Katadyn 40e Salty Taste Still

[deepthought]

I recently installed a Katadyn 40E. There is a slight salty taste to the water. Is there some kinda burn in time it needs? I have tried it in a few different places. And seems to be the same. I mean if it was a life and death situation I could probably drink it but its not something that I would want to put into my water tank.

Is there anything I may have done wrong in the installation for it to not be filtering right that I should check?

Thanks

[donradcliffe]

Borrow a salinity meter, and see if its reading over 500 ppm. If it does and its a new watermaker, call Katadyn. If its an old one, you probably need to replace at a minimum the seals in the membrane housing, or the membranes themselves. On clue is how much water it is making--if its producing more than 20% above the spec, the seals or membrane are shot.

[deepthought]

It is new, ppm is around 450 right now. Havent tested how much its producing yet.

[noelex 77]

450 ppm is a bit high,but you should not be ( or with a very sensitive palate just) tasting salt at this level. It should not be undrinkable because of the salt. Some biological growth in the filters can make the water smell and taste foul ( but not salty). Are you sure it's salty and not just horrible due to something else?

That is good news because salt = something wrong with the membrane, or high pressure pump, biological growth is much easier to fix.

Telle will be along shortly and he is the Guru in this area.

[deepthought]

well its been running now for a while and my ppm meter want read it but it reads the water from my tank as around 50ppm but the water from the water maker wont give a reading. It still has the same taste though

[deepthought]

Sorry my ppm meter WONT read the water maybe its too high but still tastes same as before.

[deepthought]

ok now it tastes a bit more salty still wont give reading.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by deepthought

Sorry my ppm meter WONT read the water maybe its too high but still tastes same as before.

That's different if the salinity meter will not read I suspect it's off the scale which means the water is probably very salty. I think from memory most people can taste salt around 900 ppm.

[deepthought]

my meter has a few settings µS, mS, ppm, ppt I think it can also do salinity so I should test ppm and salinity?

This is the features of my meter:

• Measures electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), salinity and temperature.
• Four scales: µS, mS, ppm, ppt
• Three different non-linear EC-to-TDS conversion factors (KCl, 442TM, NaCl).
• Automatic Temperature Compensation (ATC) using three temperature coefficients
• Measurement Range: 0-9990 µS; 0-8560 ppm; 0-9.99 mS; 0-8.56 ppt

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by deepthought

my meter has a few settings µS, mS, ppm, ppt I think it can also do salinity so I should test ppm and salinity?

This is the features of my meter:

• Measures electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), salinity and temperature.
• Four scales: µS, mS, ppm, ppt
• Three different non-linear EC-to-TDS conversion factors (KCl, 442TM, NaCl).
• Automatic Temperature Compensation (ATC) using three temperature coefficients
• Measurement Range: 0-9990 µS; 0-8560 ppm; 0-9.99 mS; 0-8.56 ppt

The only salinity meters I have used have been more basic and will only read in ppm. I think the ppm is for total dissolved solids, ( It works on measuring conduction so presumably will only measure charged particles) but in practice that is measuring salt in a Watermaker output. I just tried my meter on pure salt water and it reads --- so it's off the scale.

[deepthought]

we tried again yesterday a few miles off shore and it was still salty.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by deepthought

we tried again yesterday a few miles off shore and it was still salty.

My guess without knowing the age of the unit or the quality of the installation, and it is only a guess without the proper tests, is that either your seals and/or membrane is bad. Instead of me writing a lengthy testing process, here is a wealth of information from member ishipaco's website. Anyone with a Power Survivor/ Katadyn watermaker would be well served to bookmark and study this before calling in a pro.

Troubleshooting