APEC Water Systems ROES-PH75 Essence Series Top Tier Alkaline Mineral pH+ 75 GPD 6-Stage Certified Ultra Safe Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Filter System

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.

I was researching a long time about RO systems, which to buy and which would have a better taste in water quality... We used to buy water from Canadian Tire, and it was amazing quality water... BUT I didn't like the fact that we always had to carry bottles into the house and store them and change out bottles. After that we switched to Zero Water Filtration system for our water cooler. It fit our water cooler perfectly and worked a long time, until one day the cooler broke and started leaking all over our kitchen floor. So I was on the search for a replacement. Then I came across this unit! What an amazing quality RO System this unit is! Absolutely loving it. Would definitely recommend it anyone who is looking to replace it for bottled water. It's easy to install, all the lines are color coded and the water tastes amazing. I would never purchase anything else. APEC Water Systems are made in the USA!!! Top quality, excellent tasting water, good value for your money! What more do you want? Buy it, enjoy it. It's amazing! Definitely recommend this one! Don't buy any cheap garbage made in China!

Awesome filter . using it on a old 50 year house with awful smelling water on copper pipes. I used a plumber to install and he was able to use the supplied manuals to read installation. Also able to use most of the parts supplied but plumber used AU standards plumbing connections to drain which feels more hygienic than using the stock drilled fitment. has to be drained a fair around 20 mins in startup to clean the cloudy water from the remineralization stage. I also paid extra to connect it to fridge water/ice dispenser. Only downside is I paid more price for it and it is cheaper now in amazon

Great product and very good tasting water, a lot better than fridge water . We had it for over 6 months now and we love it . Tank holds a good amount to fill up coffee tank and ice machine at once and will start refilling as soon as we shut it off. Installation was easy if you are handy with plumbing.

The installation instructions were clear. Everything was included in the box. The water tastes great. What more could one ask? FYI, when you use the product for the first time it will be full of tiny bubbles. Give it a few days and they'll all work themselves out of the system and you'll have non-cloudy water.