When I bought my house, there was one of those reverse osmosis water filters under the kitchen sink. You know, the kind with the 5 gallon storage tank and the assembly with the 3 filters on it? Anyway, it was tapped into the cold water side of the faucet using a saddle valve that tapped directly into the faucet line. Long story short, the faucet leaked slightly less than my colander and had to be replaced. New faucet came with attached braided stainless steel lines. Needless to say, had to ditch the saddle valve. Well, I finally got around to getting the part to hook it up. Well, after listening to water go through the filter and straight into the drain, I did some research.

Apparently, for every gallon of water that goes into the storage tank, anywhere between 4 and 10 will go into the drain. The tank can take as long as 4 hours to fill and will only yield 15 - 30 gallons per day. The filters also have to be replaced periodically.

So, my question is, do you think its worth it to keep it if it works? I have no complaints about the water at my house. I do get some very minor water spots on my silverware when I wash it, but that's it. Its just me in the house, so the requirement wouldn't be high. Also, I know nothing about the history of this particular unit. It could need new filters, or they may have been changed right before I bought the house.

I turned the system on, and there don't appear to be any leaks. That said, I don't want to leave it on overnight unsupervised until I have a chance to monitor it during the day when I'm home. Oh, and I think the tank needs to be pressurized, but that's my fault. I played with the valve while I was trying to troubleshoot what was apparently normal opperation.

 

If that's true, that would be a DEFINITE turn-off for me. Total waste of water, especially if you're billed via a meter!! If the tap water unfiltered tastes fine to you, I would ditch the system. If anything, you'll have more room to store crap under your sink.

 

A good system shouldn't waste that much water but who knows what you've got. The tank should probably be about 7.5 psi.

It should be hooked up to the soft water otherwise it'll need filters more then the normal yearly. If its just you and you don't use a lot you could probably go with less often then yearly. There should be two pre filters. Particulate and carbon then the membrane which can last on average 5-7 years. There may be a 4th post carbon filter on the line to the faucet somewhere.

 

Well, I did a little fiddling around with it last night when I got home. The tank wasn't quite full when I went to bed, so I turned the valve back off. But I turned it on when I got up to let it finish. Apparently it did while I was out cleaning the garage. I ran a fair amount of water out of it to make sure the output line and sink fixture were flushed out. Even tried a glass of it. To be honest, I didn't notice a difference between it and tap water. I've got some dishes to do tonight when I get home. I'm going to try doing a final rinse on the silverware with it when I'm done and see if it spots. If nothing else, I may keep it around just for that.

Tony, I did have to pressurize the tank. That was the first thing I did last night before turning the valve back on. I don't have a highly accurate guage, but it should be around 8 psi right now. Also, I don't have a water softener, so that's not an issue. The water here is very good.