Puratek 100 RO/DI Help

[mike31154]

140 psi, that's a bit on the high side and your RODI system is at risk of bursting a seam! This your normal house pressure? Most houses have a Pressure Reducing Valve somewhere to bring city pressure down to about 60-70 psi. In any case, if you have that much pressure & no output from either waste or product line, sounds to me like something's plugged up downstream of the membrane?

Not familiar with your brand of unit, but in many cases the flow restrictor is built into the outlet fitting on the membrane housing. On my system it's part of a manual flush valve plumbed in downstream of the RO membrane.

[BlueTang<3]

Originally Posted by mike31154

140 psi, that's a bit on the high side and your RODI system is at risk of bursting a seam! This your normal house pressure? Most houses have a Pressure Reducing Valve somewhere to bring city pressure down to about 60-70 psi. In any case, if you have that much pressure & no output from either waste or product line, sounds to me like something's plugged up downstream of the membrane?

Not familiar with your brand of unit, but in many cases the flow restrictor is built into the outlet fitting on the membrane housing. On my system it's part of a manual flush valve plumbed in downstream of the RO membrane.

These units have a booster pump mine runs 130 ISh, also have auto back flush and a few other features, all in all about 3 or 4 solenoids on top of a normal unit.

[HL649]

Originally Posted by BlueTang<3

So all your water seems to be coming out of the waste water line?

I'll get a picture up of it later today. I kind of have a pretty busy day today.

I appreciate the help

[HL649]

Overview of the unit as installed


View of the waste line as installed


View of the output water line as installed


View of the source water line as installed


When I plug the unit in it goes through it's 15 second flush and then the source light and the producing water light turn on. The TDS meter reads 000PP but then there is no water at the sensor. They both will stay on indefinitely but no water gets through to the DI canister. If I get time I am going to pull th outlet lines of the RO canister and see if the water is making it through the membrane.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by BlueTang<3

These units have a booster pump mine runs 130 ISh, also have auto back flush and a few other features, all in all about 3 or 4 solenoids on top of a normal unit.

130 is still on the high side IME, but then again, I don't own a Vertex. I have my house PRV tweaked to give me around 110 psi at the tap and my second psi gauge plumbed in after prefilter & carbon, before RO membrane usually gets me to 90 psi. Most membranes are rated with a given water temp & pressure, I think most of them are tested at 60-70 psi to provide the gpd rating. Not sure what the burst limit is, but I'm fairly certain anything over 100 is getting risky. See last FAQ on the page linked below:

http://www.buckeyehydro.com/faq/#Q12...br><p><a href=

Again, I don't own a Vertex, sure seems like 3 solenoids would make things much more complex. Had a look at your photos & almost impossible to troubleshoot something like this with all that plumbing running behind the cartridges. But I did notice the T fitting at the front of your prefilter and that makes no sense to me?

Any instructions come with the unit? If not, contacting the good people at Vertex may be your best bet for a solution to the issue.

[cav~firez22]

can you hear the pumps or solenoids trigger? do the indicator lights tell any information?

i know there was a batch of units that had a faulty solenoid, and once replaced, it worked flawlessly. but that was several months ago.

[HL649]

I can hear the pump running. The lights make it look like everything is running correctly. Source water light is on, Making water light is on.

[HL649]

Ok I found the problem. The 90° fitting going into the RO canister is not allowing water to pass. There is a small metal valve built into the fitting that remains closed. If I push on the metal disc at the bottom of the fitting it will open and then allows water to flow. With water pressure on the fitting the small metal valve remains closed. It seems like if there was pressure inside the RO canister that the inside pressure might open the valve allowing the water to flow, but how do you get pressure inside the canister if the valve is closed. Is this small valve required? What if I replaced the fitting with another fitting without a valve?

I have attached a couple pictures.

[HL649]

I pulled the RO canister fittings off and found that the fitting going to the waste line did not have this small check valve on it but the fitting for the produced water did have a check valve built into the fitting. I swapped the fittings around so now both my waste line and produced water line have check valves and my inlet water source does not have a check valve. Everything seems to be working fine.

My guess is that the fitting for source water is not supposed to have a check valve and someone screwed up in the assembly of my unit. All is well now and it appears that I am going to like this unit.

Thanks for all the help. It was much appreciated.

[BlueTang<3]

Good job ! Yet to see that