[dazmond]

So I've had my RO for 4 months now so just changed my pre filters....they are minging!

I flushed my RO for 15 mins after installing fresh ones....

Tap TDS 154

After RO 004

[Splash and dash]

So I've had my RO for 4 months now so just changed my pre filters....they are minging!

I flushed my RO for 15 mins after installing fresh ones....

Tap TDS 154

After RO 004

Yes it is quite normal they don’t look that bad to be honest

[CleanClear]

So I've had my RO for 4 months now so just changed my pre filters....they are minging!

I flushed my RO for 15 mins after installing fresh ones....

Tap TDS 154

After RO 004

Strange that Daz. I've no idea how they could get like that. You may want to consider running the water through something to remove the contaminants so they don't foul up your filters like that. I've no idea what you could use to do that though.

[dazmond]

So I've had my RO for 4 months now so just changed my pre filters....they are minging!

I flushed my RO for 15 mins after installing fresh ones....

Tap TDS 154

After RO 004

Strange that Daz. I've no idea how they could get like that. You may want to consider running the water through something to remove the contaminants so they don't foul up your filters like that. I've no idea what you could use to do that though.

Sarcasm doesn't come through that well on the Internet!🤣👍

[dazmond]

So I've had my RO for 4 months now so just changed my pre filters....they are minging!

I flushed my RO for 15 mins after installing fresh ones....

Tap TDS 154

After RO 004

Yes it is quite normal they don’t look that bad to be honest

Mine are in jet black casing so i cant see how dirty they are. I've put a reminder on my calendar for 4 months time to change them again as I think 4 monthly intervals is a good time to change them then hopefully my membrane will last many years

[CleanClear]

Sarcasm doesn't come through that well on the Internet!🤣👍

Come on , cut me some slack its Friday night !!!  But to strictly answer your observation, they ain't too bad. Ours look like something that have had nicotine run through them, really dark. And of course, just something to bear in mind... you can see dirt and sediment, you can't see chlorine and thats what the carbon block one removes.

[Perfect Windows]

Could be worse.

In honesty I have no idea when the charcoal needs changing.  There is a test kit that shows if there's chlorine in the water coming out but I just settled on changing it annually: Must be about right as the membrane's now about four years old (4040) and still giving 8ppm at an input of ~300ppm. £40 or so a year seems OK to me - even if I doubled the life of the charcoal by testing I'd only be £20 a year up. Life's too short.

I have a 20" prefilter after the charcoal. It stays perfectly clean between changes of charcoal but I check it anyway.  We have water that occasionally tastes like soil (it's a surprisingly pleasant earthy taste) and the filter used to look like this after about three months:



But now it's spotless after a year, which makes me think the charcoal's also filtering out particles.

Hope that helps,

Vin

Vin

[Simon Trapani]

Mine have never got anywhere near as bad as that. Never seen filters that bad. Maybe I’m changing mine too frequently🤷‍♂️

[Stoots]

I dont use pre filters at all, straight to R.O although i only use the cheap 150gpd membranes (x3)

Tap tds fluctuates between 100 and 300.

Whether using filters would extend the life of the membranes long enough to outweigh the cost of buying them every so often i dont know but given my membranes last about 2 years and cost £100 to replace i just dont bother as its one less thing to  remember.

[dazmond]

I dont use pre filters at all, straight to R.O although i only use the cheap 150gpd membranes (x3)

Tap tds fluctuates between 100 and 300.

Whether using filters would extend the life of the membranes long enough to outweigh the cost of buying them every so often i dont know but given my membranes last about 2 years and cost £100 to replace i just dont bother as its one less thing to  remember.

My low pressure axeon membrane cost around £500 so I'm hoping it lasts at least 10-15 years before I need to change it. Spruce has the same membrane and his is 13 years old. Still going strong. 

[Spruce]

I dont use pre filters at all, straight to R.O although i only use the cheap 150gpd membranes (x3)

Tap tds fluctuates between 100 and 300.

Whether using filters would extend the life of the membranes long enough to outweigh the cost of buying them every so often i dont know but given my membranes last about 2 years and cost £100 to replace i just dont bother as its one less thing to  remember.

My low pressure axeon membrane cost around £500 so I'm hoping it lasts at least 10-15 years before I need to change it. Spruce has the same membrane and his is 13 years old. Still going strong.

My sediment filter can get very red and slimmy before its time to replace both prefilters. But the carbon block always looks as clean as when it was fitted. I do have a pressure gauge on each side of the prefilters, so I can see at a glance when the sediment filter is restricting water flow through the prefilters.

 At one time I had to often change the sediment filter before the carbon filter. Our water is sometimes full of sediment. Our council does draw our tap water from it's own small reservoirs on the edges of the moors and also from Kilder in the Scottish boarders. I have the feeling the water is of better quality from Kilder.

This next prefilter change I'm going to try moving the carbon block into the sediment filter housing and using a new carbon block filter in the second housing. If it works then it will save me buying sediment filters.

[Simon Trapani]

Twos schools of thought here.  Either buy a cheap membrane & replace or an expensive one & look after it.

My 20” pre-filters don’t seem to be a problem. My problem is the amount of salt I get through for the automatic water softener. I think I’m getting through six 25kg bags every couple of months or so. I currently pay £90 for the six bags. My Voltron 4040 membrane was only £200 on Amazon & gives me 1ppm out. I think from memory my tds is about 250ppm in. If I hadn’t spent so much money on a double automatic water softener (that’s another story), I think I’d certainly just do away with the softener & replace the membrane more frequently. Because as I’m typing this I’m realising what a ridiculous amount of salt I’m getting through.

On the plus side I haven’t had to replace my di resin for over a year. Arguably I don’t even need di resin with 1ppm out of RO.

[Spruce]

Mine have never got anywhere near as bad as that. Never seen filters that bad. Maybe I’m changing mine too frequently🤷‍♂️

Some area's water supply has very little sediment in it. If that is the case then you could just get away with the carbon block filter, as it will do both jobs.

For us, we have no idea when we are going to get the next 'wave' of sediment laden tap water, so the sediment filter stays in as a preemptive precaution.

Our water quality has improved over the years. At one time, we often had to just replace the sediment filter on its own as the carbon block hadn't reached it's service life.

In our case we use a Fiberdyne carbon block filter. They aren't cheap.  Most of the time I believe we could just use the c/b filter as the sediment filter as well. But as the sediment filter is much cheaper than the catbon block filter it make more sense to me to leave it in.

Those windies who are still using Merlin or PRF r/o's are using a single carbon filter to do both jobs. A now retired local window cleaner had to install a separate sediment filter before his Merlin to save his carbon block filter from blocking up prematurely from sediment.

Once I changed the prefilters on my 450gpd r/o and had to change the sediment filter the next day as it was completely blocked up. Must have been a broken pipe somewhere.

[NBwcs]

So I've had my RO for 4 months now so just changed my pre filters....they are minging!

I flushed my RO for 15 mins after installing fresh ones....

Tap TDS 154

After RO 004

Strange that Daz. I've no idea how they could get like that. You may want to consider running the water through something to remove the contaminants so they don't foul up your filters like that. I've no idea what you could use to do that though.

 

[Perfect Windows]

Don't bother with paper filters any more. We use a DI vessel 2/3 full of activated charcoal. Does the job perfectly despite the water occasionally being loaded with sediment as per photo above. Refill once a year.

Vin

[AuRavelling79]

Don't bother with paper filters any more. We use a DI vessel 2/3 full of activated charcoal. Does the job perfectly despite the water occasionally being loaded with sediment as per photo above. Refill once a year.

Vin

Ooh. Details please Vin. Something to think about while twiddling my thumbs on light duties.

[Spruce]

Don't bother with paper filters any more. We use a DI vessel 2/3 full of activated charcoal. Does the job perfectly despite the water occasionally being loaded with sediment as per photo above. Refill once a year.

Vin

How time flies. You must have gone this route over 15 years ago when you were having trouble with membrane fouling. Between you and June at GAPS you have managed to keep the process going and working for you. Are your franchisees also using the same method?

I seem to remember Vin doing a thread on his experiences Malc.

Edited. Search "charcoal" by user Perfect Windows. It brings up a few threads dating back to 2012

[Perfect Windows]

It's as simple as it sounds:

DI vessel (mine are 36", the guys have 24" or so).

2/3 full of activated charcoal (don't go over that, even though with resin you can go to 4/5, you can't do that with charcoal). Variously before or after the booster pump amongst the franchisees. No particle filter.

We used acid washed charcoal but because tin-foil hatted loonies started eating it to remove "toxins" from their food (along with vitamins) its price is now £300 (!) a sack.  However, that's five fills at one fill a year on the smaller vessels so it's not a huge running cost: £60 a year. Not sure how that compares with the cost of block filters, etc

Acid washed reduced the amount of dust that heads out of the charcoal but one of the guys uses straight activated charcoal granules (£120 or so?) and doesn't have issues (though we've put a paper filter in his set up to catch the dust I'm not sure if it's needed).

Set a calendar reminder to change. Pretty straightforward.

Vin

[dazmond]

It cost me £60 for 3 sets of 2 pre filters from PureFreedom which I will change 3 times a year so no difference in price compared to charcoal

[colin bird]

It cost me £60 for 3 sets of 2 pre filters from PureFreedom which I will change 3 times a year so no difference in price compared to charcoal
[/quote

Daz I used to buy my filters from pure freedom,I now buy from finer filters,they cost approx £35 for three sets of two delivered.
One 20 inch carbon filter and one 20inc sediment filter been using them for years no issues to date,apart from being a lot cheaper than purefreedom