reverse osmosis troubleshooting... high tds

So I got a used RO filter that is putting next to nothing out of the product hose at way high tds and way too much volume out of the brine/waste water tube. The sediment and pre carbon are brand new... cheap looking but brand new but i know the R.O membrane is used. I have a new membrane on order I dont know if its the problem thoough.. anybody with experience have some input??

If the sediment filter and carboon filter are new......and the problem you have now wasn't there prior it's the carbon filter
They sometime produce ( fines)small particals of carbon that increase the TDS when water is first ran thru system.
The other issue could be the membrane which may be fouled. Depending on the quality of the feed water and how often maintenance was done.can dictate how many gallons of water your RO will produce and how much go's to waste.

Most R/O systems have a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 ratio. This has been the main reason why I haven't ran R/O before. My system wastes almost 200 gallons a day! You can buy a back flush kit to clean out the membrane. What is you TDS? My tap water runs about 300-350 TDS. Using my new R/O my TDS has dropped to 40 PPM. If your unit is running somewhere between 0-80 PPM you should be fine.

Everyone thinks you need 0 PPM, but you must understand 100 parts per Million is not a hell of a lot, think about it, you have a million dollars and you give away a hundred what do you have...one hundred dollars less than a million. Plus you would be called a cheap bugger!

Good Luck

oldtimer - this R.O. is new to me dont have previous experience with this particular unit. So with everytrhing you have said im going to assume its the membrane causing the problem.


sir ganga- R.O. does waste water i realize this. ppm between 2-350. 100ppm isnt alot but alsodepends on whatt that 100ppm is.. my other R.O. unit puts out water at 8-10 ppm your membrane probably needs tobe changed soon.

Alright, so it sounds like you are having issues with the flow restrictor. It may be set too high as to reject more water. I have a system that is a 1:1 ratio, and also gives me 0ppm water, but that is because I have 3 stages of DI resin after the membrane to ensure everything is removed. But you can go here http://www.aquasafecanada.com/support/installation/aquariumii-dual/ and go down to step 7 to see how to set the flow restrictor. Like said above, it may be an issue with the membrane and you have one on order, but if that doesn't fix it, it's probably the flow restrictor.

it was the membrane working perfectly below 10 ppm

So with an RO system should the PH of the water be coming out at 9.5? Im under the impression that with the RO the water is coming out at 7.0 or around that range. I just bought a HydroLogic Stealth 100 and its working fine but the PH is my concern. Any ideas would be great

my ro comes out around 5-5.2. Straight tapwater runs bout 7-7.4

My RO is in the low 5s as well.

In the instruction for many ro membranes they say to use 1 mil of bleach in the inlet after doing so it trashed my membrane and it started doing what you describe. You will probably be fine when your new one gets to you. My 2 cents.

you can get 10 gallons of RO water at wal mart for $2.50