Support / Technical Tips / Pickling your system
Pickling your system
A 5-minute job that protects your membranes when the system will be left for more than 7 days.
If your system will be left for more than 7 days, pickling is essential. It stops bacteria and biological growth from ruining your membranes.
Once pickled, the system can be left for up to 6 months. If it stays laid up longer than that, flush the system and repeat the process.
Use chlorine-free product water only. Chlorinated water, such as marina tap water or water from a treated ship's tank, will permanently damage the reverse osmosis membrane.
Steps
- Prepare the solution. Fill a large bucket with about 10 litres of unchlorinated product water, drawn from your sample faucet. Add about 100g of pickling powder (sodium metabisulphite) and mix until it has fully dissolved. This makes a 1% solution.
- Shut down as normal. Use your normal shutdown procedure, including the standard fresh-water flush. Make sure the Sample/Tank valve is set to Sample.
- Deploy the pickling hose. Put the pickling hose, attached to the pickling valve on the seawater filter, all the way into the bucket of solution.
- Set the valve. Turn the Pickling Valve on the seawater filter to the vertical position.
- Run the solution through. Turn on the high-pressure pump. Don't dial in any pressure. The pump draws the solution out of the bucket and circulates it through the system. As soon as the bucket is empty, shut off the high-pressure pump so it doesn't run dry.
- Reset the valve. Turn the Pickling Valve back to the horizontal position.
You can buy storage chemical in our shop.