Under cabinet water filter recs please

[ponytug]

The units I have been looking at have some sort of flushing business going on that is automatic. Apparently this is to prevent exactly the situation you describe. I know the theory of RO water purification and how the stuff that doesn't make it through the RO membrane gets concentrated and must be removed for the RO process to continue. This is one unit I am looking at: https://ecovivafilters.com/products/wp-ro-600g
It has a 600 gallon per day capacity which is way more than we would ever use and a 2.5:1 filtered water to waste water ratio. So for every 2.5 gallons of filtered water it produces it flushes 1 gallon down the drain. I can live with that. We don't drink that much water.
Eric

I hope that works out for you.

FWIW, they are currently out of stock of the replacement RO cartridges.

They claim to be able to handle hardness within the cartridge, so I hope that you let us know how it works out for you. I'm curious how long the cartridge lasts in real world usage.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Yander]

We've used this for over 10 years, and love it. I'm on my second one. Wife drinks the well water, no more carrying water.

 

[Tinhack]

Just to clarify things a bit, RO filters do remove/lower total dissolved solids (TDS) by having a reject water stream with the extra TDS in it and a purified (permeate) stream with the clean(er) purified water, but for any sort of membrane life, they need to be supplied with softened water.

Water softeners have resins inside that exchange sodium ions for magnesium or calcium. Some resin mixtures can even remove some of the sulfate in the feed water. That means that while the TDS stays the same, there aren't insoluble hard water deposits on fixtures or clothing.

Residential Water Softeners - Homeowner Systems | Hellenbrand

Reduce minerals left behind by standard filtration and solve hard water issues affecting your home with one of our residential water softeners.

www.hellenbrand.com

After water softening, an RO filter (membrane) then takes the sodium, and many other ions 90+% out of the water. Our RO takes out 98.7% of all the dissolved solids, but that is very much a YMMV number as the overall efficiency has a lot to do with what exactly the ions and counter ions are in the feed water, the feed pressure difference, the membrane quality and age.

I used to make ultrapure water for work. There are lots of ways to skin the cat, but lots of variables. Drinking water is pretty easy. Kidney dialysis water is harder. Other forms of pure water can be fantastically hard, like clean water for making semiconductors.

But back to @etpm's question: I think it is a question of cost and hassle. Buying soft bottle water is low capital, high hassle, adding a water softener and RO is a capital investment, and maintenance commitment (buying salt, changing filters and membranes) and will not fit under a sink, but might be plumbed to give you soft water throughout the house for improved laundry and ease of cleaning, as well as feed and RO unit for low TDS water.

All the best,

Peter

That's still a crock. You would have replumb your house for selective use of the "soft water". This means you're still left with TDS cleanup where SO is not plumbed. You might also find out you have to recharge your softener three times a day to keep up with the hardness. (Don't ask how I know.) Reverse Osmosis is also expensive and wasteful. There's a five to one ratio of wastewater to "good" water. For every gallon of good water, you dump five gallons of wastewater. The rest gets flushed to your septic system or dumped on the ground. Unless you're lucky enough to be connected to a sewer system. The same goes for the charge cycles of a water softener. The wastewater will kill grass, trees and plants. Or fill your septic system and kill it too.

 

[ponytug]

That's still a crock. You would have replumb your house for selective use of the "soft water". This means you're still left with TDS cleanup where SO is not plumbed. You might also find out you have to recharge your softener three times a day to keep up with the hardness. (Don't ask how I know.) Reverse Osmosis is also expensive and wasteful. There's a five to one ratio of wastewater to "good" water. For every gallon of good water, you dump five gallons of wastewater. The rest gets flushed to your septic system or dumped on the ground. Unless you're lucky enough to be connected to a sewer system. The same goes for the charge cycles of a water softener. The wastewater will kill grass, trees and plants. Or fill your septic system and kill it too.

Crock how?

 

[etpm]

I hope that works out for you.

FWIW, they are currently out of stock of the replacement RO cartridges.

They claim to be able to handle hardness within the cartridge, so I hope that you let us know how it works out for you. I'm curious how long the cartridge lasts in real world usage.

All the best,

Peter

I posted that link as an example. Looking online I see several similar units. I will need reviews and also need to see about spare filters. I wasn't thinking about spares really until you posted that the replacement cartridges are out of stock. Thanks for that.
Eric

 

[etpm]

Folks, what I'm looking for is convenience. We go through maybe 3 gallons per week of water cooler water. Maybe 4 gallons. So any RO unit I get wouldn't be generating much waste water. And I can fill the water bottles in the same room where the water cooler is. So they don't need to get lugged very far. Right now I have to drive to the store to get water and half the time some is already getting water so I have to wait. And then I have to lug the full bottles from the driveway, along the front walkway to the front stairs, and then up the front stairs. I have bone on bone joints in both wrists so lugging the full bottles hurts. I won't save any money with the RO system, but will save time and effort. And besides, I'm retired, I can afford it, so why not take it easy?
Eric

 

[5030]

That's still a crock. You would have replumb your house for selective use of the "soft water". This means you're still left with TDS cleanup where SO is not plumbed. You might also find out you have to recharge your softener three times a day to keep up with the hardness. (Don't ask how I know.) Reverse Osmosis is also expensive and wasteful. There's a five to one ratio of wastewater to "good" water. For every gallon of good water, you dump five gallons of wastewater. The rest gets flushed to your septic system or dumped on the ground. Unless you're lucky enough to be connected to a sewer system. The same goes for the charge cycles of a water softener. The wastewater will kill grass, trees and plants. Or fill your septic system and kill it too.

I agree with the 'wastewater' from a softener because it will be saline as it's taking away the brine solution that reacts with the medium in the softener tank to exchange the calcium with the salt (sodium). Far as RO wastewater from the flushing of the membrane, that water is no different from what you are putting into the unit.

Far as an undersink filter is concerned. I'd purchase the largest one available that will fit. I run a 'Cumo' 30" filter under our sink and I use melt blown 10 micron cartridges, buy them by the case actually because in quantity, they cost less.

 

[Spindifferent]

Folks, what I'm looking for is convenience. We go through maybe 3 gallons per week of water cooler water. Maybe 4 gallons. So any RO unit I get wouldn't be generating much waste water. And I can fill the water bottles in the same room where the water cooler is. So they don't need to get lugged very far. Right now I have to drive to the store to get water and half the time some is already getting water so I have to wait. And then I have to lug the full bottles from the driveway, along the front walkway to the front stairs, and then up the front stairs. I have bone on bone joints in both wrists so lugging the full bottles hurts. I won't save any money with the RO system, but will save time and effort. And besides, I'm retired, I can afford it, so why not take it easy?
Eric

We've been using this system for many years now. Works well, easy to use and maintain. Recommend it for a relatively simple system.

Whirlpool UltraEase Reverse Osmosis Filtration System WHAROS5 - The Home Depot

Deliver pure and safe drinking water to anywhere in your home by choosing this Whirlpool UltraEase Reverse Osmosis Filtration System.

www.homedepot.com

 

[5030]

Don't know if this applies to the W'pool system but any RO system that lacks a booster pump that puts extra pressure on the RO membrane, the output will always be less because the water pressure the system without a booster pump delivers is much less. The RO membrane relies on pressure differential to work. Why I suspect some systems are less than others. Booster pumps and their related controls add to the initial cost of any unit.