The basics of building a small RO

[barnbc76]

Ok so that took me a bit longer to acquire all the parts, but in the end we got there. Me and my brother built ours from an aquatech 8800, with 2-400 GPD membranes it took a bunch of extra trips for stupid stuff but we finished tonight.

3% sugar content to 7% at about 105psi. Sap is pretty cold here and temps are below freezing, not ideal but it works. Only processed about 3.5 gal but can't wait to crank it tomorrow. Have about 50 gal to do. Will probably dial it to 6% for faster processing.

[BobMac]

New to the ro thing so bear with me,I was given a ss 4x21 membrane housing 300 psi rating.Would the 8800 pump work with this single
housing ? I see they are using 2 and 3 400 gpd membranes thinking this would be about the same ?Have 40 taps as of now could do another
10 to 15 but without a ro its not likely,what are your thoughts for a good set up with the 4x21 ? thanks in advance

[rlapointe]

Ok so that took me a bit longer to acquire all the parts, but in the end we got there. Me and my brother built ours from an aquatech 8800, with 2-400 GPD membranes it took a bunch of extra trips for stupid stuff but we finished tonight.

3% sugar content to 7% at about 105psi. Sap is pretty cold here and temps are below freezing, not ideal but it works. Only processed about 3.5 gal but can't wait to crank it tomorrow. Have about 50 gal to do. Will probably dial it to 6% for faster processing.

Hi barnbc76, just curious how long it took to process your 3.5 Gal at 105psi? And what kind of pump do you use?

[wobbletop]

Hi barnbc76, just curious how long it took to process your 3.5 Gal at 105psi? And what kind of pump do you use?

I'm not him, but he mentions the pump... aquatech 8800.

[barnbc76]

So I finished my last ro of the season, I didn't do as much as I usually do this year I was just too tired. I did approximately 220gal of sap. The processing rate fluctuated through the season. In the beginning of the season my sugar content was at about 3% and slowly fell to my last batch which was only 1.5%. When the sugar content was 3% or higher it took a long time to process. To remove the first 5 gal of water out of 50gal it would only take about an hr. But then it seemed like the rate was cut in half each hr. Until eventually it was no longer effective. The reason for this is because I did not have a tank for the concentrate so I just cycled it back into the sap tank. The weather also was often around 20 degrees at night so it made it more difficult in the beginning when trying to figure things out.
I initially tried using the plywood control panel but that proved to be too much work to move myself. Instead I used a tote and put the membranes housings inside a 5gal bucket inside which allowed me to cover it up sufficiently to keep it running in the cold weather outside. At the end of the season the RO really worked well as my sugar content was only 1.5, I think I removed close to 40 gal of water in the same amount of time it took to remove 20 gal during the colder temps. All in all I think I would recomend just buying the RO bucket for ease. But I'm enjoying today only having about 30 gal of sap to boil as opposed to the 70gal I started with..

[Ridge Creek]

New to the ro thing so bear with me,I was given a ss 4x21 membrane housing 300 psi rating.Would the 8800 pump work with this single
housing ? I see they are using 2 and 3 400 gpd membranes thinking this would be about the same ?Have 40 taps as of now could do another
10 to 15 but without a ro its not likely,what are your thoughts for a good set up with the 4x21 ? thanks in advance

Have you tried this yet? Curious how affective a 4” membrane is at lower pressure (125-150psi). Please post your results if you attempt this. Thanks