Under Sink RO System
- Thread starter spierceisu
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Have zero idea where you live, but that was done by Neal's Water Conditioning out of Mount Vernon, IA. Also, I did two 2.5 gallon tanks. You could just do a single tank and I think save a few hundred bucks and some space as well. I also have a buddy who did his but ran a separate line to his garage so he could do a spot free rinse when he washed his car. I didn't do that.
The Waterdrop I had installed is tankless. I added the Amazon link to my original post reply.
Central Iowa, so probably a bit of a drive for your guy- we just started looking into it. The concern was that we installed a water softener when we first moved in, and probably should have done an RO system at that time, but that was before CIWW and the water provider we’re on didn’t have an issue providing capacity to just our community, but now with an extra 600K as part of CIWW it’s a bigger issue. We’ve got space to mount tanks, which would make sense but if we had to put in 3-4 pillar type tanks similar to a water softener we would have issues
I wanna say our RO system was $3k when we built our house. Lines to both fridges and taps in the kitchen and basement bar. We have dual 2.5 gallon tanks. We've never run out of water.
One thing that a frighteningly small number of people do is sanitize their systems. Do that at minimum annually.
For people worried about taste...I would say our water has no taste. Our ice cubes are essentially clear.
One thing that a frighteningly small number of people do is sanitize their systems. Do that at minimum annually.
For people worried about taste...I would say our water has no taste. Our ice cubes are essentially clear.
You could hook up your main faucet, but that would require a ton of RO water with large tankage. I believe my guy said for every gallon of RO water, you have 2 gallons of wastewater, so your water bill could really skyrocket if you hooked it to your main sink. I don't know that it is necessary to use RO water to wash the dishes either.
I purchased an APEC system from Amazon. It easily fits under the kitchen sink with room to spare. Pretty easy install too if you are reasonably handy.
No, you actually aren't supposed to use your filter anymore. Depending on your fridge setup, you either need to buy a plug, a dummy filter, or some refrigerators can just take the filter out and it bypasses it. My Maytag was one that just bypasses it if you take the filter out, which was the ideal scenario. How you can test is by just taking your filter out and seeing if your spigot still pumps water. If it does, you don't need to buy a plug or anything, if it doesn't, then you need to get one of those two things.
I'm sure it depends on dual filtration vs bypass.
I've heard of people who have under the sink RO that then goes to their fridge where they either removed the filter unit in the fridge or (depending on the fridge model) had to put in a "dummy" filter.
I just put this very one in ($199 at Costco) this weekend. Yes the mineral "filter" makes it taste better.
I know about the filter because this is our 2nd system; the first one is for an aquarium and also feeds the refrigerator. I added the remineralization filter to the line feeding the fridge due to taste.
(for those curious, I added the under sink one because it was by far cheaper than running a new line from the existing to the undersink location; would have required severe drywall work)
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I believe there was another thread on this topic here within the past year or so if you do some digging with search function.
We are in SW Iowa on an old hand dug well (so shallow = near surface water, and concrete top is not 100% perfectly sealed) and put in an iSpring system from Amazon when we moved back to the farm full time in fall of 2023. Basically got an undersink system but installed it in the basement below the kitchen sink so there was less possibility of getting water into kitchen / cabinets, and added a UV stage to try to kill bacteria ahead of RO membrane. First couple years we ran it without remineralization, but it seemed like the more I read about that the more it seemed like maybe better to put some of that stuff back in... so when I changed the filters a couple months ago I added their remineralization/alkaline stage. Can't tell any real significant difference in taste either way.
Overall am happy with the iSpring system--filter cost is reasonable and as I understand it the housings are standard sizes that you aren't necessarily locked into iSpring filters if that were to change. I would suggest buying a cheap TDS meter to verify filter is working (need to check before remineralization stage to get accurate representation of how much PPM it's taking out).
We are in SW Iowa on an old hand dug well (so shallow = near surface water, and concrete top is not 100% perfectly sealed) and put in an iSpring system from Amazon when we moved back to the farm full time in fall of 2023. Basically got an undersink system but installed it in the basement below the kitchen sink so there was less possibility of getting water into kitchen / cabinets, and added a UV stage to try to kill bacteria ahead of RO membrane. First couple years we ran it without remineralization, but it seemed like the more I read about that the more it seemed like maybe better to put some of that stuff back in... so when I changed the filters a couple months ago I added their remineralization/alkaline stage. Can't tell any real significant difference in taste either way.
Overall am happy with the iSpring system--filter cost is reasonable and as I understand it the housings are standard sizes that you aren't necessarily locked into iSpring filters if that were to change. I would suggest buying a cheap TDS meter to verify filter is working (need to check before remineralization stage to get accurate representation of how much PPM it's taking out).
Certainly knowing the water source is great, but I would recommend checking the samples taken from their public water supply. There are some surface and alluvial systems that don't have a lot of nitrates in them. Here is a link for anyone who is interested.
PWS Samples - Iowa Drinking Water
programs.iowadnr.gov
