Drinking water Reverse Osmosis

trivetman

Bronze Supporter
Jul 14, 2017
739
Jenkintown, PA
Pool Size
24000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Does anyone have much experience with under sink RO filters? Theres a lot of brands out there and no way I can tell to figure out which might deliver water that tastes right.

We’re on a city water supply that is (hopefully) perfectly safe but definitely has a dirt taste to it. I put in an in-line filter that is not RO and the wife turned up her nose. Cant say I blame her on this one as its not as nice a taste as the Zero water pitcher which I am hoping to ditch cause I hate waiting for the water to filter through
 
I've had an "under sink" RO system for the last 20 years, although I mounted the RO system and reservoir tank in the basement.

I didn't buy my system from any of the big box stores or companies like Culligan. I found a company in Florida called "Air Water Ice". The systems run about 200 - 300. My advice is that if you have a refrigerator with water and ice, you need to make up for the pressure losses, get a system with a permiate pump.

I change the RO and final filter every 3 years and I change the three pre-filters yearly, The cost for three years of filters is less than 125.

I hope this helps.
 
BTW, I do testing on drinking water and one of the things that you look for is total dissolved solids. This is measured by the conductivity of water because pure water (which is impossible to produce) conducts no electricity. Most drinking water system has a conductivity of < 400 MMHO. I'm kind of lucky, our water comes into the house usually around 200 MMHO, and after the filter it is 4-6 MMHO, so my system has about a 98% efficiency at removing dissolved solids.

Most of the "taste" is chlorine or chloramines, and they are removed in the three pre-filters, 10 micron fiber filter, 5 micron solid charcoal filter and a 1 micron solid charcoal filter, then it passes thru the RO membrane, and finally before consumption it passes thru a granulated charcoal polishing filter.

My wife laughed at me for buying a new toy, now she criticizes other water, she even hates most bottled water now, she only likes the water that comes from our RO system.
 
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Thanks. Thats good info. The Zero-Water pitcher I am looking to get away from also says it reduces tds to zero. Not sure how true that really is but they provide a handy little meter to convince me it is true. Regardless the taste of that filter is pretty good and if they offered a plumbed version I’d fo with it. Hoping to find an RO system which gives a similar taste so Ill give them a call
 
We have the one from Lowe’s and have been very happy with it. We had it in our last house then put the bigger version in this house. It’s nice to just go to Lowe’s to get new filters. Our first one was with an RO company and it was a service call for new filters.
 
I used this system at my old house which was on a well. It worked great. The TDS of my water went from several hundred to about 30ppm.


Our water pressure wasn’t great, so I ended up adding a permeate pump. Probably less of an issue on city water.

I was able to supply a sink-mount faucet as well as my refrigerator water dispenser / ice maker.

And I actually had the pressure tank in my basement below the sink to save space under the cabinet.
 

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I know you put your order in, but if you change your mind or anyone else reads this I would say RO is overkill. Most filter systems with a two stage would be fine. This would include a pre-filter and charcoal filter. That would get you close to what you want probably. RO wastes more water, is lower water pressure, and actually removes desirable minerals your body needs. The RO replacement cells are a little spendy too. FWIW once your new RO cell expires after a year or two you could bypass it and just used the other components in your new system. HTH
 
I know you put your order in, but if you change your mind or anyone else reads this I would say RO is overkill. Most filter systems with a two stage would be fine. This would include a pre-filter and charcoal filter. That would get you close to what you want probably. RO wastes more water, is lower water pressure, and actually removes desirable minerals your body needs. The RO replacement cells are a little spendy too. FWIW once your new RO cell expires after a year or two you could bypass it and just used the other components in your new system. HTH
You might be right that RO is overkill, but it's the gold standard for water filtering, all the soda bottling plants, & breweries have some sort of RO system for their water supply.

The modern RO systems don't waste as much water as they did 30/40 years ago. When I first looked into RO systems in the late 80s, they wasted about 2 gallons to produce 1 gallon of pure water, because they were sending water to waste 24/7, now they have flow valves, so they only send water to waste while actually producing water, and if you want, you can capture the waste water and use it on potted plants or gardens, the water has no chlorine and it's better than for the plants than using hose water.

If water pressure is an issue, the make a permeate pump, which reduces system backpressure, this is recommended if you attach an ice maker to the RO system.

Prices for the filters and RO membrane cost me about $125 for a three year supply. I replace the three pre-filters every year and the RO membrane and post filter every 3 years. I test my drinking water regularly, and as long as I maintain the filter change schedule, I have not had any issues.

I'm not trying to change your mind, everyone gets to make their own decisions, but it's good to have good information to make educated decisions.
 
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