Heater failed, RO froze solid

[Atgreene]

Biggest day of the year here at our sugarhouse. 1000+ people for Maine Maple Sunday. We haven't boiled since last Tuesday as it had been down to below zero and cold most of the week. My RO sits in a 3×4 she'd, insulated, with a milk room electric heater (brand new). Evidently, the other night I turned the dial back on the heater not realizing that all the way back is off, even though the light is on. I never double checked the dial, saw the light was on, figured all was good. I've been down all week with the flu, so I haven't double checked it.

Opened the shed today, immediately saw ice under the filter housing. **** near puked. Looked further, both membranes bottom housing covers blown off, two stage pump pushed apart, filter housing shattered. Not a good moment. 500 gallons of sap coming in today, looks like it'll run all week. Our 2x6 will not keep up.

So, 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon I call Frank at MES. Left him a message, figured it's worth a shot. They sold me membranes 3 years ago, I'll start there. 4:30 Sunday afternoon he calls me back! Listens to my tale of woe, says load it and head the two hours to their shop first thing tomorrow. They'll put a new pump on and replace/check membranes. Wow!

1/2 hour later he calls me back, confirms they have a pump, Clayton will be in the shop waiting for me at 7:30, pretty sure they can fix me up quickly.

Needless to say, I'm putting for the live free or die state at 0dark30. For them to go out of their way to fit me in is awesome. I've never met these guys, only ever bought wash soap and a pair of membranes, but they're going above and beyond.

Lesson, put two heaters in your ro room. Put a heat alarm in your ro room. Check your ro room.
Bottom line, check your ro room.

Second lesson, call MES when you screw up.

[Sugarmaker]

Recovery is everything! Hope you get it fixed and have a good weekend!
Regards,
Chris

[BSD]

For them to go out of their way to fit me in is awesome. I've never met these guys, only ever bought wash soap and a pair of membranes, but they're going above and beyond.


That's some great customer service, i'm sure you'll be a customer for life. I'll certainly look them up when i get into the RO game.

[mountainvan]

Had my mes membrane freeze earlier this year, luckily drained everything else. Thawed it out and it still works.

[gmcooper]

That is awesome service. Hope all goes well for the trip.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

I can't imagine your reaction when you first opened the door and found that mess! Wow, hope it all works out.

[upsmapleman]

Clayton is a great guy. There building is kind of behind the wood place. Kind of different till you have been there.

[wiam]

Couple years ago I needed an 8" vessel. I have a job where daytime travel is very limited. Clayton met me at the shop at 9:00 pm to pick up the vessel. Then he ended up welding up some stainless fittings I needed to hook the new vessel to my plumbing. He even showed me and my daughter around his friends sugarhouse acrosss the yard from his shop. Great guy.

[MISugarDaddy]

That's outstanding customer service. Hope they can get it up and running quickly for you. Best of luck.
Gary

[SeanD]

Ugh. That's an awful story. It's painful just to read it. I swear, the disasters always happen right before big runs or when people are on their way over. I'm glad it has a happier ending.

I bought a basic wireless outdoor thermometer. I keep the remote right on top of the pump at the base of the membrane. I can watch the temperature out in the RO room from the kitchen. This is my first winter with it so I didn't know how well that little heater would do when it got down to single digits outside. It made it, but there were some nervous nights.

I used to keep the remote on top of the wash tank, but I learned that it was almost ten degrees difference between the top of the RO room and the bottom when it's zero out.

[maple flats]

Let us know how you make out. Best of luck. MES must be outstanding. Their response to your problem has sold me on MES.

[hookhill]

You are not alone. All it takes is one thing to fail and all hell breaks loose. Ours froze as well, for how long I don't know. Could have been weeks. The membrane had permeate in it and the ro was mostly drained. Guess we lucked out. Nothing seemed to suffer. Kudos to MES for getting you going. Lapierre did the same for us.

[Atgreene]

Spent 4+ hours at MES. Tony spent a lot of time trying to salvage my pump. The threaded body of the Goulds high pressure wouldn't quite spin back on with the old o rings and ice damaged threads. We finally decided to cut our losses and install one of their pumps. Took a little engineering, but he got it in. They looked over the membranes, decided they were fine, so we reinstalled them. Broke open some new canisters and stole new bottom clamps and caps to replace those. Had to upgrade the rubber high pressure hose to stainless braided, as that's all they use.

In the end, I bought two more membranes to have in reserve.

Great guys, quite a shop. Watched the guy Cutting the releaser pipe. That looked tedious. Lol

[eagle lake sugar]

That sounds almost exactly like my story this season! My wife and I were both sick and the temp. dropped to -15, with wind chill it was -35. I had taken one of the heaters out of the r/o room that morning and stuck it in the evaporator. The other heater quit at some point and everything was frozen solid. It expanded the high pressure pump and ruined the threads, broke both pvc manifolds and the pre-filter housing. I made new manifolds and have a new pump and membrane I need to install tomorrow night after work. This season has been a challenge, I hope it turns around soon!

[Wanabe1972]

I found my feed pump broke this week. The heater did not fail and the rest of the RO did not freeze?? The feed pump sits on the floor of the closet and the heater is mounted about 1/3 of the way up. Well out with the cast iron pump and in with a new stainless steel.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

A good alternative to milk house heaters (which I have lots of experience with, and little faith in) is to install an electric baseboard heater. We have a little four footer that keeps our 8 by 12 room at about 60

[maple flats]

I use a 8000 BTU propane thru the wall heater to heat my 4x6 RO room, 6.5' tall, on a bulk tank and a thermostat set at 45 F. I also have a 1500 watt electric heater connected to another thermostat (set at 40 F) for insurance.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Electric oil filled radiator heaters are hard to beat. Best to have a gas wall heater as backup if needed.