Changing filters pretty straight forward?

[jdavid]

I recently acquired a used coralife pure flo II RO/DI unit that needs the filters changed.

I have the prefilter, carbon block, color changing DI resin cartridge, and membrane new in the packages. I have no experience with this unit or any unit that you can open up and change the filters in for that matter as my old one was in-line style.

Anything I need to know before I proceed? Changing the cartridges seems pretty simple but are there any other steps that I should follow before my unit is ready to use?

I know that to flush the unit you would switch the waste water line with the pure water line. Do I need to do that? I don't have a TDS meter so I don't really have any way of testing the water.

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[dball711]

In a word, yes. Mine is pretty straightforward, just unscrew the chambers and pop in the new cartridges and close them back up. Be carefully not to pinch or get the O ring out of alignment. The manufacturer states to rinse chambers with bleach but I have only done this once. Hope that helps.

 

[joseayes]

Josh I will add to this that you might want to flush the 3 first stages before you plug them to the membrane, do it until you see clear water coming out from them, might be better to fill a cup with that clean water, let it settle, then check again in that cup of water for any settled particles that might still coming out from the second and third stage, if water seems to be clean I would connect the membrane now, if you connect them once all of them together you might be reducing the life of the membrane due to premature clogging.I have a TDS handheld meter that I can let you borrow, but I believe you only will have 0 tds readings once the membrane has had washed itself from the packing preservative on it. (Someone help if
I'm wrong)

Oh! Another great thing to use is liquid silicone for the "O" rings to prevent from any seal cracking and any leak due to this.

 

[fishtank]

on a similar note I have been trying to find out what the norm is for how long or how much water should be ran through a unit before changing these filters and do all filters need changing at the same time? There is plenty of how to's out there but not so much how long's.

 

[joseayes]

You won't find a norm on that, That's because not all of the water is treated the same before it gets to your home, best way to find out is to get a inline TDS meter that will show you when is best to replace the first 3 stages before the membrane starts to work harder on purify it, normally a membrane is rated up to 3 years~ if not more, all depends in how you play with the stages before of it. Hope it helps
Trying to get help from a sponsor that always jump in rodi filter questions! He always help!!! Eyebuckfield or I don't really remember his nickname, sorry!

Status: quo

 

[jdavid]

I replaced the filters, the DI cartridge doesn't exactly fit snugly like the carbon block and prefilter do but it is the one that is made for the exact unit and the one that was in there before.

I took out the line from the carbon block to the RO membrane and ran water through just the prefilter and the carbon block to flush out the fines until it ran clear.

I also got the shut off valve so I'm going to install that later on, as of now I have run about 5 gal total (discarded) through all 4 filters which took a while with this 50 GPD unit!!

Another 5 to go and according to the instructions I should be good to make water after that

Thanks Antonio and Heath (called me) for the tip on flushing out the carbon block and not fouling up the fresh RO membrane. That was exactly the sort of experience based knowledge I was seeking with this post

 

[jdavid]

joseayes;946295 wrote: I have a TDS handheld meter that I can let you borrow, but I believe you only will have 0 tds readings once the membrane has had washed itself from the packing preservative on it.

Thanks Antonio but my understanding is that without a 0 TDS container I wouldn't get an accurate reading from a handheld unit! I'm going to get an inline TDS meter soon to know when to change filters, for now, I'm going to trust that these brand new filters are doing their job (and use a tad of prime in new water for my own peace of mind, like I always do)