CDL hobby working slow

[Asa Matras]

We've got a cdl hobby 250 thats performing like a single post 125. The saps been cold but shouldn't make that much a difference. The membranes are a season and a half old. We wash it like normal. Any ideas?

[nymapleguy607]

What are the flow rates when you benchmark the RO? If the benchmark has dropped by 15% of the flow when new, and the flow doesn't return after a regular soap wash you might need to do an acid wash on the membranes. I noticed my RO flow rates were dropping off and that is my plan once I get sap to concentrate and permeate to rinse with.

[Asa Matras]

When it was normal it put out 2 gpm each for concentrate and permeate. Now its at around 1 gpm each. How do you do an acid wash? The same as a soap wash? What kind of acid?

[nymapleguy607]

There should be something in the manual about acid washing. Generally citric acid is used to drop the ph and then circulated and sometimes left to sit for a period of time. This dissolves the minerals that get caught in the membrane. A soap wash is alkaline and meant for removing biological material not mineral.

[maple flats]

1. Do a soap wash then add clean water to wash tank.
2. Add Acid; follow directions on ACID WASH JAR.
3. Recirculate for 5 minutes.
4. Stop and let set 24-48 hrs, (up to 4 weeks
after season), do not freeze. Once acid wash is in the membranes, drain the wash tank and rinse it with water.
5. Now do a soap wash
6. Then do a 10 minute cold water rinse
7. Change pre-filter.

[Asa Matras]

Thanks for the responses. So where do you get the acid? Is that a maple related thing or do you get it somewhere else? Sorry for the dumb Qs.

[wiam]

Thanks for the responses. So where do you get the acid? Is that a maple related thing or do you get it somewhere else? Sorry for the dumb Qs.

I buy mine on amazon. Much cheaper than maple suppliers. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00GN...o_pop_mb_pd_t1

[Haynes Forest Products]

Asa Take it from and old pro When the poop is hitting the fan and things are going south and you have tried every trick in the book and things are still on fire and things are running on the floor and your wife is looking at you as if you just sold her first born you haven't had a good sit down for about 3 days.

THERE AIN'T NO STUPID QUESTIONS

Unless its your mother in law asking what your plans are for next Wednesday around 5:00 to 5:32 depending on when Harold gets home from his Fracking protest and what you want as a side dish. REALLY go away.

[maple flats]

For the acid wash did you circulate it for at least 5 minutes before letting it set? Then after, you followed that with a soap wash and a permeate rinse, how long did you rinse? I do mine for at least 10 minutes.
In regular use what is your end of day routine for the R.O.?
I may be all wet since my RO is a different brand, but you say it normally gets 2 and 2 gpm, at what pressure are you running? I also have a 250 and I push it harder most of the time, so my flows with 40F sap are about 1.1 conc., and 3.1 permeate. I run at 270-275 if I am going to be near the R.O while it runs, if it is running unattended I turn it back to about 250. At that I still get about 2x permeate compared to concentrate and the total flow picks up slightly.
Many on here say they do a complete wash cycle at the end of each day, I do not. Unless performance tells me to, I start by pushing cold permeate thru and the conc. goes to the head tank for 5 minutes. Then I run a hot permeate wash (no soap), recirculating both conc. and permeate to the wash tank, except I start by adding more hot water while it is running and until the membrane canisters get warm, I send the permeate portion back to the permeate tank. Once the membranes are up to at least 105F to max 113F start my timer for 10-15 minutes. Then I run a cold permeate rinse for 8 minutes minimum but since I have a lot of permeate I often run it for 15-20 minutes. When I do that part, the concentrate is going to drain and the permeate is going back to the permeate tank.
While I run at 270-275 to concentrate sap, when cleaning in all stages I set the pressure so both flow meters are essentially equal flow.
For me this method has worked perfectly since my second season in 2013 on my R.O. (the first I used a soap wash then a rinse). After I had done my method for 3 seasons I send my membranes to Lapierre for commercial cleaning and testing. The report came back that they were at 101% (not sure how they got to better than 100%).
Unless I have an issue where the flows change from normal, I only need a soap wash and then an acid wash (2-3 weeks), followed by a long permeate rinse, then I put my preservative in and then close the flow control needle valve, drain the pumps, drain and rinse the wash tank and put it to bed til next season.
Flows, my biggest day ever , I only had 2600 gal of sap, and I ran all day, from about 10 AM til 11PM, but it was all gone. (that was 1800 gal of my sap and 800 I processed for 3 other producers on shares.)

[Asa Matras]

First time: Ran the acid in for 10 mins and let soak for 48 hrs did a soap wash and rinsed with 200 gals. of permeate. Second time per cdl rep. instructions: used cdl acid and ran that like a soap wash up to temp let sit over night and just rinsed that out with 200 gal. of permeate.