osmosis unit making noise when off

[Statman]

Today my dad and I hooked up my RO unit. We couldnt figure out a way to turn it off other than by turning the unit which intersects with the water line (sorry i dont know what this is called, seen in pic# 3) and my dad didnt think it would be good to keep opening and closing that, so we added a valve to turn off and on (pic# 4). We had it on for several hours today as instructed, then when i turned it off every 30 seconds or so it made a very loud grinding noise for a secod or two. After watching it for a bit it appears the object in pic# 1 is vibrating, and causing the noise. Any ideas?
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[ChangDriX]

did you get this off of ebay by chance?

 

[Statman]

yeah

 

[ChangDriX]

sorry to be off topic bro, i was just wondering im in the market now for a ro unit and i saw this one today...besides the noise how are the TDS readings?

 

[Statman]

couldnt tell ya, dont have any way to test it.

does anyone have any ideas what this noise is? im going to be turning it off for the night and id rather not wake to find it broken in the morning..

 

[fsn77]

The item in pic #1 is the auto-shutoff valve. If it's shaking / vibrating and not turning off, there's likely either some air (most likely) or a dirt particle causing your problem. Tapping / shaking it should help clear any air, as well as tilting it more up and down while trying to clear the air (with the outflow from the valve facing up). For the auto-shutoff valve to work, it does require a manual shutoff valve on the end of tubing after the DI cartridge to create back pressure. Is the metal valve in pic #4 after the DI cartridge? If so, and it's not plastic lined on the inside, I would recommend changing it out for a plastic valve (readily available at places like Lowe's in the plumbing aisle). Running DI water through any kind of metal fitting or tubing kind of defeats the purpose of RO/DI purification, as the highly purified DI water can pull metal ions out of the metal fittings / tubing. The ions pulled from a single valve or fitting might not seem significant, but why spend all that money on a RO/DI unit and waste 4+ gallons of water for every 1 gallon of product water made to have purified water, only to be putting metals back into the water after it's filtered? Considering the toxicity of metals for marine invertebrates and the tendancy for metals to accumulate in a tank over time, the RO/DI water contacting any metal isn't the best idea over the long haul.

 

[Statman]

I tried shaking and tapping it, it didnt seem to improve at all. now that its ran all night the noise has become more frequent, its basically every 2 seconds now it shakes an makes the noise. also, even though the valve on the waste tube is turned off, when it shakes it sends a blast of water through.

edit: i also really have no idea how this all works, the instructions were lacking. do i always have the waste valve open, or closed? even when its closed it seems to constantly have water running out so im really lost.

 

[fsn77]

You do not want a valve on the waste line, only the product water line coming out of the DI resin chamber. The waste line needs to flow freely. That said, something is causing your auto-shutoff valve to not close properly. I've heard that some people have needed to disassemble the auto-shutoff valve on a new RO/DI unit due to some plastic shavings clogging it up and preventing it from closing. This could be what's happening in your case.

For a more details you may want to try these links:
Installation Instructions (possibly better than the ones you received; even though they aren't for your specific unit, it should give you a better idea what's going on)
RO/DI Troubleshooting.

Keep posting if none of that proves helpful... Good luck!

 

[Statman]

the waste line valve was built into the unit, you can see it in pic two its the orange tube going straight down. so since its already there, just keep it open at all times?

 

[fsn77]

Strange... I haven't know RO/DI units to come with any valve on the waste line, unless it was a RO membrane flushing kit. But, that doesn't appear to be a membrane flushing kit. The only other reason I can think of is that it's there for storage purposes, as in to help make sure water stays inside the unit if you were frequently disconnecting the unit and moving it (the RO membrane needs to be stored wet once it has become wet).

Do you still have the link to the listing you bought it from? Maybe I can find some additional clues there to help get this figured out.