How much water & preservative? Help...

[Bucket Head]

Guy's,

How much water, and how much membrane preservative for that water, am I supposed to put into the storage tubes for my two 4x40 membranes? I have the preservative but the directions are only for mixing it in the wash tank, with glycol, and running the machine- for storing them in the pressure vessels. I'm not doing that and I have no idea what the ratio is for the cannisters. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Steve

[Brent]

The SMBS I have is packaged by CDL says to mix 1 cup per gallon that goes into the storage tube.

The tubes I made from PVC will only take about 2 gallons of water each when the membranes are in them. I learned that after getting the new membranes and putting them in the tubes and topping them up with distilled water to start the flushing process before the season started. So I'm thinking I need 4 cups to do two of them.

[Bucket Head]

Is all SMBS the same? I have the Leader brand. My directions are for filling the machine, running it and then draining it. It says; Fill wash basin with 10 gallons of water (optional add 1 gal. Glycol) Add 1 tbs. of preservative per membrane. Then the wash and drain instructions.

So would 1 tbs. to five gallons of water be enough? I doubt that the tube w/ the membrane in it will take all five gallons. Maybe it will. How much liquid will a membrane absorb? It seems like your ratio would be much stronger than mine- thats why I'm wondering about the SMBS being different or not.

I want to get this right the first time, obviously. I don't want to harm the membranes becuase I did not do the mix correctly. Does Airablo/Leader/D&G not reccomend outside of the vessel storage of the membranes?

Steve

[Brent]

You gotta love em and hate em at the same time.

The container of SMBS says 1 cup per 5 gallons.

The Airablo book which is word for word the same as the one for the Springtech off Leader's web site says:

"The preservation solution will protect the machine against freezing during the winter months. The below table presents you the way to proceed."

The table says:
Quantity Description
20 liters Glycol or Glycerine for one membrane 8" x 40"
30 liters Glycol or glycerine for one membrane 8" x 60"
1/2 oz of preserve-osmo ( This is what they call SMBS)

Proceed in the following way:
1) valves positioned in the washing soap cycle, with the exception of valve V19(rinsing cycle)
2) drain the washing basin
3) add the preservation solution
4) to reduce the solution in the basin to 4" (bottom up). Switch position in the manual operationby 15 seconds period allowing in this way, the starting of the priming pump without the action of the pressure pump.
5) valves position in washing soap cycle.
6) do a solution circulation for a period of 10 minutes

Following the above steps, drain the basin and the permeate output under the membrane housing."

There's one hell of a difference between 1/2 of "preserve-osmo" and 1 cup per 5 gallons of SMBS.
and you have to figure out for yourself what would be good for a machine with one or two 4" x 40"
membranes.

Go figure. I can't tell what they mean.

PS while I'm in the mood, the silly **&^% give you some instructions earlier in the book on how
to do a wash. No where do they tell you to turn on a pump, let alone which pump(s) !

[Brent]

I just took measuring cup and weighed out 1 cup of dry powerdered SMBS .... it's 11 oz.

So at the rate in the book, 1/2 oz per liter that cup would make 22 gallons of preservative (88 liters).
A long way from 20 or 30 litres in the table.
Interesting that the 1/2 oz is good for either a 40" or 60" x 8" membrane but they tell you to add 50% more Glycol for the 60".

Sounds like everyone is guessing.

[Bucket Head]

Yes, it does sound like that. The instructions, or really the lack of, is just staggering with maple equipment. Considering what everyone shells out for this stuff you would think they could come up with some instructions that make sense. I'll have to make some calls to the manufacturers and try to get some useable information. That should be fun.

Thanks for sharing your preservative mixing information.

Steve

[Brent]

I found a Dow document today that says the solution should be 1% sodium metabisulphite. Next question is, how do we make a 1% solution.

By weight I assume, but I don't know.

Dr Tim ????

[sapman]

Regarding the glycol, my D&G instructions say to use all that glycol if the machine is being stored in an unheated room. Heated, they only recommend one gallon, mostly for lube purposes. In talking with Leader, they just don't see the need to remove the membrane for the off season. I've been leaving mine in the machine.