Rays RO

[K.I. Joe]

OK I admit I dont know much about RO's but was wondering if Ray's RO can be run while you are not there or is it more manual. In other words can I set it up and leave and it will shut itself down when complete or do I have to be there to turn valves or something. Thanks in advance for any answers

[maple flats]

Once you start it and get the setting adjusted, you can leave it. When it runs out of sap it will shut off on low pressure. If you are out collecting during this time, you might want to run slightly under max so the pressure won't rise in use and shut off on high pressure. I normally run at 275-280 PSI, but when running unattended I scale it back to about 260. As it runs the pressure very gradually rises, in 2-3 hrs it sometimes climbs maybe 20 PSI. High pressure shutoff is 295-300 PSI. The higher the pressure you set it the more water removed. At 275 you remove about 75%, at 260 it is maybe 5% less water removed. If you are going to do this, be sure your concentrate tank is large enough, you don't want to over flow that. Another way I do it when running unattended, is to set to reconcentrate, both drawing from and returning to the same tank. Then I set the pressure at the 275. It eventually hits the 300 and shuts off. When I return I restart at a lower pressure setting and this time I send concentrate to my head tank. I do not reconcentrate unattended in my head tank because that is only 200 gal and a 250 GPH RO would not run long before shut down with only 200 gal to start with.

[heus]

Dave in this situation would you recommend a storage tank, another tank half that size, and then a head tank? Or do you just have a storage tank and a head tank? I have a 375 on order and I will have a 1000 gal storage tank and 205 gal head tank. Not sure if I should add a 500 gal tank in between or just recirculate to/from the storage tank.

[K.I. Joe]

Thanks Dave, that really explains what I was wondering

[K.I. Joe]

OK still researching RO's and saw a video that said that you have to rinse within like 15 minutes of shutdown after running or your filters would be trashed and require an acid wash. Is this true? If so it would make running the RO unattended almost impossible.

[maple flats]

Not true. In 2 years of running my RO, I rarely rinsed within 15 minutes, I have only acid washed 3 times. The first was at the end of last season, which is part of the year end cleaning regimen, this year I did one short acid wash mid season and then the year end acid wash. I likely only do a rinse within 15 minutes maybe 10% of the time. I usually do a rinse within 30-60 minutes.

[K.I. Joe]

Ok I must say that I am glad to hear that.

[justin]

I have an electric 250 Ro passing sugars 1% into the permeate take replace the membranes is still getting 1% any thoughts?

[jmayerl]

I have a hobby 125 from ray. We have not passed sugar yet but he told me to stay under 8%. I pushed to 9 on a two pass and still was all good. What pressures and do you do the hot water flush. Maybe do a soap and acid wash just to get a new benchmark