Problem with Kinetico Reverse Osmosis Unit

[Lowthian]

Here's my info:
My house is 4 years old, has well water with a softener and a Kinetico RO unit. The RO worked fine until about 3 months ago. Now it seems like the unit does not make product water until the tank has emptied. Once you drain the tank down to the drip...drip...drip stage at the faucet, the unit begins to make product and after sufficient time, everything appears back to normal.

I've checked tank pressure and when empty it's at 7 psi - when full it's at 30.

I've replaced both the pre and post filters and it didn't make any difference.

I've checked the discharge line when the flow at the faucet is very low (but not yet dripping) and no waste water is coming out which I assume means the unit is not making product. Once the faucet starts to drip, then water is coming out of the discharge line.

Any thoughts?????

[jdp38]

Your R/O will only produce water when the tank is 2/3 empty....doesn't sound as if anything is wrong .....suggest that you drain tank every night to ensure you have a full tank in the morning.....you can take 2 samples, one from your cold water faucet one from your R/O faucet, to your dealer and have the TDS checked, that'll save you a service call

[reubanks]

Is the drain tube clogged?

[jdp38]

It doesn't sound like it to me......the membrane is a huge plastic sheet ( it's a little more than that, work with me )...the low TDS water is forced thru the layers of plastic while the rest is washed down the drain......the rate of discharge depends on the TDS and pressure of your feed water......once your tank has reached capacity, the unit backwashes the membrane with R/O water the shuts down, not producing water until the tank is 2/3 empty

[Lowthian]

I've checked the drain tube and it is not plugged. When the unit is making water, I have water dripping out of the tube.

What I don't understand is that we rarely ran out of water during the first 3+ years we had the unit and now we run out regularly and our water usage habits have not changed. There's just my wife and I in the house.

I'd be happy if the unit started to make water when the tank was 2/3 empty as jdp38 suggested, but it doesn't until the tank is totally empty.

It seems that whatever tells the unit to make water is no longer doing it at the appropriate time

[jdp38]

When you checked the air pressure on the "empty" tank.....was it emptied by draining the water from the faucet, or did you disconnect the tank, take it out, pump air into it until the waterstopped flowing, then checked the pressure?

[Lowthian]

I checked it after the water stopped running at the faucet. The tank was not disconnected from the system.

[jdp38]

sorry it's taken me so long to get back..'puter got sick........you need to disconnect the tank and drain it down completly with the air....then set it at 10 #'s......