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Bricklayer
03-05-2023, 06:56 PM
The last couple years have seen major upgrades to my RO.
I originally had 1 membrane. Then 2 and now 4 this year.
Every year I do the final wash at the sugar house. Take the membrane out and put in storage vessel with storage solution. I then lug it back to my house and down into the basement where it stays all summer amd all winter. Then lug it back out to the sugar house from the basement. It痴 the most awkward thing to move. Especially with 4 housings on it now.
We have a secure lockup at our sugar house that I would like to just wheel the RO into after taking the membranes out and just lock it up for the off-season. This area is not heated though in the winter.
So my thoughts were to remove membranes and bring them into basement. drain system. Run RV antifreeze through the system and circulate it so it reaches every part of the RO. Then drain it out.
Kind of like winterizing an RV for the winter.
When I go to set it up for maple in the spring. I値l flush system out with water at least 100 gallons like usual.
Then install membranes for the season.
I知 sure I知 not the only one doing this.
Any thoughts. Suggestions ?

maple flats
03-05-2023, 07:53 PM
You can do either, RV antifreeze, or take home, your choice. I did a 3rd option, after 1 year of taking the membranes home. I then built an RO room, barely be enough to put the RO in plus a pressure washer. Then I installed 3 100 watt light bulbs on a line volt thermostat to keep the well insulated RO room warm. Since I have both grid tied battery back-up electric and grid power, I was OK if I lost power , the battery back up could do the task but only for 1 night, luckily I never lost power to test the back-up. Then after 1 yr that way I put in a propane fired 8000 btu wall furnace to heat just the little RO room. To run that I had a small bulk tank set be the propane co. and it never failed. Whenever we had lots of wind I didn''t sleep as well, but I liked that method best. When I was boiling (on wood) I also had a few other things on that bulk tank. I had a bottler, a finisher and a tankless water heater in addition to that small wall furnace. I had to get the tank filled about every 8 months and all 12 months of the year my 500' long driveway into the sugarhouse was solid and well plowed so the propane truck could get in. The little wall furnace needed no power, but if the furnace were to fail, by that time I had put a 1500 watt electric heater in to replace the 3 light bulbs of 100 watts each.

Bricklayer
03-05-2023, 08:44 PM
I have a dedicated RO room heated during the sugaring season. But all power to the camp is turned off once season is over. So heating year round is not an option. Is there a specific food grade antifreeze that people use or is rv/ waterline antifreeze the same ?