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Re: Excessive usage of water maker membranes

Thomas Peacock
 

My only thought is like others, make certain that there is no chlorine. Obviously, there shouldn’t be if all you do is make RO water. Do you ever put water in the tank from the marina? We often have both RO and shore water, tough to tell how much chlorine, although you can buy test strips. I will sometimes flush with a couple of gallons of RO water drawn from the control panel tap, rather than flush with water from the tank.


This details some of what can go wrong, including post-mortem pictures. Interestingly, there are several causes for physical damage to the membranes (as opposed to chemical) that might have some bearing on your issue.

Tom Peacock
SM 240 Aletes, San Juan PR
Waiting to fly back down to PR next month

On Apr 18, 2020, at 8:21 PM, Mark Erdos <mcerdos@...> wrote:

I need a little help with water maker usage and maintenance, please.

 

Cream Puff has a 24v D60 water-maker. My problem is we seem to be going through membranes at the rate of a pair a year. I have read where others have used the same set of membranes for years and still get drinkable water. This is not the case with us. We are in our 5th year of full time cruising and are now on our 6th set of membranes.

 

When I last change membranes in Colombia, this was about March 2019. Our current membranes are just over a year old. The PPMs are starting to creep up a bit now and we have gone from the 300 range to the 500 range. We notice a change in drinking quality over 600 PPMs. This is when we usually change the membranes.

 

We run the water-maker at least once a week when in a marina, flush it with the fresh water rinse. I have a double charcoal filter set up for the tank rinse. When on anchor it is run just about every day. I am careful to watch the pressure and water making float gauge. I normally set it at 55 liters per hour and this put the pressure in lower side of the green range.

 

Any ideas why our membranes are not lasting or why our PPMs creep up?

 

 

With best regards,

 

Mark

 

Skipper

Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275

Currently cruising - Tahiti, French Polynesia

www.creampuff.us

 
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