RO filter hooked up in reverse did i break it?

so ya haven't used this equipment in over two years and i hooked the clean water line into the tap so the whole thing was running in reverse for maybe 10 mins... and now that i have it running the right way its making a squeaking noise... and i don't remeber if it used to cause its been so long since ive used it correctly

so did i kill it? will it not even work correctly anymore? or did i only damage the effectiveness of it? i really don't have 100 dollars to buy a new one but i suppose i will have to if its kaput

its a 1500-3000 gal life system so i had a good 750 gals left on it so i'm hoping someone who knows about this can inform me of where im at with this thing... dead? damaged? or ok?

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oh and i should note nothing was coming out of it during the time it was incorrectly hooked up, only now that its correctly hooked up is it filtering water. maybe i dodged a bullet?

Letting the ro membrane sit for an extended period may be an issue.

They're $200..get a new one..think of it as a premeditated "aspirin"...

dude you can get one for well less than two hundo. Except I would check the membrane, they'll try to skimp you on that ish. Although as Snaps said, sittings makes them go bad..they grow bacteria like whoa.

I'd empty out all filters and clean with bleach water then fill up the first filter housing all the way with bleach then when you got it hooked up correctly with no filters just the bleach in the first housing run it straight to drain for like 15 minutes rinse everything with clean water and put in new filters.

you can get 2 sets of low level filters and a ro membrane for probably 100.

well when i took it out of storage a bunch of water came out of it so i don't think the membranes were dried out, what i really need to know is if anyone has any experience or in depth knowledge in the inner workings of RO systems and tell if running the system in reverse would total it?

Shed&Breakfest said:

well when i took it out of storage a bunch of water came out of it so i don't think the membranes were dried out, what i really need to know is if anyone has any experience or in depth knowledge in the inner workings of RO systems and tell if running the system in reverse would total it?

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I know a thing or two about RO, listen to ShirkGoldbricks and Snaps advice.

- Jiji

jijiandfarmgang said:

I know a thing or two about RO, listen to ShirkGoldbricks and Snaps advice.

- Jiji

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so have you ever accidentally hooked your's up wrong? or rather do you know if the filters are designed to break if the flow is in the wrong direction?

the filters arent mechanical, hows they gonna break?

Listen to all the others, if you stored you filter for extended period of time, buy a pack of filters when u re-fire it... run ya what, 50-70 bucks for a full set?

ShirkGoldbrick said:

dude you can get one for well less than two hundo. Except I would check the membrane, they'll try to skimp you on that ish. Although as Snaps said, sittings makes them go bad..they grow bacteria like whoa.

I'd empty out all filters and clean with bleach water then fill up the first filter housing all the way with bleach then when you got it hooked up correctly with no filters just the bleach in the first housing run it straight to drain for like 15 minutes rinse everything with clean water and put in new filters.

you can get 2 sets of low level filters and a ro membrane for probably 100.

Click to expand...

"Except..." is salesman for "fuck you."..
Gsd right the first time,buy decent quality shit,thank me later when your plants are dry and your filter works properly.

I know this is almost a month old but..

Hooking it up "backwards" wont break it. Except, in that context, didn't mean fuck you.. It meant some of the salesmen will try to fuck you.

An RO system works like this

Line to first filter - water gets filtered to 5 microns
Line or manifold to second filter then third filter - water gets filtered more.
Line to RO membrane -

An RO membrane is just like a long sandwhich bag all rolled up and held tight. The water enters and due to the pressure differential i.e. ~70psi line pressure vs. less than 20psi on accumulator tank the water will squeeze through small holes in the membrane trying to "equalize" the pressure - the water that does get through is filtered because the holes are so small they don't let other stuff through.

There's a bit more to it of course, such as a drain line and a couple things that work off pressure which determine when to filter or not and usually a post filter but you get the jist. You don't even need the first few filters - but they help keep the membrane clean so that it last a couple years vs being clogged very quickly.

Hooking it in reverse wont hurt it as you just get a little bit of dirt on the "outside of the sandwhich baggie". Once you hook it back up the right way that dirt will just go into your filtered water.

The problem is that bacteria grows in the thing and if you have stagnant water in there for more than two weeks you need all new filters. End of story.

Shed&Breakfest said:

well when i took it out of storage a bunch of water came out of it so i don't think the membranes were dried out, what i really need to know is if anyone has any experience or in depth knowledge in the inner workings of RO systems and tell if running the system in reverse would total it?

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That's another problem , if it sat for a few years with water in it that water is beyond nasty and definitely introduced some funky shit into that RO system. I would get a new one