Operating your watermaker is easy and safe, as long as you obey some simple rules.
- Never run the high pressure pump without positive pressure at its inlet.
- Never pressure-shock the membrane
- Never let chlorine touch the membrane
With that said, here are the basics of starting up your system to make water:
- Make sure the seacock is open and the strainer is clean
- Start the low pressure (LP) pump, and allow it to purge air and stabilize feed pressure
- Start the high pressure (HP) pump, and verify there is still positive, steady pressure at the HP pump inlet
- Slowly increase operating pressure until the rated product flow is reached, not more than 800-900 PSI
- Water quality will improve after a few minutes. After it stabilizes, test the product water by taste or TDS meter
- If product water is good, divert it to your tank.
Shutting down is pretty much the reverse of steps 1 thru 4 above:
- Slowly decrease operating pressure
- Turn off HP pump
- Turn off LP pump
- Close the seacock
Fresh water flush your system regularly to prevent organic growth inside the system. This is accomplished similarly to operating the watermaker, except using fresh tank water as the feed source:
- Make sure you have a good carbon filter in the fresh water flush line to prevent chlorine from destroying the membrane
- Open the fresh water flush valve, and allow it to purge air and stabilize feed pressure
- If your fresh water flush is teed into the plumbing prior to the LP pump (best practice), turn on the LP pump.
- Turn on the HP pump, and verify there is still positive, steady pressure at the HP pump inlet
- Allow system to flush for about 2 minutes
- Turn off HP pump
- Turn off LP pump
- Close the fresh water flush valve
Some systems use electronic controls to automate some or all of these steps.