Why Is My RO Water Filter Leaking?
Do you have a reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment system? Is it not working properly? This is an article to help you determine why your drinking water filter is leaking and what you can do to fix your RO.
If you own and maintain a reverse osmosis water treatment system in your home, then you’re probably already aware that things sometimes go awry. The water quality engineers at SimpleLab have pulled together a helpful list of the most common problems people have with their Reverse Osmosis water filters at home along with the most common solutions.
Reverse Osmosis: Problems, Solutions – A Quick Guide
Scan the headlines below for common symptoms, causes, and solutions to water filter failures. If you have questions about your water quality or your water treatment system, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our professional water testing team.
Scale forming on the membrane?
Cause: Failure of the antiscalant, acid dosing device, or pH monitor
Fix: Check your dosing equipment is working properly and monitor all changes in water quality before and after the RO system. Ask our team for help by emailing: hello@gosimplelab.com or clicking on our help page.
Iron accumulation on the filters and membranes?
(Leading to a high pressure difference and low permeate flow)
Cause: High iron content in raw water, corroding pipes, failure of media filters
Fix: Check pipes and media filters. Ask our team for help by emailing: hello@gosimplelab.com or clicking on our help page.
Bacterial film on filters and membranes?
(Leading to high pressure difference and low permeate flow)
Cause: Ineffective sanitization or biocide
Fix: Sanitize all filters, perform microbiological analysis, check chemical dosing tanks; heck for biocide adsorption on carbon filters, check contact times and dose rates, select broad-spectrum biocide for organic content. Ask our team for help by emailing: hello@gosimplelab.com or clicking on our help page.
Organic or humic content on filters and membranes?
Cause: High organic content
Fix: Test the feed water for TOC and color Ask our team for help by emailing: hello@gosimplelab.com or clicking on our help page.
Membrane damage leading to high salts passthrough and high flux?
Cause: Chlorine overdosing
Fix: Perform chlorine tests, check dosing equipment, redox meters, bisulfite levels and the general location of dosing equipment. Ask our team for help by emailing: hello@gosimplelab.com or clicking on our help page.
High Salt Passthrough?
Cause: Failure of the O-ring at the permeate tube
Fix: Check conductivity in each vessel and membrane. Ask our team for help by emailing: hello@gosimplelab.com or clicking on our help page.
Bacteria and colloid fouling of micron-pre filters and membranes
Cause: Breakthrough of your media pre-filter
Fix: Wash your media pre-filters and add some biocide. Ask our team for help by emailing: hello@gosimplelab.com or clicking on our help page.
back to top
Related Articles
-
Quick Guide to Certified Filters for PFAS
This affiliate-free guide contains a comprehensive list of which filters are certified to NSF/ANSI standards for the reduction of PFAS, why that’s so important, and how to make sense of...
-
When Can You Trust Water Filter Reviews? A Guide to Red Flags
There are tons of water filter reviews floating around YouTube and the blogosphere touting different treatment solutions. Some are helpful, many of them are not. But how do you know...
-
General Chemistry of Water
Read to find out why hardness, total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, and alkalinity are important, what they mean for your water quality and health, general ranges, and what to do...
Shop our most
popular tests
- I Have City Water
- City Water
- I Have Well Water
- Well Water
Essential City Water Test
Basic test panel for water utility customers primarily concerned by metals, aging pipes, and infrastructure.
Advanced City Water Test
Ideal baseline for testing tap water provided by a local water utility–including metals, minerals, and chlorine-related byproducts.
