After 3 years of use, my RO water pre-filters are still relatively squeaky clean

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Taylor1

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Is this normal? I often read that we should change the filters once every 1 year or so. My family who lives in a nearby city uses an under-the-sink filtration system and the water filters get dirty pretty quickly after just a few months of use.

Is this because my city has higher quality water, or are the filters defective? I'm quite confused.

Thanks.
 

Bannerman

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Most RO systems utilize a simple and inexpensive sediment cartridge for the 1st stage prior to the membrane, to catch any possible ferric iron, ferric manganese and/or sediment particles before they can enter the carbon filters and membrane housing. Those solid particles will usually settle within the municipal distribution system, but will often become disturbed and waterborne when there is high water flow velocity such as while fire hydrants are utilized for flushing the water mains or during fire fighting operations or while filling road sweeping equipment.

The 2nd filtration stage is usually a carbon cartridge to remove chemicals that the RO membrane may be less effective to remove, and to remove chlorine which will usually damage the RO membrane.

A carbon block cartridge will be usually installed directly before the RO faucet, to polish the water to further freshen by removing any off taste resulting from the storage tank.

To ensure sufficient capacity and high performance, depending on estimated water production, the filter cartridges are usually replaced on a 6-12 month schedule, and the membrane replaced each 3-5 years.

An inexpensive TDS meter is usually beneficial to compare the TDS of the incoming water vs the TDS of the RO water, to establish how effective the membrane is performing so as to assist to determine when to replace the membrane.

Since your membrane has likely sustained 2+ years of chlorine exposure, suggest replacing the membrane while performing a full cartridge replacement.
 

Taylor1

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Thanks for the response. I am still wondering why my pre-filters cartridges are still squeaky white though, my family has theirs a brownish dark color within a few months. Do you have any ideas?
 

Jeff H Young

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your water must not be equal to your familys water. its as simple as that could be many reasons but for whatever reason whats coming in your house is better or they have rusty pipes
 
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