Repressurized the RO tank, but now have low pressure


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Old 01-11-14, 08:58 PM
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Repressurized the RO tank, but now have low pressure

So we have an RO system that was only giving us about a glass of water before dripping at a slow rate (what it used to do when the tank was empty). I think this is the normal flow rate of the membrane or filter. Anyway, we had plenty of pressure for that 1-2 cups before it slowed down.

After doing some research online and watching a Youtube video or 3, I shut off the water, detached the tank and emptied it by using a bicycle pump to push the water out, then pressurized it to 7 psi once the water stopped flowing. It held there nicely.

At that point, I connected everything back up and turned on the intake water valve. The first red flag was that opening up the drinking water spigot had no flow, not even the slow flow of the empty-tank-state. Waiting a few minutes with everything closed let water flow at a slow rate. I waited a few hours and now get lots of water (at least a gallon so far), but the pressure output is very slow; more than the "empty" flow, but less than it was for the 1-2 cups before I did the repair. It's like I blocked the flow somehow during my repairs.

Any suggestions on what I did that dropped the pressure?
 
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Old 01-12-14, 10:03 AM
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What type of shutoff do you have? I have seen self piercing valve malfunction and cause problems.
 
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Old 01-12-14, 02:01 PM
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I don't know much about these things, but there is a single valve coming off the cold water line. Just above that, there's a T split, with the straight path going up to the faucet and the one coming off sideways heading to the RO system.

The cold water coming off the faucet has the same pressure as before, so I don't think there's a problem with that main valve. I don't see any other "shut-off"able thing between there and the tank where I did the work...
 
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Old 01-13-14, 12:12 PM
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Installing saddle valves - Easier than an online space game and twice the fun!
Here is a picture of a self piercing vlv. The piercing stem sometimes gets stuck in the copper pipe and will not allow enough water flow to produce water in the holding tank.
 
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Old 01-13-14, 11:39 PM
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Sweet! That was really helpful. There are a bunch of these self piercing valves on my system, although they are plastic. I tried each one and one of them eventually fixed the pressure problem! Weird that it wasn't one I touched in the repressurizing process.

Anyway, thanks so much for your help!
 
 

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