cleaning issue

[Mason Meyer]

The slow down occurred after a wash. As it got later in the season, the more soap I had to use. The more soap I used, the more of a decrease in flow I saw after I washed. To reiterate, I saw a decrease of flow after a wash than what I had before. Flushing plenty of water after and used new filter to wash.

[Mason Meyer]

CDL 3 post with NF70-400 (h2o) we have 2500 gallon tank for permeate. Washed per CDL recommendations at the end of the season. Saw no improvement in flow. Sent to CDL for them to clean. Haven't received them back yet at this time.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

How many hi-pressure pumps on your machine and what size(7.5 and 5 hp)? Also, what are you getting for permeate flow out of each post after machine has been running for half an hour or so and what are you concentrating to? What are you running for pressure? I believe I have the same machine and I have the same membranes. Want to compare flow rates.

Neil

[mellondome]

Did you do Any acid washes? Or all soap washes?

[maplwrks]

How hot is your wash water? You need to allow the water to come up to temp for the soap to work properly. I would let it wash with just plan hot permeate to start, then add some soap and wash for about 6 hours or more.

[Amber Gold]

I agree with everything said. Temp and pH are critical to get a good cleaning. I have a 600, and I'll run a couple hundred gallons of permeate through it before I add soap. I use a 2oz sample cup to the wash tank and let it run for 10 minutes before I check it again. I keep doing this until the pH stabilizes around 11 and I don't need to add more soap. I'm using Lapierre's soap if it matters. I think all the soap's are about the same, so I don't think it matters much which we use, and you can't add too much soap. There's a buffer in it, so the pH will only go so high. On the directions, Lapierre I think recommends dumping half the container for a wash cycle...seems excessive so we don't, we just monitor the pH.

We're also using the h2o membranes.