I’ve had my RO filter for a couple years now and I’ve been Brewing with RO Water happily. I’m just wondering what TDS meter reading should prompt me to change my filters? It’s reading 16 right now which isn’t bad but I think it was around nine when I first installed the system. When do you all change your filters? Thanks.
If you have a charcoal filter, before the RO - you’d probably want to change that before the membrane.
Is the RO filter just for your homebrew? How much water have you used?
I only use it for Brewing. Probably done 10 batches with it. 5 gallon batches.
TDS from an RO machine does vary and its normal. Water temperature and viscosity affect ion removal and the dissolved solid content in the raw water might also be varying, which will also vary the output quality.
Under most conditions, its the carbon filter that should be monitored and replaced. That filter is what protects the membrane from chlorine-based disinfectants that do destroy the RO membrane. If you keep the disinfectants from destroying the membrane, it could be years before the membrane needs to be replaced. If your water comes from your own well and there’s no disinfectant injected, then you wouldn’t even need a carbon filter. But anyone on a municipal water supply will need this filter.
There’s almost no need to ever replace the particulate filter that is likely to accompany the carbon filter. Your water would have to be turbid in order to plug the particulate filter and that’s not typically the case with municipal water supplies.
If the TDS reading spikes to greater than 10 percent of the raw water TDS, that’s the signal that your RO membrane is failing and needs replacement. No need to replace prior to that.
2 Likes
Great info @Martin.
In addition, I like to flush the RO element every 30 days. This is as simple as running it w/o any restriction.
In essence, yes.
Is your water that hard to require that step? The wasting rate is typically set to produce enough flushing to avoid having to resort to an extra Flush process.
It’s probably overkill but it gives me a warm fuzzy to do some periodic Maint on the system.