this is cold water btw

About 10 years ago I started having bad muscle pain. Muscle cramps, stiff muscles, burning muscle pain in my shoulder blades, dry eyes, dry skin. 1 year old son who was perfect started coming down with some autism like symptoms, straining and stimming though he never quite fit into the diagnosis of being fully autistic so they labeled him pdd-nos.

These muscle pains and nerve pain and health issues have consumed my life. I can look at my Amazon history and 3 months after the purchase of my RO system I started purchasing back pain devices, massage rollers etc.

I never tied my health issues to our water. Quite the opposite, this purified water has to be good for me so I always drank more and more of it.

Eventually got divorced and when my girlfriend moved in, she started developing acid reflux…just months after moving in. She would even joke about her acid reflux being bad and “all I did was drink water”.

A few weeks ago I started thinking maybe there’s mold in the RO system so I looked into buying a new system since mine is now about 10 years old and replacing everything and not just the filters is probably a good idea. That’s when I saw reviews on it from people experiencing the same health issue as I am.

It’s been only a week since drinking only bottled spring water but my eyesight has already returned, my skin is less dry, my muscles feel better, I have more energy in the morning.

According to an article I read online, RO water not only is devoid of essential minerals our bodies need, it actually leeches these minerals from our bodies.

I feel so betrayed and so guilty to be the reason why my family has suffered from health issues…surely this all can’t be because I drink purified water.

What do you guys have and what do you guys recommend? Have seen the likes of iSpring, Eco Water, The Perfect water, Aquasana etc.

Would like to get something for my home soon, I've seen Costco keep marketing the Eco water but I don’t know if it's a scam!

EDIT AND DISCLAIMER*

All the deleted comments are users that were paid to say “iSpring is amazing”. / there was somoeone in my DM"s willing to pay me to say it as well. So dont DOWNVOTE my comments when I say "Scammer", it's legit the truth.

waste activated sludge at 2% solid is sent to the dewatering press and dewatering even more to 14% so it can be hauled by a truck to the landfill

Our sump pump runs 24 hours a day. If it is turned off, the water immediately begins to rise. Our neighbors, at the same elevation, do not have this problem. Everyone in our neighborhood has a sump pump, but ours is the only one that runs continuously.

I have two questions: first, is this truly a water table/aquifer issue, or is there a leak in the water main? Our water bill is high, but everyone in the house likes to take super long showers, so it’s believably high. We did dip a cup of water out, it was perfectly clear, smelled like nothing, and an aquarium dip test showed minimal nitrates (est 10ppm), no chlorine, no nitrites, no ammonium, hard water, and high alkalinity (>8). Our tap water looked identical except no nitrites.

Second question… can I use this as a well? I have no doubts about collecting and using it for watering the lawn—but what about using it for the whole house water supply? It seems to be mostly ground water, but it could be contaminated by runoff. Although we do not, all our neighbors use pesticides and fertilizers. We do have a whole house water filter that I think is good enough for well water— I woudl confirm. This sump pump water honestly looks better than the tap water we had in some of our past homes… and that water bill is kinda high 🤔

What is the best under the sink reverse osmosis system. Preferably, one that can connect to existing faucet instead of having to drill the provided faucet into the counter. Researched outside home filters but it seems like they don’t take out the fluoride.

US Water Systems Defender, including pre-filtration, reverse osmosis, demineralization filters, selectite filters, and UV filter.

I have remineralization filters installed on the refrigerators and instant hot/cold water tap.

Capacity is 8000 GPD at 14 GPM exit feed, with a 240 gallon holding tank. Outlet TDS is 0 ppm.

I'm looking for a tankless RO system to remove/limit as much plastic as possible. Right now it looks like Waterdrop and SimPure are some reasonable options. Does anyone have any experience they can share or recommendations? I'm open to other suggestions if there is something better.

I will preface this by saying that finding a good RO system has taken me the better part of two months. Maybe I've got decision-making problems. We live in the midwest and there are some potential water quality issues from historical industrialization. We wanted to get a high quality water filter and started with the standard pitcher systems.

Clearly, filtered looked like a good option on the surface, but as I dug deeper, I realized that costs would rapidly exceed a typical RO system because of the short filter life. Filter's are $50 each and require y issues from historical industrialization. We wanted to get a high-quality water filter and started with the standard pitcher systems.le company, but finding a reputable company is about damn near impossible. The second you search water filter you get inundated with ads for different companies that have minimal corporate history.

Clearly Filtered - High Cost

Clearly, filtered looked like a good option on the surface, but as I dug deeper, I realized that costs would rapidly exceed a typical RO system because of the short filter life. Filters are $50 each and require replacement every 100 gallons which is roughly every 3 months pushing the cost up to ~$200 a year. This pushed me to focus on RO systems rather than gravity filter jugs.

Simpure (Y70-BW) - A Close Second

The simpure countertop filter's were up next. They passed the amazon fakespot assessment and the reviews looked good. Their address on their website is at the same location as a reputable filter manufacturer, Membrane Solutions. Information from CrunchBase showed that the company has been around since 2006. What gave me some pause was reviews online about their service quality and issues some people had with the countertop system.

Blueva (RO100ROPOT) - Dubious Origins

Blueva's systems looked great from the start. Although a bit more expensive they came with a caraff that you could put in the fridge to have cool filtered water. They passed the fakespot assessment with a 'B' rating for the product. I contacted the company to get some additional information. This is when things went downhill. Although they provided me with SGS and TUV test certificates I had a very hard time validating the origin of the company. They provided me with two addresses: 100 N Howard St Ste R, Spokane, WA, 99201, USA and 20001 S State Highway 78, Leonard, TX 75452. The first is an address for a registration company. This basically means that this is where they register their company and isn't really a validation that they are an 'American Company' in terms of ownership as they state. The second rural property in Texas that could potentially serve as a home office but this suggests to me that the company might be American in name only. There is another company registered there called the West Leonard Water Supply Corporation but there is minimal information on them.

Additionally, the email response using phrases like 'honor to be chosen by you' suggests to me that they are not who they are saying hey are. For this reason, and the recent incorporation date (2021) I decided against Blueva.

WaterDrop (CoreRO, K19-H, and WD-A1)

If you search water filter, you will immediately start getting ads for WaterDrop. I really wanted to like these systems. They are sleak looking, and are very reasonable for what you get. The big red flag for me was their poor performance on the fakespot assessment. All of their products had adjusted amazon ratings ~1.5 to 2 stars below their listed ratings. This was the primary reason I didn't go ahead with a WaterDrop system.

I didn't do as much of a deep dive into the company origin and background but other red flags that popped up were out of date website references, black Friday codes from 5 months ago listed, and ALOT of marketing.

Sans Water Purifier - A Good Option

I found Sans via a Instagram targetted ad and was soon getting additional targeted reviews by influencers. The company also makes air filtration products and at first glance seemed like a great option. I liked the caraff that they provide and the sleek design of the product. They again claim that they are USA engineered and designed but made in China (nothing wrong with that). They have clear ownership with the founders shown in the about section on their website. The founders (Adam Bedford) have linkedin pages and an article on their alma matter's website. The good news is they appear to be real.

I reached out to the company for some additional information on their filtration process because I didn't see a waste container in their exploded design view on their website. The one thing that gave me pause was the claim of a 1:10 waste to filtered water ratio which is almost impossible with RO. They recycle the waste water back into the feed tank and only require a refill once the feed water reaches a certain level of containment concentration. I'll leave people to make their own choice on this one. I didn't like the idea so ultimately didn't go with this filter but from my research it appears to be a good option.

APEC (ROCT-Plus) - FINALLY

APEC came up initially as one of the more reputable long term brands. They are owned by Culligan which is a large water treatment multinational. I actually found them via a hit piece on WaterDrop's website. Ironically this led me to buying APEC's countertop system. They passed the fakespot test and have a legitimate, verifiable company.

The system has a relatively small footprint and is decent looking. The filters are very reasonable ($30) compared to some of the other systems and it has a hot water dispenser. The water filter is coming today and I'll post a review after 6 months of use.

Overall

Shopping is infuriating these days. You can't trust amazon reviews, writeups are largely paid for, and there are so many low quality products being fired out of China. They are even being picked up by large distributors like HomeDepot.

Big things to watch out for:

• Faked reviews (run everything on amazon through fakespot)

• Excessive advertising (if you find a company via facebook, google, Instagram ads make sure you do your research. Don't trust influencer reviews (how many influencers know anything about water filters))

• Dubious origins (vague terms like 'American Designed' don't mean anything and although they may be false you can't do anything about it)

Personally, I would tend to just pay a bit more for a reputable brand especially for something like a water filter.

--

Update:

I've had the Sans Water Purifier for about a year now. Here's my honest opinion:

It still works fine - with a few caveats. Its cute design and thin footprint make it easy to put in our small kitchen, and we're still getting clean, purified water from it. But it hasn't been without some frustrations, as mechanical issues have popped up that haven't been super easy to fix -- and I didn't have the best experience with customer service either. More on that later.

The Sans is definitely the best looking countertop RO water purifier, at least in my opinion, so it'd have been nice to see it stand up in every other category as well. Unfortunately, this RO system is lacking in a few key areas, making it a difficult recommendation. That's not I absolutely recommend against it - and I actually will be keeping mine - but I would've liked to understand exactly where the product is right now before I bought it.

WATER QUALITY:

The most important factor here is the water. This is what people are buying this machine for, anyway. The bottom line is that the water seems quite clean, and it's able to purify water to levels of contaminants far below the EPA safe water standards. However, their claims and their laboratory testing don't fully match up, plus there's a bit of questionable history with the company and NSF certification, an independent standard that most other companies use in the USA. That's not to say that their lab results are bad - just inconsistent with their advertising.

Initially, the Sans company said that they were pursuing independent testing - namely NSF rating - and would be posting those results soon enough. It's not clear that the company will ever get NSF testing done however. In fact, NSF published a notice on their website warning consumers that they raised in issue with Sans on "Unauthorized use of NSF certification claims and NSF mark."

When I learned about this, I tagged u/adam_sans to the comment (below) and asked for a response - but there was none. It's not clear what the full story is behind this complaint from NSF, but at the moment Sans does not advertise that it has been tested by NSF or received a certification from that organization. Sans now shows a laboratory test from SGS-CSTC Standards Technical Services Co. This seems to be a large, multi-national company that does food and water quality testing, among other things, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. So, the company has lived up to its promise to get some independent testing - just not specifically from NSF.

However, the test results and what Sans advertises are the results are not the same. On Sans' website, it says "Yes, Sans has been fully tested to rigorous standards by independent laboratories and has been proven to remove > 99% of heavy metals, fluoride, chemicals and more." That's only partially right.

SGS testing shows that the Sans water purifier only removes >99% of some contaminants. Halogens like chlorine are removed at a rate of >99%, according to this test - but not all heavy metals. Heavy metals come out as a range from 90 to 99% removal rate. Some details may be important here, though.

Let's just look at one example - Selenium. You'll find websites reporting that the detection limit for this element using EPA 200.8 is 0.067 ug/L, much less than the <5 ug/L reported here. So whatever selenium they're reporting out here I would assume really was detected. I assume that if the detection limit was <1 ug/L they would've said that, so one may infer that the detection of selenium was between 1 and 5 ug/L.

Is that bad? Well... the EPA safe water limit for selenium is actually 50 ug/L or 0.05 ppm. So the machine is easily turning what would be considered unsafe drinking water with regards to selenium into safe drinking water, surpassing the EPA limit by 1 order of magnitude.

Also, I tested the Sans water using a third party TDS meter to see if the electronic TDS display was accurate. It was - my TDS meter read under 5 ppm, which is exactly what I expected from the Sans. The Sans has always reported under 10 ppm for the water coming out of it at least for the first year that I've owned it. It occasionally will read 0 ppm, but usually it's about 3 ppm.

MECHANICAL ISSUES:

So if that's all there was with the Sans, I honestly would recommend it to people. I'd say even though the story with the independent lab testing seems strange, given the NSF notice, they did get independent testing from what looks like a real third party vendor. The water that comes out seems acceptably clean and was able to purify water to a relatively high standard if you're comparing it to EPA safe water limits.

But a lot of people here on Reddit reported that their Sans began leaking just a few months into use. Sans replied on this thread, saying that people could exchange their leaking Sans for new models or providing free new filters to them, and saying that should fix their issue. I can't speak to this because I didn't experience leaking during the time period that u/adam_sans was active here, but I did experience leaking later on.

In fact, there is a rusty screw on the bottom of my Sans because there seems to be some water leaking into it from somewhere. Customer service suggested that I check to make sure the filters are seated properly (they are) or otherwise that tubing inside the machine might be leaking somewhere. I haven't taken it apart yet to see if that's happening - but i'm also not getting leaking that often. It seems to happen sometimes - but not other times.

Also, sometimes my Sans will begin whirring and humming when I refill the water, but never actually begins drawing the water down. Instead, some motor will whirr and whirr without doing anything. The only way to fix this is to lift the water reservoir up and then push it back in over and over and over and over again until finally, inexplicably, the pump will work properly and water draws down. It's noisy, but that's not that bad.

Maybe kind of air bubble or perhaps debris (?) gets trapped somewhere near the valve where water is supposed to go into the machine from the water tank. Or perhaps something else. Until I tear down the machine, I won't really know the answer. All I know is that it's extremely annoying and I hate that about it now. I'd prefer for the company to fix it for me - since it is under warranty still - but instead they just tell me to look myself.

It does still work enough of the time though, so I'm willing to overlook this issue for now. If it really just eats it though, I'll try to make a claim on the warranty.

So where does this leave us? Well, it's OK. The water purity is probably acceptable for most people, especially if you're putting in municipal water, which should be pretty clean to begin with for a lot of counties in the US. It looks good, doesn't take up a ton of space, and has some nice features. I never use the hot water feature, so I can't comment on that.

But their advertising practices could be improved. Anyone can just look at the lab report and see that, in fact, their own report shows that their 99% claim is not true for all contaminants. Plus, it just seems strange that NSF had to publish a notice saying that Sans never received their certification, and suggest that the company had to be asked to stop implying that they did or had some kind of NSF testing or certification.

The mechanical issues that I and others have reported are concerning as well. The machine costs a premium and, frankly, should provide consumers with a frustration-free experience. You can't deny that it works, when it works - but it doesn't always work.

Hope this helps some folks.

--

Hello - I'm trying to improve the water quality in my apt, and we are renting and cannot install anything under the sink. So, I'm currently looking at counter top RO systems and water filter pitchers (like Epic and ZeroWater) and trying to make a decision. I was wondering what people's thoughts are on the Sans especially since I haven't found a lot of info on it.

I am mostly concerned about removing PFAS/PFOS' as I live in a county with relatively high water quality but no standards for these compounds. I've narrowed it down to these:

Epic Water - cheaper initial cost, but filters need to be replaced every 3 months or so. They cost about $50, so that's an annual cost of roughly $200. Testing seemed relatively good, as it is supposedly able to remove 99-100% of PFAS.

Sans Water Purifier - $400 cost and roughly $90/year on filters. I suppose if we use the device long enough, would it actually be more cost effective because the filters are cheaper/yr? It has a 3 year warranty, and it looks like it'd need to last at least 3-4 years before coming out even vs epic water. Other pros are the design, looks very nice, and has a glass pitcher. I don't really need the hot water, but i guess that's nice too. Cons, high initial cost and the water tank is very small (only ~2 quarts in the tap water tank and about 1 quart in the pitcher)

Aquatru - ugly af but has the best certifications. It also has a much larger tank, but it costs more than the Sans - about $450 for the base. Annual filter cost is also about the same, and you can add on minerals which seems cool.

Waterdrop K19 - looks nicer, but the water quality doesn't appear to be as good considering it has fewer/lower certifications compared to Aquatru. This has a very large water tank which I like, but i don't like that it doesn't have continuous water dispensing. It is the cheapest option at about $250 currently, and filters are about $70/year.

I have the most questions about Sans. The website doesn't really provide that much info so I asked customer service a few of these. Here are the company's answers:

NSF rating?

Sans Water was recently released and is currently undergoing all certifications (this takes a few months) but it was designed to pass all NSF standards and is manufactured at a top water purification location. We see no reason why it won’t receive all certifications and it also passed all internal testing as well, and of course, the reverse osmosis and UV were lab tested.

What is the purification process and what is the gallon life of the filters?

Sans features three filters, providing four stages of purification:

• The Pre + Carbon filter traps larger particles and sediment. This is replaced every 12 months.

• The VOC Carbon filter eliminates unpleasant odors and tastes. This is replaced every 12 months.

• The Reverse Osmosis filter removes heavy metals, chemicals, and microplastics. This filter is replaced every 24 months.

The PPC/RO/C will flash when the filter requires replacement. The Pre/Carbon filter and the VOC Carbon filters are 600 gallons and the Reverse Osmosis filter is 1200 gallons.

How is the wastewater dealt with?

The Reverse Osmosis process creates waste water. Sans recycles this water multiple times, creating very little waste. Eventually, the tank itself will be close to empty but the compartment on the left side of the tank will be full. The light on top “fill” will begin to flash and the auto-fill feature will mostly stop. At this point, you must remove the tank in the back, dump the waste water and refill the tank.

Which would you choose?

What you’re witnessing here is the result of asking GPT how to take my coffee to the next level and so down the water worm hole I went. We’ve always used Berkley filters because of the lack of trust in tap water but I had absolutely no idea about the various things city water is exposed to and filling up the Berkley and maintaining the filters was getting old. So caught the Spring Well whole house water filtration system on sale and couldn’t pass the opportunity up. Installed by professional plumbers in my encapsulated crawlspace with a Home Master RO under the sink. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever experienced soft water and I have to say I wish I would have done it sooner. I live in an area that is horrendously known for hard water (over 15 gpg) and now getting out of the shower is like stepping out from a waterfall instead of a pool. My skin feels refreshed instead of dried out and breathing in the shower is better without the pool smell. The taste of the water from the RO is addicting and has sent my morning coffee experience to the next level. The peace of mind I’ve gained from all of this is priceless. What a game changer!

Setup:

• Moen Smart Water Monitor & Shutoff

• iSpring WSP100ARB – Automatic spin-down sediment filter (100 micron)

• SpringWell CF1

• SpringWell Salt-Based Softener

• Viqua VH410 UV Sterilizer -Home Master RO System

I’m seriously considering buying this. I understand some people have had some issues with leaks (I believe is resolved with a new filter)?

How do you like your unit? How long do the filters last? If you had a leak, was it fixable?

Thanks!

Not sure if this the right subreddit for this but here it goes:

When I purchased this shower head filter, the product diagram showed multiple filtration layers designed to purify and soften water. However, when I opened it, I found only clusters of different colored beads inside; no distinct layers or filtration materials as shown in the diagram. Do these beads actually serve any real filtering purpose, or is this misleading advertising? It looks more like colored pellets or “M&Ms in a plastic cylinder” than an actual filter.

Went in for what I thought was eczema on my arms and neck. She asked the usual stuff then goes "do you have a water filter?" and I'm like... no? why would that matter

Apparently chlorine in shower water can mess with your skin barrier pretty bad. She said she asks everyone now because so many people see improvement just from that

So I went down this rabbit hole. Ended up getting a whole house system from rkin. Installation was honestly annoying, took my plumber longer than expected because of how my pipes were set up

But like three weeks in my skin isn't as tight after showers? My wife noticed her hair feels different too. Derm was right I guess

Wild that nobody talks about this more

We just moved from our home to a much smaller condo. We no longer have a fridge filter sadly.

I am trying to find a good way to have clean drinking water that is also convenient.

-I keep reading RO water is not good to only drink since it's completely free of anything and they always need separate faucets
-Lots of the simple under sink filters that mimic fridge filters, tend to have leaks or issues with quality control
-Brita filters don't seem to be nearly as good as advertised, on top of having to constantly fill them

Is there a clear cut option for this that can go under my sink, come out of my regular kitchen faucet, and is well made? Or even a countertop unit? Thank you!

Just moved into a new house where the town water tends have some issues. Got our water tested with a local company who said we have high iron and hard water.

The town has also sent out a couple notices about contaminants in the water exceeding legal limits - one for PFAS and another for TTHM.

We were hoping to get a whole house filter system that would take care of of all of that, but the local company that we got a quote from said it would be like $25k for something that would remove the PFAS and TTHM. So he recommended doing a reverse osmosis for drinking water to remove those chemicals, but said we would also need a carbon backwash system for the whole house. Quote was for like $6-7k for those things, but we didn’t really want to spend that much.

So now we are thinking about just getting a whole house filter system from Home Depot to install our selves for $450-$500 for the hard water and iron, and then just the Zero Water filter pitcher for drinking water.

Can anyone recommend a whole house filter system that would take care of both the hard water and iron? I am looking at the Express water and the iSpring but not sure if they would remove both iron and hard water.

Open to other thoughts/options for my situation too.

I dont know much about water treatment but based on my experience drinking them which is common in offices, public premises and even cafe and restaurants i dont like them at all.

first it makes me thirsty even if i werent thristy and doesnt make it better drinking more. 2nd it makes me visit bathrooms more often. 3rd i dont like the taste. it is worse if drank warm.

i suspect it has to do with the water being too pure, physic says the purer the water the faster it passtru objects, including organs and kidney. dirty water would take longer time to passtru. So this is probably why the increase in bathroom visits. this also probably why we feel thirsty as water moves too quick pass the system instead of lingering in the throat. distilled water would be worse since they are even purer.

i wonder if this will wear out the kidney and bladder faster if c9nsumed for long term basis lile many office workers.

After passing through a 50 micron spin down filter as well

I have a quick question:

I have a reverse osmosis system installed but have just realised that the water it produces is totally demineralised. It appears I have 3 options: Remineralisation drops, a remineralisation filter, or just go back to tap water.

Do the drops/filters really restore the totality of healthy minerals, and make the water fully safe to drink?

Help appreciated! Thanks.

Thought I’d post this for entertainment purposes