Home Improvement

I started with a cheap kit from a company that no longer exists. Over the last 15 years I have added and upgraded parts. I would say buy what you can afford and then upgrade as you go. The uv and remineralizers are nice to have but not needed. Just be sure to get a 5 stage to start. 3 stage pre filters plus membrane and charcoal. Another good upgrade is a permeate pump, it boosts the efficiency and saves water on the waste. I have my waste water fed out to water my garden in the summer.

I once even tried to add a Deionization filter before the minerals that way it was almost 0ppm tds before adding back the minerals but it seemed to destroy my mineral cart and made my water smell fishy.

I am not an expert just a homeowner with 15 years of filtering my own water.

I’ve got this one for almost 4 years ango and have been happy with it.

https://www.ispringwatersystems.com/product/ispring-rcc7p-ak-under-sink-6-stage-reverse-osmosis-drinking-filtration-system/

I have it hooked up to the fridge and a RO tap by the sink. a couple of things I would tell you is get a bigger tank than what it comes with (2.5 gal). And don’t install it under the sink because it’s hard to get at the filters to change them and the pump can be noisy when refilling the tank.

Installed an All American RO from US Water Syatems. Been pretty happy with it, no issues in 2 years and their how-to videos and customer support is excellent if you want to install it yourself. Even bought one for my parents house. The 6 stage version includes a remineralization step, they call it Livation.

I have a Watts RO system. It's been working without issue for 15 years now. What I like about it is it's not really a "Watts" but rather Watts is like a PC brand made up of interchangeable parts. Everything is standard based on hose diameter. You can add or change whatever you want at any time from any other brand as long as it uses the same diameter quick connect tubes. Last year I added a remineralization that wasn't part of the original system.

If the basement under the kitchen is unfinished, install the system high up on the wall under the kitchen. (High up to minimize head loss) Maintenance becomes trivial when you have room to work on it. The previous owner had it installed under the sink. We didn't realize it when buying the house but because it was tucked at the back under the sink, it had been leaking for years. Half the kitchen needed to be gutted and rebuilt because of mold.

Are you sure that your water supply won't install a PFAS/PFOS removal system in the next few years? If they do then your investment will have been for naught. It took my town's supply about two years to get a system installed and running.

During a boil water advisory that lasted more than a week we got a water drop brand RO system (the G3P800). It doesn't have a tank but it instead uses a pump to do RO under a higher pressure so it outputs water fast enough to fill up a cup on demand, and a cooking pot if you're not impatient. It came with a UV sterilizer, remineralization was an addon so we skipped it, especially since I prefer the taste that way and because I also use the RO water in our humidifiers and espresso machine where scale is a hassle. I'm a little biased because they accidentally refunded me so I got it for free, but it's worked perfectly since we got it, and everything needed to install it was included (we just separately got a drain line adapter that lets us connect the waste line to the dishwasher drain so we could avoid modifying anything in our rental as the included adapter wants you to drill into the drain pipe). I have several TDS meters and the faucet's included readout matches at usually 2-5, and I've used the water in my humidifiers 24/7 for months and still haven't accumulated more than a couple days worth of regular water scale in any of them.

Oh and it also has a 3:1 tap to drain ratio which is nice.

I used to have a simple 3 stage under sink filter, so unfortunately I can't really compare to other RO systems.