Is my watermaker membrane toast?

[Gary H]

Hi all,

I've got a Spectra Ventura 150 that has been in service for only four months since new. Water production and quality had been great until recently (usually about 150ppm). One day, the quality was down (under 700ppm, though). So I did a fresh water flush and immediately ran it and the quality returned to 150ppm.

A couple of days later, I had to do the same thing to get good quality - an extra fresh water flush immediately before making water. Ditto for the next time the following day.

Quality continued to worsen and pressures were higher than normal (70-85psi) so yesterday I ran it unpressurized for a few hours and then did an SC-3 cleaning. Immediately after the cleaning, the quality was still bad. However, after a couple of hours running, the quality was back to around 150ppm (yeah!) but pressures were still 70-80psi (not good!). I made water for a few hours and did a fresh water flush.

This morning (10 hours later) the quality is bad again (1000ppm) and pressures are still high. After running it for an hour, quality is improving (600ppm at last check) but obviously something is wrong.

I should also mention that when I did the SC-3 cleaning, the pressures were high even with the pressure relief valve open a half turn. So I did the cleaning with the valve open a couple of turns (so maybe I didn't really clean it very well?)

The one thing that I am certain of is that the membrane was not exposed to any chlorine. I haven't had any city water in the tanks in over a month. It's only been flushed with product water.

Of course, I'm in George Town, Exuma so I have no easy access to anything. I've used the only SC-3 I have, but I do have one jar of SC-2.

[Kenomac]

Send Tellie a PM.

[Gary H]

Will do.

Update: After running about 90 minutes, the quality was finally good at 165ppm.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Gary H

Will do.

Update: After running about 90 minutes, the quality was finally good at 165ppm.

Hi Gary, Something doesn't sound right and though you gave a lot of information, I'd like to speak with you when you are at the watermaker so we can preform a few tests to see if we can't narrow it down to the cause. A brand new 150 should be working perfectly. Out of all the watermakers in the market, even a Spectra, the 150 is probably the best unit made. Feel free to give me a shout when you get a chance.

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