Water filtration system that leads to separate spigot on sink


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Old 07-02-16, 06:32 PM
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Water filtration system that leads to separate spigot on sink- decreasing flow

Hello-

My MIL (mother-in-law) has a water filtration system as pictured below. The discharge tubing of the system leads to a separate spigot on her kitchen sink that she uses for drinking water. There are the two blue filter canisters and a third "Coconut Shell Activated Carbon Filter" (whatever that is!) mounted on top of the two blue canisters.

She called me and said that when she holds the spigot on her kitchen sink down after several seconds the water flow decreases to the point where it runs to a trickle. I assumed it was a clogged filter of some some sort, so I took a picture of the system and drove off to the local Home Depot where the guy in the plumbing aisle gave me these filters and sent me on my way.

The blue canister on the right had a filter inside that exactly matched my Home Depot purchased filter, so I replaced it. The blue canister on the left had another white plastic canister inside it, like a Russian doll. When I unscrewed the white plastic canister cap, it appeared to have charcoal inside surrounded by filter material. I had no idea what to do with this charcoal canister, so I just put it all back together and only replaced the filter on the right with my Home Depot filter. I didn't touch the coconut filter on top.

I turned the water back on, but the system has the same symptom. First, barely any water came out of the system. About half an hour later, water would come out strong, but then slow to a trickle again after about 15 seconds of letting it run.

So..........what am I doing wrong to casue the spigot not to have a steady and continuous flow of water and what am I supposed to do to maintain this filtration system? Thanks for your time.


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Last edited by ualdriver; 07-02-16 at 07:35 PM.
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Old 07-02-16, 08:24 PM
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Off hand I would say that it is an RO system, and there should be a tank some place.
Pre filter and then a carbon filter then the RO membrane then another carbon filter.

Has any one thought to call the company that put the thing in?

If it is an RO unit then it is going to take awhile for it to deliver product water to the holding tank, about the size of a basketball...

and then there is city or well water? temp of water?
if the unit is say a 50gal per day that is about 40 gallons in 24 hours....!!!
 
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Old 07-02-16, 08:37 PM
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Yes, there is a tank off to the side, about the size of a basketball as you mention. Forgot about that part!

Yes, I could call the people that installed it, but I like mechanical things, learning about how household systems work, and I enjoy doing my own maintenance.......this is a "do it yourself" forum after all! : )

It's city water. The water temperature is whatever comes in from the city. 50 degrees or so? Not sure.

I don't understand you comment about a 50 gal per day system and 40 gallons in 24 hours?

Do you have any advice for me as to how I maintain this system and why the water at the kitchen sink spigot is slowing after 10-15 seconds of use?

Thanks for your time!
 
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Old 07-02-16, 11:14 PM
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Step one would be to get with the company that it was bought from and get a copy of the manual and the make of the system in out put per day only that way are you going to get the correct filter replacements.

Then step two research RO systems and the lay out and the way it works and the trouble shooting of the system.

And learn how they work and the water temps and ro systems.
 
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Old 07-03-16, 07:41 AM
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I'm not a reverse osmosis expert, but I install them occasionally.

The only thing I can think of, other than over use, is the tank pressure is low.
Here are instructions for charging the tank from a popular water system:

Open the faucet and empty water from tank. Shut off feed water to system and remove holding tank from under sink. (The tank is easier to work on.)
Locate the air valve stem (like on a car or bicycle tire) and add air. If there is still water in the tank, continue to add air until all the water is removed.

Once all the water is removed, continue to add air and pressurize to 8 PSI.

Re-install the tank under the sink, turn on the feed supply to the system and allow the tank to fill.
There could be other reasons like a bad membrane but that's something I personally would call a repairman for.
 
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Old 07-03-16, 07:52 AM
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Thanks much. I will take a look at that tank.
 
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Old 07-03-16, 08:38 AM
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I have a different system but had the same thing happen to me. The pressure tank went bad, Also later I had to replace the osmosis filter, Mine has a third filter. It was cheaper to buy a whole new system than just replace tank. Still have all rest of parts.
 
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Old 07-03-16, 11:02 AM
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Thanks for that. I'll ch ck system replacement price vs. tank replacement if it comes to that.
 
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Old 06-18-18, 12:27 AM
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Since this is a reverse osmosis system, it is limited to produce a certain number of purified water gallons a day. i.e. 50 gpd.

So in a 24 hour period, the system would produce 50 gallons (water temperature and water quality [tds] limits this even more). This mean in you would get 50÷1440 gallons per minute. Which is 0.03 gallons a minute. Tank fills up at this rate.

Your tank is probably a 3 gallon pressurized tank. Thus, it will take the ro system 50÷0.03 minutes to fill the tank. This comes out to be 88 minutes.

Flow rate from the tank to the drinking water system is usually around 0.7 gpm. So if your mother in law opens the faucet in full, the tank will be empty in 3÷0.7 minutes, which is just 4 minutes.

After the tank is depleted, the 0.7 gpm flow rate would go down to the membrane water production rate of 0.03 gpm, which we calculated earlier. This should be the trickle of water your MIL saw. The issue here is she experienced the tank depleting within 'seconds', when in fact it should be around 4 minutes.

Possible causes and remedies
  • Membrane has gone bad - Replace membrane
  • Water supply adapter closed - Open supply water to RO
  • Tank low pre-charge pressure - Increase pressure to 5-7 PSI
  • Your house water pressure has gone down - Install a booster pump
 
 

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