[herbiefatboy]

can any one tell me what the signs are when you need to change membrane.is one of the signs a high water pressure reading?  many thanks

[herbiefatboy]

oh dear?

[Paul Coleman]

can any one tell me what the signs are when you need to change membrane.is one of the signs a high water pressure reading?  many thanks

I haven't had membranes go to the end of their natural life yet but I understand that the TDS can start to climb and production rate starts slowing down.  I'm told that this is a fairly gradual process not to be confused with the rather rapid deterioration that occurs when you wreck the membranes by not changing the pre-filters soon enough.
I'm not sure about water pressure increasing though.  I suppose that if the membranes are becoming clogged and the flow through them becomes restricted then the pressure would start climbing but I've no idea if I disagreeumption is based on fact or not.

[Ian_Giles]

Maybe not quite the same thing, but the other week my water production seemed to be so slow!
So I thought maybe I needed to flush my membranes as the water had been on 24/7 for about 10 solid days.
I have the small R/O setup, I don't know, its what...100 gal per day? I've had it 3 years now and I've forgotten! But it is like the ones you can get from R/O man.
Anyway, even when flushing the system the water wouldn't gush out, something was certainly blocking or clogging up the R/O somewhere along the line.
So I popped out the water from the inlet and popped it into one of the membranes waste outlet and totally reversed the flow, put thumb over the waste outlet of the other membrane and really back-washed  things.
It turned out that algae had clogged things up, no end of green sludge got blasted out
System is working fine again now, and my pure water profuction was back up to its normal trickle   but I've also replaced the filters, better safe than sorry eh?

When your membranes are knackered you will know about it as the TDS out of your R/O will climb steadily, and no amount of flushing or changing of filters will change things.

Ian

[herbiefatboy]

thanks for your replies so far only my water pressure normal reads between  65-70psi  but it is now reading 160psi but i know the pressure is not that great.i have had the membranes in for 2 years i just wondered what the life span is roughly  thanks again

[Paul Coleman]

thanks for your replies so far only my water pressure normal reads between  65-70psi  but it is now reading 160psi but i know the pressure is not that great.i have had the membranes in for 2 years i just wondered what the life span is roughly  thanks again

It looks like my earlier post has been changed my the automated censor   

The last sentence should end as  ".............but I've no idea if this     a s sumption is based on fact or not."  (Letters spaced to avoid the pernickety, non human censor)   

[Mr. S]

my water pressure gauge during last icy spell read abnormally high. when i turned my supply off it didnt drop back down,................... turned out my pressure gauge was knackered. Dont know how? Freezing temps i suppose!

Hope thyis helps