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Building a Home

For Those Of You With Water Filters At Kitchen Sink

15 years ago

New construction, we have a water softener. Trying to decide on whether to get a reverse osmosis water filter at the kitchen sink. Suggestions?

Thank you!

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Comments (6)

janbanks
15 years ago
I like the RO at the sink. We had it in a previous house but did not get it in this house because we are still exploring options. We are on well water that tastes funny (high sulfates, I think) but has tested fine for human consumption. We get our water delivered. It's a drag because you have to set the bottles out, etc. It's also hard to use the water cooler to fill up pots for cooking. RO at the sink is better for that. Our old house had a one gallon reserve and I found that to be plenty for our drinking and cooking needs. We rented the system since we were renting the house. Obviously, if were were to get one now, I'd purchase it outright. We went through a local company for the RO rental so I don't have any experience with nation-wide services.
George Dorer
15 years ago
Get the RO system. Costco sells it on their Website for around $200
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Should be minimal, but if you only need the filtered water for cooking and drinking a dedicated faucet may be the way to go. You don't want to filter water that you don't have to. Lots of luck. .................................... "If all else fail, read the directions"
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Oh Grainlady,...about those Berkey water filters
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We purchased a Berkey because it doesn't require electricity and the filtration elements can be cleaned and used for a very long time. We use it mainly in the summer, instead of using the electric distiller indoors (which puts off some heat) for purified drinking water. Because of the long length of time it takes for water to seep through the micro-pores within the purification elements on the Berkey, this increases the efficiency at removing pathogenic bacteria and waterborne contaminants. You'll find more information at the link below. I'd also suggest contacting Berkey for more information, as well as any test results they have on file. A few years ago I bought a Zerowater filter (the pitcher model), as a back-up water filter, and the Ion Exchange Filters are expensive and don't last long (especially if you are filtering hard water), but the water tastes great. I also have an electric and a non-electric distiller (emergency use only), for the ultimate purification system. We've used a distiller for our drinking water for 25-years. We calculated the amount of electricity it takes to distill a gallon of water by putting a Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor on the distiller - 21-cents per gallon. We use distilled water in our humidifiers in the winter, as well as for drinking water. Our stockpile of emergency water in the basement (around 100-gallons) is primarily distilled water, so we rotate it out to feed the humidifiers. The least expensive reverse osmosis water we can purchase (fill your own bottles) is 35-cents per gallon. But it's only suitable for the humidifiers, not drinking. Our biggest concern with our city drinking water is from farm-related chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs - which can't be treated with simple household filters (PUR, Britta, Zerowater, etc.), nor are they removed by the city water system. Reverse osmosis is incapable of removing all of those things as well. We understood the Berkey would remove farm chemicals and Rx drugs from the water, as does steam distillation. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Berkey Water Filter
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chisue
15 years ago
How often do you need to change a filter so that you are not ending up with even more-concentrated 'ick' in your water?
Phobie Privett
15 years ago
We have RO at the sink. I LOVE IT!!!!!!! The water is fantastic and makes the clearest iced tea you've ever seen! :) We also had the RO plumbed to the fridge. We were later told by a repairman that having that made the filters on the fridge obsolete and so it's not normally done. Oh well-our ice is clear as a bell.

We've been here for 9 months and have had to change the RO filters twice. I think that may be due to the amount of water also going to the fridge. I have to say, they were a little expensive. (I think there's three filters-maybe $20 ea.?) But I still think it's worth it for the amount of water we use out of there. Also, ours makes a weird clicking sound while it's refilling the little tank-kind of annoying, but I got used to it. I highly recommend it!!
arleneb
15 years ago
We had one in our last house and after a year removed it -- for several reasons. The water from our new well tasted fine, so we really didn't need it. Also, it required three filter cartridges. Two were reasonably priced -- maybe $20. The third one we had to special order through Sears and with shipping it came to something like $120 -- once a year!!

The other thing was that it made noises. Not honest, upright clicking noises like Superchick described -- but noises that could best be described as far*ing noises!! Honest! When we had guests hanging out in the kitchen, anyone standing by the sink got funny looks on their faces and sorta moved away and said, "What was that?"

Since our water tasted good without it, we just yanked it and put in a second soap dispenser in the hole. I never missed it for a minute!!!
janbanks
15 years ago
Regarding filters. The RO system we had at our old house had a monitor on it. You pressed a button and if it lighted up green, you were OK for filters. We had it for two years and I don't remember having to change the filters.... Maybe I was doing something wrong. It also made a little bit of noise.

I probably take water a little too seriously but I just want to mention that with drinking water it's both a matter of taste and quality. You can have good tasting water and still have a high nitrates. You can also have bad tasting water that's perfectly safe to drink. If you have a well, it's very important to test your water on an annual basis because you never know what could be lurking.

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