No permeate

[DRoseum]

Thru a carbon block filter, city water should be fine. I've been doing it for years. 0 permeate flow thru them is whats odd here. If they were shot, you would be pushing concentrate thru to your permeate flow. Not getting 0 permeate flow altogether.

[eustis22]

Apologies...I misspoke myself.....the arrows below I have marked as concentrate outlets. The circular outlets are marked as permeate.

[82cabby]

Try one membrane at a time.
Set up the first membrane and housing. Do not connect any tubing to either outlet. When you fire up the pump sap will only come out of one outlet. Connect the tubing with the needle valve to that one. Don’t connect anything to the other. Run the pump again and dial the pressure up to the 110 psi range using the needle valve. If you get fluid out of the outlet with no tubing, your membrane is good and working and you’ve identified which fitting is which for sure. If not, it’s clogged.

Repeat with the other membrane and housing.

If they both work, plumb the concentrate out of the first membrane to the inlet of the second. Put the tubing with the needle valve on the concentrate out of the second. Don’t connect the permeate outs to anything. Run it again at 110 psi. If you get permeate from both, reconnect your permeate outs with the tee. Fire it up.

At some point doing this you won’t get permeate and then you will have isolated the problem.

[eustis22]

Ok, I tried the below test....

Membrane 1: At 110 PSI I did get a trickle out of the permeate port but it wasn't anywhere near 50:50 in terms of amounts...more like 95:5 concentrate to permeate

Membrane 2: I allowed the pressure (inadvertently) to get up to 150 PSI and got a decent flow of permeate.

This was an Aquatec 8800 pump and I am not sure it is rated to 150 PSI. What is the upside/downside to running it that high?

I am having trouble with my Corona pump cycling on and off (I will play with the pressure valve later today).

[82cabby]

What power supply are you using with the corona pump? What amperage is it capable of delivering? That might be the source of your intermittent problem.

Otherwise with membrane 1 it sounds like something is up with it. With 1.5% sap at 110 psi you should getting much better than 95 to 1. If that membrane was feeding membrane 2 that’s why you weren’t getting anything out of the system.

No, the aquatec probably isn’t able to handle 150 for long. I’m not sure the rest of the components in the system would either!

If membrane 2 can output permeate at 110psi maybe you should consider running with one for now.

[eustis22]

I'm not sure how to answer that question. I am using the transformer that was listed with the pump (and had to order separately). I run house power thru and extension cord out to my shack and plug into power strips in there. I have sent the vendor a message to ask for a new pump as I tried changing the pressure valve to no effect. If that doesn't work, I would appreciate suggestions for a bigger pump than my aquatec 8800.

Last night I managed to process about 30 gallons thru Membrane #2 at about 110-120 PSI in 3 hours or so. I had to interrupt in the process in order to get some un-processed sap for my preheater as the process was too slow to keep up. Before I stopped the concentrate was at 4.5% (from 1.5% base) and after it was at 2.5%...also took a little going to restart the concentrate/permeate trickles.

I will try Membrane #1 this evening to try to get thru the last 25 gallons in the tank.

I should have enough permeate to at least do a flush, possibly a soap. That should hold until next weekend where I have access to spring water to try to salvage these membranes. I am prepared to write them off as a Learning Experience.

I cannot thank the members who responded for helping me work thru this issue enough. You have been a godsend for a problem hat was really stressing me out.

[eustis22]

So Membrane #2 processed about 25 gallons, albeit at 150 PSI or thereabouts....is that because the outlet ports are 1/4" vs 3/8"?

I only have about 25 gallons of permeate so I will flush 12.5 gallons each thru the membranes today and then take them north for the soap/acid wash in hopes they are salvageable. I am fine with grabbing a new membrane for next season as I will not be cleaning new membranes with city tapwater any more.

[DRoseum]

I really doubt the city water thru a carbon filter damaged them. If so, you would be passing sugar into your permeate.

When you I did your initial flush, did you keep your valves wide open? Did your pressure stay fairly low? Did you get any permeate during that?

Flush needs to be done with valves open but you will still get permeate because the water is pretty pure already.

The 1/4 inch is probably ok. I use 3/8 between membranes but 1/4 for outlet.

Pump transformer for coronwater typ-8900 should be 10 amp minimum, probably better to be 15 A (24vdc). I have 3 of these pumps that I run for hours a day (2 for RO, 1 for pumping sap uphill) and habechad 0 issues in 3 years with them. Check power supply, and if you have a multi meter I'd check it during operation. Is it intermittent only when under pressure or when just running dry without any "load" on the pump?

If it's when you are trying to load it up, I suspect power supply is issue.

[82cabby]

Pump transformer for coronwater typ-8900 should be 10 amp minimum, probably better to be 15 A (24vdc). I have 3 of these pumps that I run for hours a day (2 for RO, 1 for pumping sap uphill) and habechad 0 issues in 3 years with them. Check power supply, and if you have a multi meter I'd check it during operation. Is it intermittent only when under pressure or when just running dry without any "load" on the pump?

If it's when you are trying to load it up, I suspect power supply is issue.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. Eustis22, does the power supply you are using have any writing on it that indicates how many volts and amps it is supplying?

[eustis22]

Intermittent when under pressure. I click it on and blurp...........blurp.....blurp.....occasionally it will run for a bit.

Transformer #2: Input: 100-240V ~ 50/60 HZ 2.0 A, Output: 24V~2.7A

Transformer #1: Input: 200-240V ~ 50 HZ 2.0 A, Output: 24V~3.0A

These transformers were listed on the pump page.

When you I did your initial flush, did you keep your valves wide open? Did your pressure stay fairly low? Did you get any permeate during that?


Yes, yes, and yes.