CHAT Just installed a RO filter system

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Today we installed our Reverse Osmosis water filter system in the kitchen. Pretty simple. Not difficult at all Came with good instructions (WITH PICTURES!!) It's an AO Smith AO-US-RO-MB-4000 clean water filter system with RO and Microbial Boost. Very clean and straight forward installation. We ultimately want to put together a Whole House and water softening system and an additional large emergency reservoir water tank.

At our last place we were on a well and also had enough stored water to last a full year with careful conservation. No well here on the mountain. Don't know if we can even drill a well here and currently are on community water. I would imagine that drilling here would be very hard and expensive. LOTS OF ROCKS.....big friggen ROCKS.

I would be interested in hearing about anyone here on the forums Whole House Systems, good/bad/ugly and any suggestions on which system we should seriously look at. THANKS!!
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
I hope you drained the carbon fines out before opening the bladder tank on the RO.

Whole house system?

A softener?

Stick with a Fleck control valve.

One moving part, pretty bulletproof.
 

bw

Fringe Ranger
No springs in your area? Where is the water coming from that you want to filter?
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Our water actually comes from a spring fed mountain lake. If you've ever had "Arrowhead" brand bottled water....you've had our lake's water.
 

tencup

Inactive
That is good water.....West Texas water comes from water wells.....It is Hard water...not great for showers
 

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Our well water is naturally soft but has a high ph. Tastes good. Very happy to have our own well.
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Generally our community water company is pretty good, although periodically they get a little crazy with the chlorine. Our main concern, besides the failing infrastructure throughout our nation, came to the forefront when we got a notification on our front gate that we could "STOP boiling our drinking water"....funny, we never got the notification that we should START boiling our drinking water. Yeah. That was an eye opener. There was a broken water line somewhere in our area, however, NONE of our immediate neighbors got the "Boil Water" notice either. We were not happy campers!!

Just a clerical error we were told. Yeah - - NO, not going to buy that. We were planning on a Whole House system, but were still researching that option. In the mean time this RO system will give us much safer drinking and cooking water until we get the WHOLE HOUSE covered.

Another water concern surfaced when the news mentioned hackers messing with a whole communities water system back East about a month or so back. There's a little too much of this kind of threat to ignore. OUR Enemy's would love to poison whole communities in such a way. Not to mention the BS that went on in Flint, Michigan. That was shear BS!! Sorry, but I don't and won't trust the "system" anymore. NOPE!!

For those interested, our system is available at Lowes Home Centers. Here's the spec's on it.

A.O. Smith Clean Water 4-stage Carbon Block Reverse Osmosis Filtration System
Item #960786, Model #AO-US-RO-4000
Performance Data Sheets LINK
Screenshot_2021-05-15 ao-us-ro-4000_pds pdf.png

Screenshot_2021-05-15 ao-us-ro-4000_pds pdf(1).png
Not 100% (but what is these days), however it's pretty darn close AND it covers all the BIGGY items you want removed from your drinking/cooking water. This system runs about $200 (at Lowes) and takes a hour or so to install if you have all the little necessary fittings. Had to take a couple of runs to the local hardware store for some odd bits and pieces. It fits neatly under the kitchen sink (takes up about half the space due to the pressure tank) and on ours the RO faucet takes the place of a soap dispenser in the kitchen counter that we never used as it leaked and made a mess all the time.

In addition to ultimately installing a whole house system (down the road) we're also going to add an emergency 1550 gallon storage tank (from Tractor Supply) that will give us approximately 4 1/4 gallons of safe potable water a day for a solid year. That's nearly one 5 gallon Jerry can of water a day for two people each day. Easy Peasy.

We have a metal roof on our cabin and are also looking at harvesting water from that to use on the garden and fruit trees as well as a back up to the back up with a cistern in mind. Plans within plans.

Hope this helps.
 
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CarolynA

Veteran Member
Have you had a full test done on your water source? It's a good investment. I have high uranium and the RO filter reduces it to acceptable levels. The real estate test that is done in escrow only tests for bacteria.
Just curious - does Arrowhead filter their water?
 

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Our water actually comes from a spring fed mountain lake. If you've ever had "Arrowhead" brand bottled water....you've had our lake's water.
Um Arrowhead water comes from the base of the mountains, not from the lakes. Used to live in Lake Arrowhead, for many years.
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
It actually comes from several natural springs up and down the mountain. Though I was told by locals that Nestle (Arrowhead bottled water) does pump water from the lake itself or a spring that feeds the lake and a lot of local folks want that stopped immediately. Also the State of California just this past month issued a cease-and-desist order for Nestle to stop pumping millions of gallons out of our San Bernardino forest area due to the ongoing drought issues. We've only been here on the mountain a little over a year and a half, so I'm going on what I've been told by locals.
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
tencup, it tends to fluctuate. Not sure why, seems to follow with how much chlorine they put in the water. Maybe using two or three different sources depending on the time of the year. During the winter it seems to be very soft, during the summer harder. We sort of tell by how much hard water build up there is on faucets and shower glass doors. Kind of weird. I'll have to ask around.
 

twobarkingdogs

Veteran Member
IMO - I do not see the need for a whole house system. How many gallons do you flush every day and does that need to be filtered. Seems to me the only outlets which need to be filtered are faucets which provide water for drinking or cooking. Toilets, showers, and washing machines do not need expensive filtered water. But YMMV

tbd
 

TKO

Veteran Member
IMO - I do not see the need for a whole house system. How many gallons do you flush every day and does that need to be filtered. Seems to me the only outlets which need to be filtered are faucets which provide water for drinking or cooking. Toilets, showers, and washing machines do not need expensive filtered water. But YMMV

tbd
Where I live, if you don't have treated water your dishwasher won't last long...neither will your washing machine. So, you have a choice using RO or a softening system. Also, your shower/tub will be a major effort to clean. We have super hard water. RO for an entire house is expensive. I haven't done it but thought about it many times. RO water isn't that great tasting to drink either. You have to add minerals back into the drinking water. Trace Mineral drops are great and return the flavor back to water if it has been RO treated or filtered through a Zero Water.
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
RO for a Whole House would be a bit expensive and does waste a lot of water (what doesn't make it through the membrane is basically waste water down the drain. That is why for cooking and drinking this RO system is in the kitchen at the sink, where it is most convenient for use. AND.....don't forget that all the filters involved have to be replaced anywhere from every 6 to 12 months.

Whole House filtering is another thing all together and may or may not include an RO section in the system. During my naval career taking care of Marines in the FIELD, out in some pretty remote places SAFE drinking water was a MAJOR priority just behind having enough bullets. I place safe quality water right among the top of my priority list. A whole house system is good for screening out some of the worst of the bugs and toxins as well as softening the water to help preserve all appliances that use water as well as plumbing. In addition adding a whole house system also cuts down on the wear and tear of the RO system. Remember the RO system is MAINLY for drinking and cooking water, not bathing, brushing your teeth, laundry or any other purpose.

As for taste quality of the RO drinking water the system we picked has a "REMINERALIZER" with a Microbial Filter as the final stage. MUCH BETTER TASTING....as good or better than commercial bottled water.

Also.....something everyone here needs to consider and question is "Just how safe is your drinking water?" We have long taken for granted that water from our faucets in this country is safe.....is it really? We face real threats from Pollution, Toxins, Disease, Sabotage, Disasters, etc., etc., etc. Think anything nasty that can happen and it is possible. Poisoning wells and water sources throughout history (not to mention destroying water tables via industrial contamination) has been a long time method of attacking and weakening an enemy and FOLKS.....we GOT LOTS of ENEMIES out there in the world!

So my efforts may seem overkill, but I'd rather overkill the problem, than have the problem kill me.
 

rob0126

Veteran Member
We use a countertop 2 filter system. It filters out almost everything to acceptable levels, and it tastes pretty good.
They sell whole house systems too, but this one has suited us fine for over a decade.
Having to replace the 2 filters every 6 months is the bummer.

But it sure beats being drugged up from the tap water.
 
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