How long can RO sit idle?

[Lazarus]

Hopefully an easy question ... I have a brand new Leader Mini Extreme RO with dual membranes. It's our first unit, which we got in order to cut down on boiling times when the sap runs big. But we're still quite small, so we would not be using it everyday. Just for big runs.

How long can the RO sit unused during the season until the next big batch? I'm thinking it might be as much as a week sometimes in between big sap runs. We always finish out the night on a rinse, so no concentrate sitting in there. The sugar house is maintained fairly consistently at 35-39 degrees.

10594

[maple flats]

As long as you run the "end of day" cleaning routine, you will be good for longer than a week, likely at least 2 weeks, maybe more. Mine has set for 10 days just waiting for the sap to run again, no issue.

[Russell Lampron]

There's no problem letting the RO sit for as long as you to let it sit between runs as long as it is cleaned properly first. You can use membrane preservative if you want to but I never have and have never had a problem. I think that once you boil concentrated sap you will be saving sap so that you can use the RO every time you boil and it won't be sitting as much as you think.

[Lazarus]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'm sitting a long time. They are predicting 4 (!!!!) rounds of polar vortex temps in the next two weeks. So much for making syrup.

[red maples]

If you know you won't use it for a little while run a clean cycle on it and change the pre filter and clean the soap wash really good and save about 20+ gallons of Perm. Your RO will still build up some bacteria. So someone gave me a good idea of every 4-5 days just cycle through 5 gallons of clean perm for a little while about 20 minutes or so and toss it. this will keep the perm fresh in the membranes and help keep the bacteria levels down. It will get stagnant just sitting in there.