Reverse Osmosis Water Systems

[OVERKILL]

I'm looking to buy one and was wondering what other peoples experience have been.
I would install it under the kitchen sink.

How does the water taste?
Does it taste much different than bottled water?

All information appreciated.

 

[vi edit]

Tastes great...less filling!

Seriously, they are nice. I've had an under sink at one home and at my current house it's a more complicated one that is in the basement. The under sink one had a 5 gallon tank and the basement one right now is 10 gallons.

Taste wise I can't tell a lot of difference between the two. It's very clean, "pleasant" water. Equivalent to a Dasani bottled water.

My biggest complaint with the under sink one is that it was a GE branded one and the filters were a HUGE pain the butt to replace. It was a soft plastic housing that was easy to strip with the wrench they gave you to unscrew. I lost a lot of blood and skin on my knuckles swapping out filters.

The bigger one I have now is a Culligan unit that is much easier to replace. You do it by hand.

It's not cheap to operate depending on your source water. I was burning through $20 in filters every 3 months or so on the cheaper one. My current one can almost go a year without a swap.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

you can drink tap water where I live.

 

[trmiv]

I have an RO/DI system for my reef tank. Sometimes I'll bypass the DI and use the RO for drinking water if I don't have any bottled water. Tastes OK, but I don't have one of the post processing "taste" filters on there since it's not really for drinking.

 

[pyonir]

IMO, the water tastes the same as typical bottled water. We had a faucet on the sink and had it hooked up to the fridge dispenser.

 

[CoachB]

Does it taste much different than bottled water?

Depends...some bottled waters are just ozonated spring water, some are treated tap water, some have minimal treatment, some are lab pure, some have stuff (sodium, calcium, manganese) added back in after treatment to make them taste "natural". Basically, bottled water can be just about anything due to the lack of quality/safety regulations.

I wouldn't be surprised to discover that the FDA (the regulating authority over bottled water) would allow horse piss to be sold as bottled water after a little filtering and disinfection.

In fact, if you think about it, the water you drink today (from whatever source) has probably passed through some animals kidneys/bladder at some time in the past.

Drink it out of the tap...it's as safe as bottled, if not more so. And definately more closely regulated AND much, much cheaper!


Spend your money on defensive driving, or a home alarm system, or smoking cessation classes, or a better diet, or a health club membership. Those things will actually affect your lifespan.

My $0.02 water provider rant

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: CoachB

Does it taste much different than bottled water?

Depends...some bottled waters are just ozonated spring water, some are treated tap water, some have minimal treatment, some are lab pure, some have stuff (sodium, calcium, manganese) added back in after treatment to make them taste "natural". Basically, bottled water can be just about anything due to the lack of quality/safety regulations.

I wouldn't be surprised to discover that the FDA (the regulating authority over bottled water) would allow horse piss to be sold as bottled water after a little filtering and disinfection.

In fact, if you think about it, the water you drink today (from whatever source) has probably passed through some animals kidneys/bladder at some time in the past.

Drink it out of the tap...it's as safe as bottled, if not more so. And definately more closely regulated AND much, much cheaper!


Spend your money on defensive driving, or a home alarm system, or smoking cessation classes, or a better diet, or a health club membership. Those things will actually affect your lifespan.

My $0.02 water provider rant

I see your point and agree with you for the most part, but i don't drink filtered/bottled water because of the health benefits...i drink it because of taste. I don't care for the taste of tap water at all.

 

[Maximus96]

i bought my under-sink unit from costco for about $150. easy to install and the water tastes like bottle. another plus is when we cook, we use the filtered water to boil and it never leaves any spots in the stainless pots.