APEC WATERSystems ROES-50 Essence Series Top Tier 5-Stage WQA Certified Ultra Safe Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Filter System

This is an absolute must-have during our unfortunate period of being forced to stay home (forced in a sense, but you know what I mean). Given, our install was within the breakroom at the office here, but some of us will be buying into these for our homes as well as it keeps us from having to worry about finding water in stores with so many hoarders selfishly taking all of the bottles for themselves. Why bother when you can have unlimited clean water at home without ever having to leave the house to buy more?For one, the price of this is pretty good for what you get. It is going to cost you less than subscribing to a Sparklets delivery service, while not much more than filling your jugs up manually at a local water store (I won't compare against the vending machine fillers as those are just plain nasty). Now, add the fact that you don't have to drive anywhere for it, or have to wait for a truck to bring it to you. The water is simply always there.Also, the price of the filters is quite reasonable. Don't get me wrong. They aren't incredibly cheap, but their quality thus far seems to be quite good and we appreciate that they aren't gauging customers like refrigerator manufacturers do with their (useless) filters (these are far better since they actually work).We had to take a (very detailed) vote with an email passed around, on which model should be installed in the breakroom. It was a toss-up between this one and the 6-stage option, which simply added alkalization. However, the final vote leaned heavily toward the 5-stage as the body needs some of its acidity to function properly. Thus too much (drinking nothing but) alkaline water could actually be a bad thing. So 5-stage option it was.Installation isn't too difficult, although it was a little more for our situation since 80% of the space under the sink (the only place we were allowed to put it) is located behind the guts to the sink without any way of actually getting back there (an odd design but looks nice on the outside). So we had to remove more than half the plumbing down there in order to get to the valves/supply in the back. Regardless, with 2-3 of us helping at any given time, he had the entire project (and the extension kit to the fridge, seen running through the cabinets in a frew of the attached images) done in around an hour and a half or so. This included a number of social distractions. As long as you are confident in yourself, you will be fine. Just remember, don't be shy with the teflon tape. If you see threads where something screws together, go ahead and apply some (even if the instructions don't say to). You can never be too safe when it comes to preventing leaks! They also give you enough, which is nice.It asks you to flush the system for the first time by letting the tank fill for 2-3 hours and then flush it out the faucet for 5-6 minutes. This is because the carbon filter initially causes the water to gain some blackness to it. This is true, although you will want to do this twice in our opinion (maybe even three times to be sure). After that, things seem nice and pure. Regardless, after the first flush, it is safe even if you see a little of the black dust left over. It's just the carbon dust from the filter and harmless. If you see what looks like tiny white residue floating on the top, that is also harmless--those are just micro-bubbles caused by the air/pressure in the line (they eventually go away).The PPM (parts per million) of the normal city water coming to the tap was close to 500 PPM (Las Vegas tap water is a bit nasty). The (useless and expensive) fridge filter lead to around 460-470 PPM and similar taste. The RO processed water is around 9-12 PPM. So this seems to be working quite well so far. As mentioned, we also got the additional kit to break off to the fridge as well. It took a little while for the fridge to flush things out so it was only using the new water, but now it has the same PPM.We will make sure to update if anything changes, but so far, we are loving this and there is many of us who plan to buy into one at home.-- Update 05/07/2020 --So far, everything has been working fantastically. No complaints from anyone, including on the taste. We have also uploaded a few images now that Amazon has returned the option for customer reviews.**If you have found our review helpful, please vote it as helpful below so I know. This helps me provide quality feedback in the future.

Up until the pandemic, we had been using a large volume of bottled water every week. Since it has become risky to return to the store every time we are out of water, it seemed logical that a reverse osmosis system would mitigate that risk. Installation of the APEC system was not difficult, and I spread the work out over two afternoons. The first afternoon was spent boring a hole in our granite countertop. I used a Milwaukee 1" diamond hole saw purchased at our local home improvement store. I followed the recommendations found on YouTube for boring granite. I made a circular well around the drill site with plumbers putty to hold cooling water for the hole saw. This worked out well in terms of eliminating all of the granite dust and in keeping the hole saw cool. In keeping with the hole saw directions, the hole was started by boring at a 45 degree angle until the hole saw caught the granite. Then, the hole saw was carefully raised to vertical to complete the boring operation. The 1" hole was barely large enough to accommodate the air gap faucet that I purchased to replace the faucet that was supplied with the APEC RO unit. I would recommend boring a 1 1/4" hole. The faucet that I used was a Kingston Brass Concord Collection KSAG8198DL Reverse Osmosis System Filtration Water Air Gap Faucet. It has a long lasting Ceramic Disk Cartridge. I selected an air gap faucet to protect the APEC RO membrane from a drain backup. This is the same protection provided for dishwashers. Because the RO discharge water has to pass through the faucet air gap, the air gap inlet uses the supplied 1/4" tubing, but the air gap outlet uses 3/8" tubing. I ordered some John Guest 3/8" Food Grade Polyethylene Tubing from APEC. The discharge quick connect drain saddle supplied with the unit is 1/4" and that had to be replaced with a 3/8" drain saddle, also available from APEC. That requires that a 3/8" hole be drilled in the sink drain line. The drain tubing should be cut as short as possible while still providing serviceability. If the drain tubing forms a large loop below the level of the drain saddle, the air gap will not drain properly, and discharge water will leak from the air gap onto the countertop. Please note that this drain line requirement is only true when an air gap faucet is used. If the APEC supplied faucet is used, there will be no air gap and no air gap leak problem will occur. When connecting to the supply needle valve, it is important to remember to slide the compression nut over the supply tubing first, then the sleeve and tubing insert. Don't over-tighten the compression nut on the supply needle valve. All of the items described above can be ordered from Amazon. Installation went smoothly by following the detailed instructions found in the installation manual. After installation and system flush I measured dissolved solids of 19 ppm. I am told that anything under 100 ppm is excellent. With a new the calcium carbonate pH+ filter the water pH measured 9.3 which is alkaline. That's exactly what we were looking for. That pH is the same as is found in premium bottled waters. You would have to pay around $16.00 a gallon for those. The maintenance schedule is clearly defined in the installation manual, and the replacement intervals will depend upon the raw water quality. Whenever installing or replacing the filter elements, disposable gloves should be used in order to prevent the introduction of bacteria into the system. One thing that I did not find in the installation manual was an end-to-end sanitization procedure to be performed when it is time to replace all of the filters at roughly a 1 year interval. For that you will have to look for guidance elsewhere. Bacteria has a tendency to grow on charcoal media and that may be why APEC offers a UV lamp solution on some of their systems. APEC cautions not to inject chlorine into the system to clean it. That will destroy the RO membrane. However, whenever the filters are replaced, the housings should be thoroughly cleaned with soap and water.A few words about water pressure after reinstalling the system at our new home that is on a private well. There are times when the water pressure drops below 40 PSI and the RO system will run continuously for hours at a time. In order to mitigate this problem and to conserve water, we ordered a water driven permeate pump from APEC. APEC maintains that it will work to pressures as low as 30 PSI, and I will revise this review as soon as I have had an opportunity test it. The downside of any RO system is that is discharges more waste water than the amount of pure water it produces. That can increase the amount of water being drained into a septic system if there is one in use. If a water softener precedes the RO system, the salt that the RO system removes will be discharged into the sink drain. That will discharge some amount of salt into the septic tank. In such cases it may be better to discharge the RO system drain line outdoors and into a dry well along with effluent from the water softener. Draining brine into a septic system is never a good idea, and in many locales it is prohibited.One other problem that we experienced during reinstallation was that the needle valve on the water supply inlet side would not shut off. It appeared as though the needle valve had become pitted or corroded during its brief 4 months of use in Florida. It became necessary to replace the needle valve that is only available by buying a complete standard feed adapter. Next time it happens, I will buy a different style of adapter that incorporates a different type of valve such as a ball valve. These are available from other RO system suppliers on Amazon.A few words about radon. Since writing the original review, we have moved to a house that is on a private well. We moved the RO system with us. The water softener that is ahead of the RO system introduces sodium that is very easily removed by the RO system. Our well water also contains dissolved radon gas. The small charcoal filters that form a part of the RO system are not effective for removing radon gas from well water. If there is radon in the water, it should be removed before the the water enters the RO system. Then, the radon will be concentrated in a larger activated charcoal filter at a location far from the kitchen where the RO system is usually installed. Large activated charcoal tanks are available that will provide radon mitigation for the whole house provided that the dissolved radon concentration is less than 5,000 pCi/l - in our case 3,760 pCi/l. For dissolved radon levels greater than 5,000 pCi/l water aeration and outdoor venting is recommended, although these systems can also promote bacterial growth.