hodorskib's Small Scale RO Build

[CaptT820]

Everybody who has never used a homemade RO will love having one. I cant thank Hodorskib enough for this idea/thread as it allows you to get a lot of time back doing regular life things.
I am also curious if someone could chime in on the steps to "reviving" the RO back to use after 10 months of storage. I stored them properly, but just want to make sure that I get the system going properly this year without any foul odors or any other contamination.

Thx

[hodorskib]

MsBoucha - I would not let the soap solution sit in the membranes - it is a cleaner not a preservative. Permeate or in your case well water is enough to keep them moist. You can always just run it for 10-15 minutes if you have no sap to run for several days.

Capt - just do a soap wash and then a good rinse and you should be good to go.

[Msboucha]

Thank you, hodorskib!

[eustis22]

Help!

Started the RO after the pre season wash/rinse and I have no (zero/zip/nada) concentrate coming out and my pressure is very low. What can I test to see if I messed up my membranes (preservative/was/rinse)?

[hodorskib]

eustis - have you closed the needle valve - this will create the back pressure that forces the water through the membranes. If you have please make sure you have it plumbed correctly. If not send me a PM.

[eustis22]

thanks. sent.

[eustis22]

good news...crisis over...seems that when SOMEBUNNY put his tubes back in after the offseason he switched the permeate and concentrate outflow lines. Idiot.

Anyways I will do a new soap wash/rinse during this cold snap. Thanks, Hodor!

[hodorskib]

I was no longer able to edit the old website so I needed to take it down. Here is a link to the new one: https://sites.google.com/view/mattat...aplesyrup/home

[eustis22]

So I did my first ROing of the season....compressed 100 gallons of 1.3% to 25 gallons of 5% at 135/140 psi over 6.5 hours. for some resaon, I was under the impression that, during the season, I only had to rinse between ROings unless I saw performance drop and THEN I would do a wash? That begs a second question, what counts as a performance drop? Lower concentate %? Lower flow rate?

also, is 5% a good number for the HodorBuild with my current sap %?

[bowhunter]

As the membranes foul you will get less permeate while operating at the same pressure. It get's more difficult for the water to permeate through the membrane from the concentrate side to the permeate side. A 20% drop in permeate flow would indicate that you need to clean the membrane. So when your membranes are clean you should measure the permeate flow at a given pressure, say 100 psi while running on water or permeate. It's important to do this at about the same temperature as temperature has a large impact on permeation rates. The clean permeate flow is your baseline for that pressure. During the season do the same measurement at the same pressure, say 100 psi, after you have rinsed the membranes to see if the performance has declined significantly (20%). If you let the performance drop too far you may not be able to recover the performance by cleaning. Others can answer your question about whether 5% sugar is good better than I, but the math seems right since you removed about 75% of the water. I also don't think you can get too much above 5% with 130 psi.