Wash Tank

[Brian Ryther]

Where do you guys put your wash tank? In the ro room, or up with the evap feed tank.

[caseyssugarshack93]

the wash tank you would want in the in the ro room , your premate tank you can have up with the feed tank if you want so it dont have to be outside to feeze up the lines as much like mine did,

[maplwrks]

I have mine in the RO room with my RO. It gets filled first thing, and gets plugged in. I like the hot water to clean up things while the evaporator comes up to temp. My wash tank has the prefilters mounted on it also. Whenever I take the filter apart, it gets a quick dunk in the hot water.

[Brian Ryther]

Mike, So you have a heater in your wash tank? Is this necessary? Dont you want the water in the wash tank to be clean, not full of junk from your pre filter? Do you have the tank on the ground or do you have it on a stand? Do you have any photos showing location and plumbing?

[maplwrks]

Yes- I have a heater in the wash tank. You need to heat the water to ninety degrees to get the soap to activate. As far as crap from the filter in the tank, There isn't that much, and what there is, goes through the filter before going into the membrane. The tank is made for larger ROs and has a rack on top of it for cartridge filters to be mounted. Lapierre has them in their catalog if you want to see one. I'll get a picture taken and get it posted also.

[Brian Ryther]

If I am reading the manual correctly, you recirculate the wash tank water and after a while it will heat up on its own. Then when it hits 42-43 degrees C it will shut down automaticaly? Is the point of the heating element to shorten this wash cycle?

[maplwrks]

Yes--I like to get it to 85 - 90 degrees then add my soap and wash. I do this every 12 hours and do a hot water rinse, every 4 hours, following each with a cold water rinse. The RO will shut down when it gets to 115 degrees.

[caseyssugarshack93]

put it this way Brian If you pre heat your water you dont have to wash as long, and if you dont you have to wait till the r/o gets the water up the temp, If you have time and not overloaded with sap then you wont need to heat the water but if you want to conserve time then preheating the water is the way to go, you might of even go one with your r.o? mike did you get one with urs?

[maplwrks]

The heater came with the tank I got with my RO.

[sapman]

I was under the impression that it was best to have the wash cycle go for 45 minutes or so. But if not, that would be great! Do you also do just a warm water wash at about every 4 hours when concentrating?

Thanks,
Tim

[maplwrks]

Sometimes terminology confuses some of us( me included)!
Think of it this way
Wash--Is done every 12 hours with warm water and soap--machine should wash long enough to shut off on high temp. Followed with a rinse of cold permeate(600 gals. min)
Hot Water rinse--Is done every 4 hours--NO SOAP ! This just rinses crud out of membrane--follow with a permeate rinse. 10-15 min. rinse is adequate after hot water rinse. This can be done when performance has dropped during a long run. I do this everyday IF I'm not going to do a Hot Water Wash.
Rinse--Should follow both of the above steps. Like said above, a long rinse is needed after the wash, and if during an extended run a short rinse is good.

I do a Hot Water Rinse at the end of everyday--followed by a complete rinse(600 gals+) My membranes are 7 and 8 years old and still test at 14gpm

[sapman]

Mike, I know what you're saying about the confusion. So to wash, does the machine start from cold water/soap, then auto shutoff? And hot water rinse, preheat water to make for a shorter rinsing time?

Thanks,
Tim

[maplwrks]

By heating the permeate you are shortening up the wash time. The soap doesn't activate until it reaches 90 degrees, so why would you want to run your RO for 2-3 hrs to get the water hot enough to activate the soap. My Lapierre will wash for approx. 2 hrs after the permeate reaches 90 degrees. This is a good wash. I usually do this while I'm in bed, then put it to rinsing before I go to work in the morning. The RO shuts off when it runs out of permeate.

For me, when it comes to Hot Rinses, it is all about time. All I'm looking to accomplish is to get the gunk off the membrane surface, and to get it rinsed.

Tim--are you going to be at Verona this weekend? Look me up, I'd be happy to talk with you about it more if you wish.

[sapman]

Mike, my Airablo must heat the permeatet faster than the Lapierre. Mine goes from about 40 to 115 in under an hour. So it sounds like our machines just work a little differently, maybe.

I'd love to talk more, but I won't be at Verona. The day never works for me.

Thanks,
Tim

[maplwrks]

Your Airablo heats water faster because the pressure pump runs while washing. Om my Lapierre, only the feed and recirc. pumps run to wash.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Mike, I'd like to get in on this discussion in Verona.
Doug