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UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Perfect Windows on April 24, 2021, 05:31:31 pm

Title: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Perfect Windows on April 24, 2021, 05:31:31 pm
Interested to see what order people have their filters/booster pump.

Our systems are all pump, charcoal, particulate, RO but it seems to me that filters before the pump might result in higher pressure in the RO. Just wondering whether people are doing that.

Vin
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: chris turner on April 24, 2021, 06:50:29 pm
I was told pump directly before RO as this is the only component that needs the high pressure. Also putting pump after sediment etc helps protect it and prolong its life.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Simon Trapani on April 24, 2021, 07:16:57 pm
Pump, carbon, sediment then RO for me.

When I had the pump after the filters it was sucking the water so quick that the pressure gauges wouldn’t work.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: mjm on April 24, 2021, 07:31:14 pm
carbon /sediment/ punp / ro
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: M & C Window Cleaning on April 24, 2021, 08:28:13 pm
Prefilters/pump/pressure gauge/RO

When I put it before the prefilters it blew out all the seals on the prefilters.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Spruce on April 24, 2021, 10:17:09 pm
I don't think many of us use charcoal as a chlorine block filter like you do Vin.
Smudger did ask you about your setup a while back but I haven't seen a report of him converting to charcoal since.

Purefreedom fit their booster pump after the prefilters and before r/o. This is the way I would do it. But if pipe work dictated the booster pump before prefilters then I would settle with that.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Smudger on April 25, 2021, 02:18:10 am
I did but the ro didn't seem to last any longer than using the block carbon in a pre filter so I returned to that as the charcoal was messy to fIll in a di vessel

I just replace a membrane every 5 months now

Darran
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Perfect Windows on April 25, 2021, 12:16:02 pm
I did but the ro didn't seem to last any longer than using the block carbon in a pre filter so I returned to that as the charcoal was messy to fIll in a di vessel

I just replace a membrane every 5 months now

Darran

I know it's off topic but a membrane every five months? My last one lasted (I think) about eight or nine years.

That really sound like biological fouling.

Vin
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Smudger on April 25, 2021, 01:43:37 pm
No I don't think so, I stripped and bleached everything

Water here ranges from 275 (if I'm lucky) to 350 and sometimes touching 400

I do make 2000 litres a day now at least 3 days a week and over 1000 the other 2  - so I am putting it down to actual volume going through it

Darran

Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Simon Trapani on April 25, 2021, 02:17:59 pm
No I don't think so, I stripped and bleached everything

Water here ranges from 275 (if I'm lucky) to 350 and sometimes touching 400

I do make 2000 litres a day now at least 3 days a week and over 1000 the other 2  - so I am putting it down to actual volume going through it

Darran
I agree that sounds too frequent. Do you use a softener? That would help. Maybe  speak with Lee Pryor? In one of his last videos he had spent quite considerably on a new softener setup from gaps water. It's an uninterrupted supply. One works whilst the other regenerates. Salt delivered by the pallet load. He must get through considerably more water than you?
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Soupy on April 25, 2021, 03:12:48 pm
Pre filter - pump - sediment filter - RO - DI
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Smudger on April 25, 2021, 03:36:04 pm
Looked at softener - thing is something to work effectively on the volume is around 1500 plus installation and then the ongoing cost of salt (cheaper than a membrane)

I am planning to install a second ro4040 and dual feed,so ineffect they will produce around a 1000 litres each - when I was at this level a few years ago membranes lasted around 18 months

Already got a couple of housings at £40 each off eBay just need the time to plumb them in  ::)roll

Darran
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Simon Trapani on April 25, 2021, 03:50:28 pm
Yes but then your membranes should last years. Mine do although I don’t use as much water as you as only have one employee. I do have a similar tds though.

Two schools of thought here, similar to those that say leaving your central heating on permanently is more cost effective.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Dry Clean on April 25, 2021, 05:08:34 pm
Strange that a lot of people seem to be putting the sediment filter after the carbon as its job is to prolong the life of the carbon filter, the carbon filter will also keep out sediment but will get blocked up by it a lot quicker.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Dry Clean on April 25, 2021, 05:13:03 pm
Yes but then your membranes should last years. Mine do although I don’t use as much water as you as only have one employee. I do have a similar tds though.

Two schools of thought here, similar to those that say leaving your central heating on permanently is more cost effective.
You probably have a lot less chlorine in your water than he does, I very rarely change my pre filters (once a year if that) and my membranes last years, if my water was high in chlorine then I probably couldn't get away with this.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Smudger on April 25, 2021, 05:39:46 pm
I think your right there - we had a letter a while back about adding stuff to the water - possibly chorine as there was a warning about home dialysis and you would no longer be a able to use the water for that

Darran
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Smudger on April 25, 2021, 05:40:36 pm
we also get a lot of lime scale - the filters in the kettle get blocked with in a few weeks

Darran
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Simon Trapani on April 25, 2021, 05:45:26 pm
Hence the water softener eliminates the limescale & the carbon filter the chlorine which destroys the membrane.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Smudger on April 25, 2021, 06:35:50 pm
suppose I'd better add - I regard the membrane no good at 018 ppm

I don't use resin so once the membrane reaches this level I renew - and just to say if I used resin at this I would use (I did use) nearly a bag every fortnight at nearly £90 a bag it docent take long to start costing more than a new membrane

Darran
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Dry Clean on April 25, 2021, 09:01:50 pm
Hence the water softener eliminates the limescale & the carbon filter the chlorine which destroys the membrane.
Its high levels of chlorine that destroys the membrane, carbon filters only remove around 95% of it and with high levels they get used up very quickly, problem is there's no real way of telling when this has happened, you could probably still be OK with 50% or even more of chlorine in your water getting through the carbon filter before changing but for guys who have high levels doing the same the membrane lifespan get shortened a lot quicker.
Title: Re: Booster pump position - poll corrected
Post by: Perfect Windows on April 29, 2021, 05:54:26 pm
Input TDS 300-330 here, output 004. 500L a day, three days a week.  My setup is:

Pump

30" Spectrum DI vessel 2/3 full of acid washed charcoal*. I am reliably told (June at Gaps) that this is sufficient as a particulate filter as well as a chlorine filter. I went to this because occasionally our water tastes earthy (surprisingly pleasant) then, the following day, like a swimming pool.

Particulate filter - despite the charcoal being acid washed some bits of carbon do wash out of it initially. The filter is there to catch them before they hit the membrane.  My filters used to come out dark brown*** and they now come out with a faint tinge of grey from the charcoal. That suggests the charcoal is collecting crud as June suggested it would.

RO. I've never used a water softener which is probably why I only** got seven or eight years (I really can't remember but it's there or thereabouts) out of my last membrane. And that was because my feed pipe had a split, sucked in soil and I had a biological fouling of the membrane. Before that it had crept up to 012TDS output, which I considered to be perfectly OK.

Vin

*Used to be £120 a bag, now £220 because it's become fashionable to eat it because it "removes toxins" from food in your stomach. I wish I was joking.  I get three fills from a sack, each fill lasts a year.

** sarcasm

*** They used to look like this:
(http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q797/Onionman9999/Filter_zpspe3hzyqu.jpg) (http://s1359.photobucket.com/user/Onionman9999/media/Filter_zpspe3hzyqu.jpg.html)