of money and all they do is lighten your wallet and give you a warm fuzzy feeling, they have no proven value.

Me z, you are wasting money big time it sounds like. My TDS is over 800 at times and my hardness is extremely hard and sediment and carbon filters can easily go a year or more when I monitor them and membranes go 5 years or more. Whats the problem with your water or is it your system?

If you can manually run the RO to waste befoer making DI thats great but normally a minute or two should easily pass any TDS creep. For many of us who have automated things this is not an option but TDS creep is not as bad as some think since it passes quickly.
 
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I can only assume you have a dual inline TDS meter since you don't say and they should be installed so you are reading the RO only water on the IN probe and RO/DI on the out probe.
I have found from years of experience you can fillter between 3000 and 6000 total TDS per full 16 oz of DI resin so at 16 TDS in you can expect between 180 and 360 gallons at 0 TDS per pound of resin under perfect conditions. Perfect conditions means a 98% rejection rate RO membrane, low or no CO2, normal pH, normal temperatures and 50 psi or higher.
You are using domestic well water so you may have a strike or two against you already since well water is traditionally higher in TDS, more often than not has high CO2, may have other than normal pH and temperatures may be outside normal.

Sediment filters and carbon blocks have very little to absolutely nothing to do with TDS, the yare there to protect the RO membrane which removes 90 to 98% of the TDS and which in turn protects the DI resin which polishes off the final 2 to 10% of the TDS. To capture or remove TDS you need an efficient RO membrane and high quality DI resin.

You have a strike against you with the low pressure, it should be at least 50 psi and 60-100 would be much better. What is your tap water TDS, your RO only TDS and your RO/DI TDS? What is your actual measured water pressure? What is your water temperature? What is youir actual measured waste ratio, not what was claimed when you purchased the system?

What DI resin are you using and is it fresh? If you just purchased it, was it damp and vacuum sealed in a plastic or foil bag? If you have had it awhile did you keep it vacuum sealed in a seal a meal type bag in the back of the refrigerator and is it less than 6 months old? Is it a brand name resin purchased from a reliable vendor or did you get it on ebay or a similar site?

There are huge differences in DI resins and resin quality just as there are differences in RO membranes and how well they work.


just the person i was hoping would chime in!!! I cant answer all your questions at this time but here goes what i do know- its a 75gpd 4 stage unit. I replace all filters except for the membrane. The filters were from BRS. The di resin was a one time use day and was wet/moist. I do have a dual tds meter- inbound is on the feed line to the unit as well as my psi gauge as it has brass fitting on it. The outbound probe is on the good water line going to my brute trashcan. The inbound probe reads 16tds and the outbound did read 0 til last nite once the di resin had completly change color. The psi gauge reads anywhere from 35-42 pending what else is using water( shower,clothes washer, dishwasher) i do not know temps but would guess 50s as i only got the feed line hooked to the cold water line off of laundry hook ups. The amount of waste per good is hard as i have waste line going down drain with washer. Good water is a lil more than a steady drip but not stream,but waste is a steady stream coming out of the 1/4inch line. Good water rate is hard to be exact at this time other than a 32 gallon trashcan took about 12-15 hours to fill.
I will work toward getting more exact answers on the questions that i couldnt give you at this time.
Thanks for all the help
greg
 
If your IN probe is on the tap water side it needs to be moved to the RO side and inserted into a plastic John Guest tee like they come standard with. Also make sure the probeis rotated the correct direction as shown in the instructions that come with the TDS meter.

If your tap water TDS is only 16 and you are still only getting 90 gallons out of a DI refill then you may have a bad membrane. Move the meter to the correct position and check the RO TDS. You more than likely do have a CO2 problem and you can check that with a CO2 test kit Spectrapure makes and sells pretty inexpensive. I am somewhat biased towards Spectrapure products but it is because I have owned and tried all the others and there really is no comparison. They treat and test all the RO membranes and its usually 1 to 2% or greater more efficient than any other on the market bar none. That is important since a 2% increase in efficiency doubles the life of your DI resin without doing anything else. Add to that they blend all their own DI resins based on thousands of hours of testing under the worst conditions imaginable so they last anywhere from 30% to 400% longer than any other resin available in the hobby. Their research pays off big time.
 
RO side? Do you mean after the membrane and what do you mean if the probe is turned the right direction. It did come with 2 Tees and those kind of connectors. I did order a new membrane and more di resin from brs. My rodi unit is a weird brand named abundant flow water system.
 
You can't do anything about the tap wate rTDS othe rthan treat it with the RO membrane and tap wate rdoesn't usually change much so once you know what it is its really for information only.
You DO want to know how the RO membrane is performing so you want the IN probe after the membrane so you can gauge its rejection rate or removal efficiency.

If its not too late I would highly recommend cancelling your order with BRS and getting a guaranteed in writing, better than 98% rejection rate Select series 90 GPD RO membrane and matched capillary tube flow restrictor you yourself trim for an exact 4:1 waste ratio for only $44. Their SilicaBuster DI cartridges are also on sale for only $18 and I personally guarantee you they will last at least 30% longer and probably a lot more than that. There are many vendors of RO and RO/DI equipment popping up over the last couple of years but only two I can think of with over 25 years in the business and specifically in the reef hobby and Spectrapure is the leader due to customer satisfaction.

Not to knock BRS, I use their chemicals but they don't hold a candle when it comes to RO/DI.

I am aware of Abundant Flow, they have been an ebay vendor for several years and are drinking water quality systems not reef systems and there is a big difference. I personally started with a Watts Premier drinking water system and had a fortune invested before I could get it to work for my reef water. Spectrapure has a system for $120 that blows the the others away and you can't hardly replace filters for $120 if you get quality ones.

Check out the Select 90 GPD membrane and flow restrictors and the SilicaBuster DI cvartridges close to the bottom of the page here:
Untitled Document

and the $120 system here:
MAXPURE MPDI SYSTEM

And read about the differences and why they are important here:
FAQ FOR REVERSE OSMOSIS

It all comes down to cost of ownership or operation and water quality and I am here to say there is a difference in what you have ordered and what you could have for less money.
 
Whats the difference in drinking water quailty and reef? Too late on the membrane as i PP them right from my acct.
 

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