FAQs

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Water Treatment For Dummies: WQA Special Edition is a consumer-directed publication designed to answer common questions about the quality of water in your home or business. Under 50 pages in length and written in a simple, jargon-free style, Water Treatment for Dummies will give you a basic understanding of how to identify and solve water problems in a cost-effective manner. The electronic version of this publication is available at no charge courtesy of WQA, a not-for-profit organization representing the residential, commercial and industrial water treatment industry.

WQA offers two convenient options for accessing this valuable publication:

• Ready to read right now? Click here to open Water Treatment for Dummies as a digital flipbook.
• Want to save it for later? Click here to download Water Treatment for Dummies as a PDF file.

Question: Why is the performance different in different flow rated residential membranes? (24 gpd, 36 gpd, 100 gpd, etc.) The membranes look the same even the number of times rolled up.

 
Answer: The useful area of the membrane material is different in the two sizes. They look the same because of the difference in membrane area is made up by other fabrics.

Membrane Storage

• Store membranes in a cool area out of direct sunlight.  Membrane storage temperature limits are 22°F-113°F (-5.5°C to 45°C)

• Preserve in a solution of 2% AM-88 Membrane Preservative, and 20% AM-225 Glycerine.  This will not prevent freezing below 32°F, but the crystals are soft and the membrane is not damaged.

• Keep new elements in original packaging.

• Examine the preservative in preserved elements every 3 months.  If not clear, remove and re-preserve.  The pH of the preservative should not drop below 3.

• Storage time for preserved elements is 6 months to 1 year.

• Storage time for dry (new) elements is unlimited, and these can withstand temperatures below 22°F.

Membrane Shipping

• Preserve the element in the plastic bag using the recommended procedure.  Make sure the plastic bag does not leak and the element is properly identified.

• Make sure the preservative solution is correctly labeled.

• Protect the element package from physical damage.

System Shut-Down

• Clean the membranes in the system using the cleaning procedure.

• Circulate the preservative solution.

• Shut down the system and close valves to prevent air entering the system.

• Check preservative once a month

Dose Rate
The amount of Flocon required to inhibit scale formation depends on the degree of supersaturation of the insoluble salts at the point of highest concentration in the system.  The degree of supersaturation in turn depends on the concentration of the ionic species in the feedwater, the overall salinity of the feed, the temperature of the feedwater, the percentage of the feedwater recovered as permeate and the type of membrane used for the application.

* Use soft water or RO permeate to mix with Flocon.

Dose Method
Flocon should be added to a membrane system prior to the final cartridge filter.  If media filtration or activated carbon is used, Flocon should be applied after these treatment stages.
 
Flocon should be delivered by dosing pump from a dilution tank, direct from the drum or from a bulk storage facility, into the feedwater at a rate that is determined by the size of the membrane system, the recommended dose rate and the delivery range of the dosing pump.  It is recommended that the dosing pump be adjusted by the stroke length, while maintaining stroke frequency at a high level as possible to achieve even distribution of the Flocon in the membrane system feedwater.
 
CAUTION  - Biological Activity:
Flocon contains a preservative that is effective up to a dilution of 1 part Flocon to 15 parts of system permeate water.  General periodic cleaning of the dosing system is recommended as part of the planned maintenance program.

An antiscalant is a pretreatment injected into the feedwater before the feedwater enters the RO membranes. Its presence delays the reaction between calcium magnesium and bicarbonate. This results is scale not forming as the water is being purified by the RO. As the duration of the water in the membrane system is relatively short during the treatment, scale formation is prevented.

Click here for more details and ordering information on Antiscalant

Determining when to replace elements is dependent on the type of problem, whether they are fouled, scaled, or damaged.

Fouled or Scaled Elements
Thin Film membrane elements can be very effectively cleaned due to their tolerance for wide range of pH and temperature. However, if cleaning is delayed, it becomes increasingly difficult to remove foulants or scales from the membrane surface. Cleaning will be more effective if it is tailored to the specific fouling problem.

Knowing when to replace them is dependent upon what you can tolerate. If your system cannot meet the water quality and/or permeate flow specifications even though you change operating conditions or cleanings do not restore the performance, then it is probably a time to replace the membranes. 

Some foulants/scales are nearly impossible to clean off: e.g. aluminum, oil, grease, calcium, barium, or strontium sulfate scale, calcium phosphate. So if an element is fouled or scaled with these, it will need to be replaced.

Oxidized or Mechanically Damaged Elements
Such elements cannot be restored as the membrane has been irreversibly damaged. The elements need to be replaced. Elements with moderate telescoping may be still usable. 

Loss of salt rejection and loss of permeate flow are the most common problems encountered in reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF). Plugging of the feed channels associated with pressure drop increase is another typical problem. If the rejection and/or the permeate flow decreases moderately and slowly, this may indicate a normal fouling which can be handled by proper and regular cleaning.

An immediate decline in performance indicates a defect or misoperation of the plant. In any case, it is essential that the proper corrective measure is taken as early as possible because any delay decreases the chance of restoring the plant performance – apart from other problems that might be created by an excessively low permeate flow and/or too high permeate TDS.

A prerequisite for early detection of potential problems is proper record keeping and plant performance normalization. This includes proper calibration of all instruments. Without accurate readings it might be too late before a problem is detected and corrected.

Once a performance decline has been identified, the first step in solving the problem is to localize the problem and to identify the cause(s) of the problem. The first step is to evaluate the performance and the operation of the system. This can be done using the data of the record keeping logsheet or of some additional on-line measurements. Then some checks and system tests should be made. If the system data is not sufficient in determining the cause(s) and to recommend corrective action, one or more membrane elements must be taken from the plant and analyzed. Element performance analysis includes non-destructive and destructive analysis. Finally, corrective measures are taken to restore the plant performance and to avoid future problems.

Visit our Flow Rate and Sizing Guide for detailed instructions.

If you need to figure out the flow rate in gallons per minute of a steady flow in to a holding tank, or open discharge: To estimate the flow rate of water into your home: 
• Make sure no water is running in the house 
• Use the faucet closest to the water source (pump, tank or pipe) 
• Open the faucet completely and measure the time it takes to fill a one US gallon container 
• Divide 60 seconds by the time it took to fill the container flow rate 
• EXAMPLE: If it takes 20 seconds to fill a 1 gallon container, the flow rate is 3 gallons per minute.

Most faucet and pitcher filters on the market use granular activated carbon to remove chlorine, taste and odor from the water. While this will improve the taste of the water, it does not remove any dissolved solids or the majority of contaminants that are removed by the reverse osmosis membrane. 

Our reverse osmosis systems incorporate carbon filters as pre and post treatment for the reverse osmosis membrane. 

Typical pretreatment consists of: 

• Coarse filtration (~80 micron) to remove large materials - City water has typically been filtered to meet this standard.
• Hypochlorite addition to reduce biofouling potential – City water has typically been treated by chlorine or chloramines for this purpose.
• Fine filtration using multimedia filters or clarification.
• Carbon Filter or Bisulfite addition to reduce remove residual free chlorine.
• Water Softener or Antiscalant to remove hardness and prevent scaling.
• Cartridge 5 Micron Sediment filter upstream of the feed pump and membranes Additional pretreatment considerations: Water with higher particle contents, measured by silt density index (SDI), require a higher degree of pretreatment to achieve acceptable quality. Systems using groundwater as the feed source frequently operate without hypochlorite and bisulfte addition. Waters with high hardness may require softening and/or acid addition. Activated carbon may be needed for water with high organic content.

I am using RO water for our espresso machine. Is it possible that the water may be too pure to allow the electric steam generator level controller to operate successfully? 

Pure water will not conduct electricity. For this reason if your steam generator level controller operates by measuring electrical currents, the water may be too pure to allow it to operate successfully. We recommend using a Nanofiltration Element instead of RO, which will remove only 80% of the Ions, compared to 99% by RO.

Pyrolox works best between a pH range of 5 to 9. Ideal pH is between 6.5 and 7.

Pyrolox is a granular water filtration media used for the removal of hydrogen sulfide, iron and manganese. Through a natural chemical reaction, Pyrolox has the ability to help you produce clean, high-quality water. Pyrolox works because of a catalyst reaction whereby hydrogen sulfide, iron, and manganese are oxidized on the media. Daily backwashing then flushes trapped particulate from the filter bed. Pyrolox is a natural mineral form of manganese dioxide, making it an environmentally sound means of water filtration.

This depends on
the salt dosage selected for the softener. The default setting is 60 minutes.

The membrane cleaner required will depend on the type of fouling the membrane has been exposed to. Visit the below page to troubleshoot:

Estimate of Cleaning Solution Volume:
V = El × Vol × 5

• El = Number of Elements
• Vol = Volume of one element from Table Below

Estimate of Total Flow Required for Membrane Cleaning:
HTF = NV × HF
MTF = NV × MF 

• HTF = High Total Flow
• MTF = Medium Total Flow
• NV = Number of Vessels in Parallel
• HF = High Flow from Flow Table (below)
• MF = Medium Flow from Flow Table (below)

Whether the system needs acid or alkaline cleaner will depend on the type of foulant suspected. We reommend acid cleaning be performed first, even when alkaline cleaning is desired. If system performance recovers with acid cleaning, then alkaline cleaning is not necessary.

Membrane Cleaning Sequence:
1. Alkaline Cleaning
2. Flush
3. Acid Cleaning
4. Flush
5. Sanitizing
6. Flush

In normal operation, the membrane in reverse osmosis membrane elements can become fouled by suspended solids, microorganisms and mineral scale. These deposits build up during operation and cause loss in water output or salt rejection, or both. Membrane elements should be cleaned whenever the normalized water output rate drops by 15% from its initial flow rate (the flow rate established during the first 24 to 48 hours of operation) or when salt content in in the product water rises noticeably.

It should be noted that the water output rate will drop if feedwater temperature decreases (see Temperature Correction). This is normal and does not indicate membrane fouling. Click here to view RO membrane cleaning chemicals.

Our AAA series residential reverse osmosis systems are 5-stage systems.

Stage 1 is a 5 Micron Sediment filter, to remove suspended solids such as dirt, dust and rust from the water. This helps to extend the life of the membrane and filters downstream by removing any particles which can clog and damage them.

Stage 2 & 3 are GAC (granular activated carbon) filters to remove chlorine, taste and odor from the water. It is important to have these upstream from the RO membrane in a system, as they remove the chlorine which will damage the membrane if it comes into contact.

Stage 4 is the RO (reverse osmosis) Membrane which removes 98% of the total dissolved solids in the water. This is where the purification takes place.

Stage 5 is a GAC (granular activated carbon) "polishing filter" which the water passes through right before going to the faucet. This helps to improve the flavor of the water, and to remove any taste or odor that the water may have developed while in the storage tank.

Water pressure is necessary to force the water through the membrane and to flush the rejected solids out of the element, and is directly related to production and quality of filtration. Low pressure can result in low production, low rejection, and premature fouling of the membrane.

The ideal pressure for an RO System is approximately 60 PSI. Generally anything between 40 PSI and 60 PSI is considered acceptable. If your water pressure is below 40 PSI, a booster pump is required to boost the water pressure.

Please check the following:

• If the water pressure is below 40 psi, a booster pump may be necessary.  
• If the water pressure is above 40 psi, first try to re-tap the tap supply line.  This can be done by tightening the self-piercing valve clockwise until it is fully turned, then turn it counterclockwise until it stops. There should open enough space in the line for proper water flow.
• Straighten or repair the tubing
• Check that pre-filters are not clogged.  If they are, they will need to be replaced.  If membrane is fouled, it will need to be replaced.

There is no definite answer to this question, as the feed water conditions
and system maintenance will affect filter life.  Below is a guideline:

No, the Ultaviolet Sterilizers system should be left on whether you are using the water or not. The lamps age regardless of the amount of the water drawn through the system. By leaving the unit on, you will eliminate the potential problem of having contamination pass through the system while the unit is off.

Our municipalities work very hard to provide safe, disinfected water for their customers. This is quite evident when you consider the difficulties involved in providing safe drinking water through a vast distribution network. If you use water that comes from a municipal water supply and wish to provide your family with an added "peace of mind", then we believe a UV system acts as an inexpensive insurance policy against the possibility of drinking bacteriologically contaminated water.

UV does not kill microorganisms like chlorine does, but instead UV inactivates them. UV light at a specific wavelength of 254 nm is readily absorbed by the genetic material of microorganisms. The DNA strand is coded with a specific sequence of something called base pairs. The sequence of these base pairs codes for certain characteristics. UV light at 254 nm is readily absorbed at the point on the microorganism's DNA strand which codes for reproduction. A microorganism that cannot reproduce, cannot make colonies and therefore cannot infect when consumed. In other words, the microorganisms have been sterilized or neutered. They will eventually die off.

The picture on the left shows a DNA strand of a microorganism. You can see where the UV light is absorbed and how a blockage is formed, causing the microorganism to become sterile.

All Sterilight systems are rated for a 4-log inactivation of bacteria, viruses and protozoan cysts under specific conditions. This rating is at a specific flow rate, and water quality. It is a good idea to have your water microbiologically tested prior to installing a UV system. We do suggest that if your water has bacteria counts in excess of 1000 CFU/10 mL that you do a bit of research with regards to what could be causing such high bacteria counts and that you oversize your UV in order to ensure a high UV dose being delivered to your water supply.

Microorganism Destruction Chart

Sterilight UV systems require the lamp to be changed on an annual basis (provide they are not installed in a seasonal home). It is suggested that the quartz sleeve be cleaned during the lamp change provided the home is supplied with high quality water (no iron, hardness etc.) otherwise the sleeve should be maintained on a regular basis.

Please NOTE: If the Sterilight system you have is monitored (ie. Has a sensor) you must ensure that you clean the sensor eye as well as the quartz sleeve.

All new lamps come with a pair of o-rings. Please replace existing o-rings with the new ones.

UV light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, shining at a specific wavelength.

All light is given off at different wavelengths. For example if you see a rainbow, you will notice that the colors are always in a specific order from red all the way to blue. You are able to see each color due to their individual wavelength. These wavelengths are part of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

UV light is at a wavelength of 254nm (nanometers), and is not visible to the naked eye. This portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is termed UV-C light or a germicidal wavelength. At this 254nm microorganisms undergo a genetic alteration which ultimately results in inactivation. Below is a representation of the electrospectrum:


UV System manufacturers are able to harness this wavelength of light in UV lamps, which will ultimately disinfect your water

Procon pumps have an expected life of 10,000 hours of continuous use.