water filter recommendation?

[DonaldW]

Some tips on maintaining your R/O system that I have found works best over the years ....

Basic maintenance:
http://plumbing.about.com/od/fixtures/a/...8-0-ab_msb

If you are installing the system yourself, with the 5-filter assembly empty of water (and light) mark a place on the wall where the 2 mounting screws/nails will go and after marking, either use anchors or concrete nails (screws for wood) to mount it first to see that it fits and can be easily unhooked from the wall by lifting up and out and that the tubes are long enough for it to reach just slightly outside the doors under the sink, enough to straddle a container later. This is important when changing the filter, to be able to easily remove it from under the sink. Therefore it is important to leave the long tubing on the system that ships with it (don't try to be neat and cut the tubes short because the entire assembly has to stretch from under the sink during filter changes). I keep a 5 gallon bucket available for changing my filters. If you later try to change them with the unit on the wall, a lot of things are going to get wet. A very bad idea to cut the tubing too short. Any extra length of tubing can be secured with some sort of bread-style or cable-tie mechanism while the filter is in normal use and filters are not being replaced.

When it comes time to change the filters, after turning off both the water source and the tank valve (or letting all the stored water run out through the R/O faucet if you don't have a tank valve) you basically unhook the filter assembly off the wall (lifting it up and out) and pull it from under the sink, laying it cross-wise across the 5 gallon bucket just in front of the sink. You would then open each filter (twisting the canister loose) while allowing all the water to spill into the bucket and the old filter to drop out and into the bucket. The filter assembly will be heavy due to the water in the filter canisters (hopefully you followed the guide to turn off the water source as well :-). Now leave the o-rings in place due to their changing shape slightly over time and if you always pull them out, you can't always get them back in the same place when you replace the filters. Regardless it's good to keep a spare set of o-rings, especially if not living in the US.

Once all the filters are removed, I swish a small amount of bleach in the top portion of the filter assembly rack with the whole assembly inverted over the bucket. I swish the bleach back and forth in the filter canister top section and then rinse off the bleach into the bucket with some pure water that I have saved to the side. I also use bleach to pour and coat the inside of each canister, setting them in the sink and pouring the bleach from canister to canister while they are tipped like a beer mug and I continue to twist while pouring until their sides are all coated. (Technique to coat all the walls of the three filter canisters without wasting all the bleach.) Then I also rinse the canisters with some pure bottled water or water reserved from the filter beforehand. Complete the bleach and pure water rinse on all three canisters and insert each filter (1 sediment spun fabric and 2 carbon based) into the canisters you just cleaned while noting that the fiber sediment is installed as the first filter in line from the water source (you should see the tubing feeding this side goes up to the regular sink faucet connection). While screwing the filters on I either have an assistant hold the entire filter assembly upright (or between my knees if working alone) while I install each new filter with the filter in a straight up and down position (basically don't install these at an angle). The insertion of the filter canister onto the filter assembly in a vertical position will keep the filter element inside the canister from tipping to the side and not mating with the hole that is in the actual filter assembly. Basically the canister should easily slide with no resistence right up to where the threads match and are ready to screw in. If there is any resistance, the filter has probably tipped in the canister when installing.

Once all the filter canisters are screwed into the filter assembly hand tight (if you are strong you should tighten with a little pressure; if you are not strong you may have to tighten them with a tool). Once the three filter canisters are in place (you are not changing the membrane this time), the entire unit can be returned to the wall and water valves once again opened to check for leaks. Some people may elect to check for leaks while the unit lies over the bucket but this makes the unit a great deal more heavy and difficult to hook onto the mounting nails/screws, so I always elect to take my chances and hook it on the wall before opening the water valves again. If there is a leak, I unhook it, returning it to the bucket to check for problems.

If it's time to change the R/O membrane as well you will need to remove the tubing that attaches to the end of the R/O canister. Most times the cap can be unscrewed then by hand (hold it over the bucket) but since the regular canister tool does not fit this cap, you may need to secure a set of very large channel locks to get around and break the cap loose. Note this is often a two man job, having someone hold the base of the R/O membrane canister tube and another person with some large channel locks unscrewing the R/O membrane. Once the cap is off, more water will pour into the bucket. At this point you must take come conventional pliers and grab hold of the center hard plastic tubing that is part of the membrane and while twisting left/right on that membrane, pull it out of the tubing. It will be a tight fit. Drop the membrane and the water behind it into the bucket. Now I use a conventional baby bottle brush with some bleach to clean out the housing and cap and rinse them with pure water to get rid of the bleach. Now the new R/O membrane can be inserted by pushing it hard into the canister and pressing with your thumb until it resides as deep as the one you removed. Now return the cap of the membrane canister and twist it back on the canister until tight. Now find the tubing you removed from the connection on the membrane canister cap, and re-insert and tighten the connection for tubing you removed from the end. Remember when you replace the actual R/O membrane and after opening the water valves to supply the assembly, be sure to leave the R/O faucet on the sink open and dripping once the water is turned on and let the water trickle thorough the filter overnight to clear all the preservatives off the new membrane prior to use. The next morning the faucet should be closed and the R/O tank will begin to refill (if you emptied it for any reason). Note the R/O membrane filter is replaced every 2 years or as needed.

Now here is how to know when to change the filters. The set of three filters in the three canisters should be changed from 6 months to 2 years, depending on use, with 1 year being a good suggested point if you have no other indication they need it (no taste deterioration at all). The way to know to change them is if the water begins to have any taste to it whatsoever. You will find after years of use, you will begin to better know your water quality by comparing various sources of purified water. Basically purified water has zero taste. In the absolute worse case of holding off on changing the three canister filters, the water will begin to taste like lake water but of course that is an exaggeration.

Now the membrane is more tricky to know when it's time to be changed. You can buy special meter attachments to go in your system which can add to the cost and they will tell you when the R/O membrane (the filter inside the large sideways tube on top of the 3 regular filters) needs to be changed or you can use a visual method. First of all you have to train your eye using ice trays. If you have a bottle of distilled water and fill one ice tray and fill another ice try with tap water, when the ice freezes you will see that the distilled water produces see-through ice and the tap water produces white or cloudy ice. You might take a photo of the two, then toss the cubes from the tap water. Now over time you will watch the ice your filter produces and once the cubes start to become less clear or no longer see-through, then it's time to start looking for a new R/O membrane. This is on a cycle of about every 2 years.

The third filter to change is the very small tube-like in-line filter. which should be replaced with every other change of the 3 normal 10" canister filters.

Now as tedious as this sounds, after the first learning exercise of changing filter elements, you can do it in 20 minutes or less and it sure beats dealing with water bottles.

Tips on installing a booster pump.

Again, a booster pump is absolutely needed where home water systems are gravity feed (water tank on house and no high pressure from whole house water pump). A problem with these booster pumps is that they make some noise. This noise can be eliminated by following these installation procedures. Most of the noise will be coming from the tubing that leaves the pump and goes into the first stage (sediment/fiber filter canister) of the filter assembly. Now what I have done in my last installation of a booster system where insulation supplies were limited is use cable-TV wire anchors (half moons with a small nail) to secure this section of the filter's tubing to a wooden shelf under the sink. Otherwise this tube flaps up against something when the pump is operating normally because the booster pump moves water by sending it out in pulses. Unfortunately what securing this section of the tubing to something solid does is cause the filter assembly to lose its extendable tubing capability to allow removing the entire assembly from the wall (the inlet tube from the pump is secured to a shelf to prevent noise). If this section of the rattling tubing is secured, it has to be released by removing the cable-TV wire staples when the filter is changed, adding to the complexity of the process. Instead of using this method I would recommend experimenting with some noise insulators, perhaps using the soft foam rubber covering that Home Depot sells to wrap around the condensation line of a home air conditioning system. This should absorb any ratcheting noise coming from the tubing that runs from the pump output to the first stage of the filter assembly, and also prevent noise from this section of tubing slapping against anything under the sink to make noise.

Tips on servicing the additional UV lamp sterilizer or the Ceramic filter element.

(Add one or the other of these filters to provide an additional protection from biological agents.)

UV Filter: Most manufacturers recommend changing the lamp every year, which assumes a constantly glowing bulb. If you install the unit I recommended, the on/off pressure switch only lights the lamp when water is flowing and should make the bulb last a lot longer.
Constant on UV lamp model: http://www.stuff4water.com/when-was-the-...r-uv-lamp/
UV Lamp with pressure switch: Depends on use, the power supply of the UV lamp will normally indicate when the bulb is not working.
WARNING: Never look into a UV lamp with the naked eye - just like a tanning bed or welder, it can permanently damage the eye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of2gcbPL6k8

Ceramic filter: The ceramic filter addition will require that the ceramic filter be cleaned each time the filter assembly is torn down to replace the carbon or sediment filter, which basically involves scrubbing the filter element with a scotch brite pad ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94XKM4n5qCQ