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Liberty Culligan Water Filter AC-30 plumbing?
So with the old fridge, I never really used the water/ice maker that was hooked up to the culligan AC-30 water filter system. I am now trying to get this going and I am having an issue. The pump runs, partially fills the filter(s), stops, then runs again. Rinse and repeat over and over. Yet nothing ever actually fills the system.
From what I can tell the standard system plumbing uses 4 hoses.
An intake from water feed, another hose to flush (drain?) another larger hose to a tank and then the fourth to the faucet.
Liberty doesn’t have a faucet (at least not in my system).
So I have this.
A small blue hose coming from the water feed (which is a valve I have kept turned off).
A small black hose that goes to the water tank fill (I am assuming this allows for overflow of the system to drain, which it then drains back into the fresh water tank). A large black hose (labeled P) which I assume goes to the tank and then another larger black hose (labeled S), which I assume goes to the fridge.
First question, do I have the larger hoses correct?
Second question is why would the pump cycle and never fill the system (never get water at the fridge).
I am wondering if I have a “leak” in the filter system (although not seeing water, so maybe its more an air leak, not allowing the system to be pressurized?)?
any direction would be helpful. Thinking I may replace the filter and maybe just go direct from the water feed (heck, there is a two stage filter before the feed and then the fridge has a filter inside so that would mean the fridge would end up being filtered 3 times making it a little too sterile for me 🙂 ).
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27 Replies
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http://www.culligan.com/CulliganCom/media/products/GoodWaterMachine_DrinkingWater_OwnersGuide_1.pdf
Above is a link to the installation/owners manual for your system. It is a RO system. There are 2 filters plus the membrane. It is probably plumbed into the fresh water shore supply. a drain with an air gap, that explains the extra line and a RO water supply, going the the frig.
Most likely you need to verify the supply line is flowing and then change the filters and membrane. I do not think it is plumbed into the pump side of the water supply, you need to check this. Also, it will take 24 hours or so to fill thesotrage tank to start getting any amount of flow.
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thanks, already have the manual, really trying to clarify the liberty specifics and how they install it.unparticular, the hoses to the fridge and the tank and what is labeled what. Filters are actually all new. Water source is after pump. The small output line feeds back to fresh water tank to recapture it (instead of waste tank). It’s the other two larger lines I have labeled “P” and “S”. One should go to tank and the other to fridge. Just not sure which goes where.
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Page 7 of the manual shows port locations on the filter assembly. You can use that to determine where the lines should go.
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The filter ports are not the question… It’s the hoses themselves.
I am trying to figure out if anyone knows what hose go to the fridge and what hose goes to the tank. Once I know that I can hook them to the filter based on the icons molded into the filter plastic next to the ports.
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Called Liberty to see if they new where each hose went inside the coach based on the labels.
Troy said it technicall doesn’t matter as inside the filter housing, they come together. Will let the pump cycle and hopefully fill the tank and then feed the fridge.
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Even with a barely full accumulator tank you should be able to get RO water to flow. It may be little more than a dribble, but you should see some flow in a relatively short period of time. You can tell the RO filter is processing water by hearing the house water pump cycling on and off when you are not drawing any other water.
One thing that will affect flow is if the bladder on the RO water accumulator tank has failed and there is no bladder pressure. At that point the accumulator tank has to fill completely and to get RO water you have to open a RO faucet and you will get water at the rate it is produced which is very small.
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I have started to get a flow at the fridge. A little better as time goes on. After about 50 or ten minutes of the pump cycling, it goes into alarm state, requiring a reset. I turn the water off to the RO, let the pump get a break for about 10 minutes, then turn the water back on and go through the cycle again.
I really think I want to bypass the RO filter and just go direct to the fridge, or would I still have a low volume/pressure situation from the water system. Although I get decent water pressure for the shower, sinks and washer, so I would suspect I should get decent water pressure directly to the fridge. Would then really need to determine which line went to the fridge if I did that.
As I said, I have a two state filter system in the water bay before the RO system, then the fridge has a filter in it. So the RO is basically just in the way at this point.
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It should not be running all the time.
Are you sure your water system accumulator tank has the correct bladder pressure? A typical RO uses about 4 or 5 gallons of water to make one. The rate it creates RO water is not fast so if your accumulator tank for the whole house sytem has no air pressure behind the bladder he pump will run at the slightest water flow.
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Jon,
I think the pressure tank for the RO system hasn’t filled all the way that’s why its cycling the pump over and over again. Sounds like it takes a while to actually fill the tank full and at that point the pump wont cycle anymore.
If the tank wasn’t mounted behind the fridge in a locatio that requires the fridge to come out, then I could check on it 🙁
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The RO filter is much more effective than canister or charcoal filters. I would keep it personally since its already there; you never know what you get when you hook up.
The RO filter allows water through very slowly. It probably will take about an hour to fill a gallon accumulator after the RO filter. If it only feeds the fridge, it might be half that size. With what Jon said, it should only take ~4-5 gal of supplied water to fill it up. That shouldn’t cause the pump to cycle so much that it errors. Can you tell how much water is going back to the water fill?
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Charles, you have two accumulators and each is going to have a different impact on this issue.
The whole house accumulator, if the coach is equipped with one, stores water under pressure from an air charged rubber bladder. That way when you draw water from a fully pressurized system the pump will not instantly turn on. To tell if you have one with the proper air pressure charge behind the bladder turn off the water pump and open a faucet. If you have one and it is functioning as intended your water will run and you will get a fairly large amount of water to flow even though the pump is off.
The RO accumulater provides the same function, but it is intended to level the water flow through the RO system. An RO system makes RO water very slowly, so the function of the accumulater is to store a smaller volume of water, but to allow a relatively fast flow of smaller volumes, such as to make a batch of ice or a pot of coffee. If that accumulater bladder is not pressurized the actual flow rate will be the very small flow rate of the system.
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We do have two accumulators. One for the house and one for the RO system.
The one for the house is actually small and in the water bay.
The RO one is behind the fridge, unacessable without removing the fridge (Really?).
Here is what is happening now. The RO system cycles the pump till it alarms. Reset, and it does the same. Went through this for about 4-5 hours today and still not getting that much “pressure” out of the fridge water. However, I know there is pressure as when I pull one of the larger hoses off the RO body, the pressure releases the water in the body of the RO system pretty good (as in you get soaked).
The RO system AC-30 is supposed to produce 30 gallons of water a day. That should be 1.25 gallons an hour. So four hours of the pump running should have produced 5 gallons. Much more then the 2 gallon tank part of the system. It shoudl have been full and pressurized by that point.
So something tells me there is an issue in the accumulator tank, polishing filter (which also seems buried somewhere inside the coach as I can’t find it. Maybe it’s with the tank 🙁 ).
After the pump runs, you can hear water dripping back into the fresh water tank from the “drain” hose that comes off the RO body and goes to a fitting at the top of the fresh tank.
Im honestly thinking the easiest way to fix this is to bypass the RO system and just plumb the fridge into the fresh water pipe post water pump (basically where the RO sytem is feed from). I have a hose (still need to determine which goes to the fridge and which goes to the tank) that goes to the fridge, have a fitting that has a valve to feed water to the RO system. So just hook those two together and be done with it. Like I said, there is a large two stage filter after the pump, before the RO feed, then there is a filter in the fridge. Either that or I repalce the AC-30 system with another one with a smaller tank that I mount in the water bay so have access to it when needed (still need to determine which hose goes to the fridge). Looked at another liberty in the lot that has the same system but their hoses are labeled differently 🙁
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The RO system in the last Liberty I had drove me nuts Charles, always discharging water into the holding tank and causing the pump to cycle, so I just went direct to the fridge with an inline filter. So the fridge water was filtered 3 times, the whole house filter, the inline filter and then the fridge filter.
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Hmm, maybe Liberty designed my coach so it would actually filter the entire fresh tank over time, since my drain line from the RO system feeds back into the fresh tank 🙂
You dont recall what the hose that went direct to the fridge was labeled on your coach, do you tom?
of course it’s an easy test. Hook one up to the fresh water, try the fridge. If it doesnt work, it’s the other one 🙂
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Charles,
Can you let your house water system pressure go to zero and then read the pressure on the house accumulator. It should be at a pressure similar to the pump cut in pressure. That’s an easy starting point. If is is not at the pump cut in pressure, open a faucet and add air pressure until the tank is at the correct pressure.
That should allow the pump to cycle and not run as you describe.
Sliding the refrigerator out to access the RO accumulator is a pain, but if you can put a 3″ high platforrm in front of it by removing a few screws it will roll out giving you access. The accumulator I believe has a different pressure setting for the bladder and it needs to have a good bladder with the right pressure or it just will not function as intended.
I disagree with abandoning the system as designed because the system works and just needs to have whatever is wrong repaired.
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