RO/DI take a look at your water!!!!

[matthewdmueller]

WOW, check this out. All New York City Area Residents take a look at this. I was noticing that my RO/DI was not producing the amount of water that it was supposed to over the last couple of weeks. It has slowly been making less and less, down to about 10gpd. I live in a brand new building in Ridgewood Queens 11385 that has had no street work or anything done since I lived there. Finnaly this weekend I got frustrated and started to take a look at it and try to figure what the malfunction was. Well I checked flow and then I opened the first stage to check the filter, and this is what I saw.

This is a comparison of a new one to this one after I washed it off a little bit.

Keep in mind this is only after 4 months of use!!
After I open the first stage I opened up the second, this is what I found.

Gross!!
I had this same set up when I lived in Florida and after 1.5 years the first stage was just a little bit gray, this is not at all what I was expecting!!
Needless to say, I bought new filters immediatly, and now I refuse to drink water from anywhere in the city from the tap. I am sending these filters out for testing to find out what the gunk is as well as if it is toxic or not. I will keep everyone posted as I find out more. Has anyone else had this experience with their water?

 

[fritz]

I posted that I change my filters much more often than you're "supposed to" and everyone went nuts. The stage 1s I change out every other month because yes they get nasty. The carbon and DI I also change out often. I heard that a TDS meter won't pick up phosphates and I don't want my RO to take a beating. I'd rather change more poly and carbon filters than the expensive RO filters.

Yours looks like either rust or silt? If you turn all of your faucets on full blast is the water brownish? You may have some cast iron fittings mixed with copper pipe. That can rust up. I'm no plumber so take your grain of salt now.

 

[Deanos]

My filters look like that every time I change them.

 

[JHOV2324]

well i too am in 11385 and i glanced at my unit this weekend didnt notice if it looked like that....i'm take a better look...my RO is actually running well....makes about 5 gallons in a couple of hours....i'll check the unit tonight and post info....

 

[leoskee]

How old is the building? The chances are that a lot of sediments were released from the construction of the building. If you had your unit on since you first moved in what you are seeing might be a result of all then new plumbing.

Also, do you not test your water with a TDS meter? This will indicate when the filter/membrane is no longer working to its capacity.

 

[fritz]

I think it was the good old guys at Buckeye that once posted something along the lines of:
You have to think of your filters as defense for the more expensive filters located upstream. Stage 1 protects Stage 2 from getting all clogged up with sediment, stage 2 protects stage 3 from getting all clogged up and so on. Each filter is more expensive than the one before it, leading up to the most expensive the RO filter. You wouldn't want the stage 1 gunk to head straight to your RO filter, it would exhaust it in no time.

So testing the TDS after your stage 3 doesn't mean that all three filters are still good. They exhaust at different rates. Changing your stage 1 more often will make your other stages last longer.

Bigup

 

[nyumpa]

that is the beauty of having clear canisters

 

[matthewdmueller]

My building is about a year old. I was the first tenant in my unit, and I know that all the plumbing that I can see is copper. The thing that really gets me going is the news segment on channel 1 a week or so ago about how clean the water is. What a load of crap, I want to send them my filters and tell them they should check their sources! I don't have a TDS meter, unfortunatly, and I am fine with having to replace my filters every so often, but every 4 months seems a little odd. My water isn't brown, and if you pour a cup of water and let it sit for a couple of days nothing settles to the bottom. I'm total grossed out that I have been drinking water from the tap, yuck! I'm going to H2O in a little bit, maybe he can test my TDS for me.

 

[Dmitry]

That is exactly what my filter looks like also! And I, too, change all the filters more frequently than the directions suggest we should. I had to change the resin after less than 2 years and the directions state it should work for about 5. :skull:

I think you should send those pix to Channel 1!

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Mat,
So how many gallon RO/DI you have produced before it gets to this condition?

And anyeone has tested the PO4 level right after the RO/DI?

 

[Prefect]

PO4 of tap water in my house is usually 2-4 ppm, after RO it's 0.

 

[matthewdmueller]

Well as far as total amounts of water that I have produced in the last 4 months, and actually used, probably between 300-400 gal. That is a real rough estimate. Up until a couple of weeks ago I was only useing it to make coffee and water my plants, now I have a 12g set up that I use it for, but that is all. I did test for phosphates about a week ago and came up with 0, but I am not sure how accurate my test kit was. Like I said I am going to have some stuff tested in a little bit and I will let everyone know, and I am definetly thinking about giving channel 1 a peice of my mind.

 

[fritz]

Mine don't have such think mulm on them after 4 months but they certainly are rust colored. A lot of things can effect this though, just four months isn't a great example. During that period many things could have occurred to cause this and it may not be the norm.

I don't know what causes it but sometimes you'll see DEP opening up hydrants. Nasty brown water comes out and they run it like that for 15 minutes or so on high. Then the water is clear and everything is fine. I used to live in a co-op in Bellrose and once a year DEP had to come and do that. In my current house we had brown water for two days or so then it went away on it's own. I imagine that something was being done nearby to have caused that. You couldn't tell from just the tap but if you turned the bathtub on and let it fill you could see the brown tint to the water.

You could always call 311 and see what they say. Someone will get back to you and they might check it out. NYC takes it's water pretty seriously.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

if that was the first cartridge from your move into the apartment and you keep the unit connected all the time, than you might have to disconnect it and let the water run a bit. The backpressure created by the unit can free some of the sediments in the pipes. The first prefilter in my first RO went very quickly and after detaching it and running the water every time now they last a lot longer. Also, you might consider adding another prefilter stage to your unit to save money long term. Channel 1 isn't going to jump at your filter unless it's an ongoing problem, 1 cruddy filter cartridge isn't enough to base anything on.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I know out here on the island you can request a hydrant purge up to twice a year maybe but definitely atleast once. Could try that too where you are.

 

[cb747]

I work for a municipality and hydrants are flushed yearly. the brown rust you see coming out is pretty much just that. By opening the hydrants all the way it allows the water mains to be cleaned of this rust and sediment that settles. If anyone ever saw the inside of a water main they would probably think twice about drinking the water LOL

 

[matthewdmueller]

The guy at the LFS said pretty much the same things as everyone else here. The filters do get dirty, the water is nasty, and I should call 311 if I have a really big reoccuring problem. I can't beleive that people drink the water out of here. Yucky

 

[strendo]

I also live in a new house in Ridgewood and have been having the same problem! I went through 2 whole sets of filters in 4 months. I finally bought a pre-filter that's cleanable and that helped.

 

[PalmTree]

Could it be just ridgewood? I change my filters every 6 monthes and they never look like that.

 

[Bob 1000]

You guy's are funny... After 48 gal of water I have to change my pre filter... and carbon filter every other time I change the pre.. RO mem. 2 times a year.. Congrats You guys figured out why this is such an expensive hobby... I think I'm going to start smoking crack...at least I'll get broke a lot faster...