Electrically charged R/O water

[KJoFan]

I've been getting my new RO unit set up today and think I have everything in order. I was in the process of letting it run it's first few gallons through to flush the system. I was letting this "waste" RO water run into a plastic 5 gallon bucket. Out of curiosity, I got my handheld TDS meter to test the water it was outputting. When I stuck my meter down in the bucket I received a shock from the water. I unplugged everything (booster pump, solenoid, etc) and removed the hose from the bucket. Then tried the meter again and once again was shocked. I thought maybe it was the TDS meter, so tried just sticking my finger in the bucket of water and again was shocked.

 

What would be causing the water to carry a charge like this?

[dsoz]

Does the bucket have anything in it? Take everything out of the bucket (except water) and try it again. If there is a pump or something in the bucket, it may be leaking voltage. ???

 

You mentioned a solenoid. Do they have a capacitor that stores electrical voltage? maybe it discharged, now it is safe to touch.

 

If there are two not-similar metals (iron and copper for example) that are touching, they can create a small amount of electric current. Nothing like you are describing, however.

 

(grasping at straws on this one) Are you wearing rubber soled shoes? There could be a charge from somewhere else that is passing through your body INTO the water, if it is grounded by a pump or something.

 

Take a picture of it, a visual can give a lot more clues.

 

dsoz

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

You'd think after getting shocked twice, you'd stop touching it

[KJoFan]

Does the bucket have anything in it? Take everything out of the bucket (except water) and try it again. If there is a pump or something in the bucket, it may be leaking voltage. ???

The bucket doesn't have anything in it, except for a bit of sand in the bottom. No pumps or other electrical devices.

 

The bucket is just sitting on a 2x4 and maybe a piece of pvc:

 

You mentioned a solenoid. Do they have a capacitor that stores electrical voltage? maybe it discharged, now it is safe to touch.

As for the solenoid and capacitor, I really couldn't tell you, because I don't know. The pump is the Aquatec 8800 with the auto shut off switch, both seen here: Booster pump and auto shut off switch

 

The solenoid would be like the one seen on this page (second item down):

solenoid

 

If there are two not-similar metals (iron and copper for example) that are touching, they can create a small amount of electric current. Nothing like you are describing, however.

Maybe the metals idea comes from this somehow?

 

 

 

 

 

(grasping at straws on this one) Are you wearing rubber soled shoes? There could be a charge from somewhere else that is passing through your body INTO the water, if it is grounded by a pump or something.

Yes to rubber soled shoes, however I would think that the shocking would happen when I touched water anywhere in the room, not just that bucket...but I don't know.

 

Take a picture of it, a visual can give a lot more clues.

 

dsoz

 

Overall picture:

 

If you'd like to see a picture of something more specific, let me know and I'll try to get a shot of it.