I just installed a GE Reverse Osmosis water filter under my kitchen sink. There is pressure and filtered water coming from the spout but the air hole keeps making bubbling noises and water continues to pour down the drain line. The tank is filling but its been 4 hours and still bubble noises. What is wrong and does it take this long?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Water is going to continue to pour down the drain line. Unfortunately that is one of the caveats of a household water RO system they rarely tell you about. Because of all the fine/ultra-fine/micro-fine filtration that is going on, there is not a lot of pressure to force the water through (i.e. there is not enough back pressure). The water that is going down the drain is essentially too concentrated with other solutes to be filtered through the system, and is rejected. You get about 1 gallon of filtered water for every 10 gallons of water (my best guess). There is not a typical design for a household system that tries to cycle the water back through or do anything else with the rejected water aside from going down the drain.
As far as the bubble noises, I’m assuming it’s your reservoir tank filling up. It’s just filling with the RO filtered water. It may take a while, depending on the water pressure in your house.
When the reservoir tank fills up, the water may stop draining (maybe), since no water needed to be filtered. But that’s only if your system has a valve to shut off the incoming house water to the RO filter when it fills.
call the manufacturer and ask if this is normal.