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Any RO Experts?

jameson_uk

Member
Joined
10 Jun 2016
Messages
879
Location
Birmingham
Lockdown has meant I ended up with Amazon vouchers for my birthday, some spare time and a desire to experiment....

This all lead to me getting an RO unit from Amazon which looks relatively decent but I can't figure out how it is plumbed together....
The manual is poor (if for an un pumped setup and very high level) and I haven't been able to get a response from the seller (Covid 19 related I hope :rolleyes:) but it doesn't seem to make sense.
Everything is plumbed together quite tightly and cable tied which makes tracing it quite difficult but as far as I can tell the flow is
RO.png

I was expecting the system to have an auto shut off valve and not a solenoid but I am not 100% if it even is a solenoid but I cannot figure out what else it could be? o_O
MVIMG_20200509_210930.jpg MVIMG_20200509_210941.jpg MVIMG_20200509_211157.jpg MVIMG_20200509_211146.jpg

But assuming this is a solenoid then I cannot figure out how to run it without the pump running dry. With the pump off, water will stop between the sediment and carbon filters and it would have to wait for the carbon filter to fill before any water made it to the pump.... this seems a bit odd. Same problem with flushing the filters, you don't seem to be able to as the solenoid would stop any water getting into the carbon filter at all?

Is this a solenoid valve and should it not be after the pump?
 
I donot understand the question fully.
There Shouldn’t be a solenoid, just pump and it’s eccentric convertor.

Follow the colours for tubing and happy days.

Just flush it’s through (there should be a tap somewhere) before and after every use.

There are lots of set up videos on YouTube that will help.
 
you'll need a high pressure and a low pressure switch along with a ball cock valve installed if you want it fully automated mate. the low pressure switche gets connected to clean water line and the high pressure switch get connected to the waste water line but both receiving power from the pump. when the ball cock gets activated this shuts off the clean water that creates low pressure which triggers the switch and turns off the pump. the high pressure switch then get triggered as there is high pressure within the system and cuts off the water at the waste pipe. as soon as the clean water barrel is emptied or lowered of water the process will start again until full. hope that makes sense?
 
like this but without sink tap carbon filter and solenoid. the pressure tank can be any tub/ barrel and that is where you would put a ball cock.


.
unnamed.jpg
 
I donot understand the question fully.
There Shouldn’t be a solenoid, just pump and it’s eccentric convertor.

Follow the colours for tubing and happy days.

Just flush it’s through (there should be a tap somewhere) before and after every use.

There are lots of set up videos on YouTube that will help.
All the videos I can find on you tube are for non pumped systems or ones with an auto shut off valve.

I was expecting an auto shut off valve rather than a solenoid but I understand what it does. The power from the transformer is wired to the low and high pressure switches, the auto flush and (what I think is) the solenoid valve.

If the incoming supply is cut the low pressure switch kicks in and turns off the pump. If the storage container is full the high pressure switch kicks in and turns off the pump. If either switch kicks in the solenoid closes stoping any flow.

I guess my questions were whether this was a solenoid valve (99% sure it is) and whether it seems plumbed in a sensible place or whether I should move it further down stream.
 
you'll need a high pressure and a low pressure switch
There are both pressure switches (in sensible places. I think you posted as I was replying but see above. (float valve is the next step further down the line once I have it working).

like this but without sink tap carbon filter and solenoid. the pressure tank can be any tub/ barrel and that is where you would put a ball cock.


.View attachment 134727
This is similar to what I have seen but with the solenoid before the pump doesn't this mean that the first time you run the system the pump will be dry when it is turned on (although in this case it appears just before the pump)
 
could have sworn that was a switch. I have mine setup as per the pic I put up but without the tap and no solenoid but with a 200ltr water drum with a ball cock.
the reason I set mine up this way was I didn't want my 3 filtration chambers under pressure. I get what you mean about the pump being run dry on first start up but I have never had any problems doing it this way. just turn the pump off at the wall whilst the chambers fill up
 
I get what you mean about the pump being run dry on first start up but I have never had any problems doing it this way. just turn the pump off at the wall whilst the chambers fill up
But when the pump is off the solenoid will be closed and hence no water will get past the sediment filter currently??
I am going to take a fourth look at the plumbing tomorrow as I am sure it cannot be done the way I have drawn :rolleyes:
 
remove the solenoid as this is only required if you are including a drinking tap. I would also advise placing your transformer above the ro unit
 
After getting no response from the vendor I filed a return request. Still no response so I filed an Amazon claim and they have refunded me in full and not asked me to return the unit :oops:
I replumbed it roughly like the diagram above, except I put the solenoid before the pump.

When I did test it the solenoid is indeed closed when the pump is off so turning this on for the first time the pump would be running dry for a good 30 seconds whilst the second chamber fills up. This way I was able to flush the pre-filters (there was a little bit of crud that came out) and with the power off no water hit the pump. I have then fitted a DI resin bypass and ran through the first 20l or so (the manual says to flush the first 5 gallons to remove the factory installed sanitizing solution)

After everything was setup I ran it for 10 minutes and it produced 2.8l product and 5.3l waste which doesn't seem too bad.

Only thing is the final product has TDS of 9.6. I bought a three point TDS meter for the unit to show the TDS at incoming, post RO membrane and post DI resin. I haven't been able to validate or calibrate the meter but it is reading slightly higher on the output from the DI resin than the output from RO membrane (which is the input to the DO) :confused:.

Could new DI resin actually increase the TDS?

Also this is another oddity of how it was plumbed in but might be right. In the first two pre-filters the water enters the middle of filter and flows out through the filters. The DI chamber flows into the outer part and out from the middle of the DI container. Presumably it shouldn't matter as long as it flows through the resin?
 
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