DI Resin Life

[devildog999]

How long are people flushing their system and bypassing the DI filter for before they make water?

When I first setup my filter years ago, I never did this but my resin lasted quite a while (probably had something to do with how long it took to make water?). However, in my new house, I found myself burning through the resin quite fast. I re-setup my filter in early September and as of today, my resin is brown and my output shows 1 TDS. For a bit over a month of that, my tank was cycling so the only water I was making was evap replacement. Even now though, I have only been doing 10 gallon water changes every 2 weeks so I really have not made that much water with the resin.

Up until about a week ago, I hadn't heard about flushing before allowing water into DI stage if the filter hasn't run in a few hours. So the real question is how much did I shorten my DI stage because I was not doing this? If I am averagin 3 - 5 TDS pre DI resin, how long should my resin last?

[outssider]

the first 2 minutes or so water leaving the ro is very high in tds. if you had an in-line tds meter you would be able to see this. You can easily hook up a "T" with a valve to by pass the first 2 minutes or so.

[slief]

My Spectrapure UHE unit has autoflush. Despite my 1:1 waste to DI water ratio and my tap TDS of around 475, I get about 1000 gallons out of my first DI stage and well over 2000 gallons out of my 2nd stage. If I am not mistaken, my unit flushes itself every 30 or so gallons and flushes for around 1 minute. It also flushes with DI water and not tap water.

[spdjnky]

I haven't done the flush but can tell you allot depends on your local water. Mine is not to f... good. You can call your local water dept they will give you a print out or they should.

[devildog999]

Originally Posted by outssider

the first 2 minutes or so water leaving the ro is very high in tds. if you had an in-line tds meter you would be able to see this. You can easily hook up a "T" with a valve to by pass the first 2 minutes or so.

This is true, hence why I started flushing. I do have an inline TDS and can see how much crud was going through the DI that should not have been had I been flushing. I did mention this in my original post. The question is how much did I shorten my DI resin's life because I hadn't been flushing.

My filter has a valve I can turn, which I do, to flush everything out before it hits DI resin.

[Opus123]

At 3 tds you should get around 1480gals out of a new di catridge. At 5 tds you are looking at around 900gals.

[devildog999]

Originally Posted by Opus123

At 3 tds you should get around 1480gals out of a new di catridge. At 5 tds you are looking at around 900gals.

Dang, then my not flushing before actually making water really wasted the resin.

Thank you

[Opus123]

Originally Posted by devildog999

Dang, then my not flushing before actually making water really wasted the resin.

Thank you

That may not be true. You didn't do it at your old place and said it lasted a long time. Could be something else like high CO2 issues at the new place.

[devildog999]

Originally Posted by Opus123

That may not be true. You didn't do it at your old place and said it lasted a long time. Could be something else like high CO2 issues at the new place.

Given my TDS is almost 200 before I flush my system... I'm gonna use my powers of deduction to assume it did indeed cost me a lot of water lol

That being said, in Cali I did often flush my lines but it's something I am just now thinking about. Because my water supply came from the garden spicket outside, and I lived in the desert, I would flush water before filtering to make sure I didn't put too much cold or heat through the system.

[Breadman03]

Originally Posted by Opus123

That may not be true. You didn't do it at your old place and said it lasted a long time. Could be something else like high CO2 issues at the new place.

Agreed.