- High end designer chrome air gap faucet
- Quick change sanitary filters
- Easy to install
- Filters change out at the push of a button
- Crystal clear, high quality and great tasting water
I replaced an older GE GXRM10GBL Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System purchased at Home Depot with this Watts unit. Where this system wins out is the ease of maintenance. It''s very easy to pop any of the filter cartridges in and out. GE system was harder to maintain and some of the parts broke during maintenance. The main issue was that whenever I need to sanitize the system or replace RO cartridge, I had to open the plastic cap to the RO cartridge holder, which is made out of fairly light plastic. Every 1-2 years, after opening a couple of times, the plastic cab would break when I screw it back on. The replacement part for the RO cartridge holder is $150, which is the same price as buying a new unit.
Here is my comparison, as of Jan 2011. Watts is a clear winner in my mind. Just a lot less hassle to maintain and probably cheaper in the long run. I''ll probably update the post after a year or so to see if Watts still holds up well.
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Initial Price Slight advantage GE. GE is $150 from HomeDepot where $189 with $30 MFG Rebate from Costco
OS Membrane Cost Slight advantage GE. We replace this every 2-3 years. It''s $50 for GE replacement cartridge from homedepot.com (FX12M) and $61 for Watts from filterfast.com
Carbon filter Cost Advantage Watts. Watt''s it''s only $50 for 1 year replacement set that replace pre-filters every 6 months and post filter every 12 months. For GE it''s $75 a year ($37 for a pre/post cartridge pair (FX12P) from filterfast 2 pair a year). which replace post pre/post every 6 months. In my opinion, post filter only need replacing every 12 months
Noise Advantage Watts. Both make sound when ro process take place, but Watts is quieter. With GE, I can really hear it in the middle of night.
Water quality Same. My family can''t taste the difference. Both specs seem to remove about same amount of all the contaminants.
Initial Install Slight advantage Watts. The system is more well designed and it''s a bit easier to install although the GE one was not bad
Replacing pre/post filter Advantage Watts. Watts takes me 10 seconds. GE takes me 10 minutes and water can get spilled easily.
Replacing RO membrane Advantage Watts. Watts takes me 5 seconds, GE takes me 20 minutes if everything goes well. I also have to have 2 very large clamps to open up the RO cartridge holder.
Sanitize system Advantage Watts. Watt is a lot easier to sanitize, takes 5 minutes to put in the bleach, and 4 hours flush afterwards, which can be unattended. GE require us to remove pre/post/RO membrane, and sanitize, and then put everything back. It''s something that takes me about an hour, with 4 hours flush time in between. And water gets spilled easily.
Durability Advantage Watts. I haven''t had Watts for long, but I can tell by how simple it is to swap the cartridges that it won''t break easily. We simply don''t have to take anything apart during maintenance where as GE requires you to do more mechanical things. Parts of GE breaks system after a couple sanitization or replacing RO membrane. Buy parts is a big pain since local stores don''t sell it and have to call GE to older. Some parts are very expensive.
Jan 13, 2012
Updating after an year.....
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Durability comment about WATTS above holds so far, nothing breaking. Water still tastes great.
The indicator light on the faucet, indicating filter need to change, seem to light up earlier than what the document replacement time should be ... So I end up ignoring that light.
PS. if you are installing an RO system yourself (any RO system), make sure plumbing is done right and always check for slow leaks every month. With RO systems, the water pressure in some pipes build up slowly as filtered water gets created. So don''t just install the system and assume there are no leaks. Check in 1 day, a week, then in a month...
Buy Watts Premier RO-Pure 531411 4-Stage Reverse Osmosis System Now
Our municipal water is horrible. It smells like a swimming pool and is very hard.I purchased this unit from Costco not Amazon. When I pulled it out of the box I started to think that it was going to be complicated to install. The well written directions made it easy to install the unit. All of the connections except for the water supply are quick connect which are secure and easy to make.
After the unit was installed and I opened up the water supply I could hear the water gurgling and the waste of the RO running down the drain. The directions call for draining the first tank of water which I did. The second tank that we sampled was the best water I''ve ever had from home. It is far better than a Britta pitcher. It has a crisp, clean taste without any chlorine smell.
I let my kids sample the difference by trying 2 cups, one from the faucet, one from the filter. My 9 year old son didn''t even need to drink to tell the difference. Once he took a taste of the unfiltered tap water, he pushed it away and said it was horrible. He hung on to the filtered water.
Now we can refill reusable bottles and I don''t have to haul cases of bottled water home. It is better for the environment and much cheaper. We are drinking more water rather than soda because it tastes good and is easy to get to.
Another added benefit is that I put a tee in the connection as the instruction described and routed the water to my Samsung Fridge. The Samsung water filters cost about $40 plus shipping from Amazon. Now I can stop buying these filters every six months. The quality of the water from the Watts filter is much better than the Samsung filter.
The only negative part of the install is that the storage tank takes up a fair space under the sink. The directions say that you can put the filter/storage up to 25 feet away with 1/4 inch line or further with a 3/8''s line. In reality the space under the sink was taken up with a bunch of junk that we never used and having good water at the sink is a much better use of the space.
UPDATE 4-10: Someone contacted me through my Samsung fridge filter review and pointed out to me that Reverse Osmosis can waste a high ratio (1:3) to (1:5) of water make its final product. You can hear the water running down the drain after you use the faucet. The sound bothers my wife so I put the drain plug in as a mute. I am considering running a line to my drip sprinkler system.
Read Best Reviews of Watts Premier RO-Pure 531411 4-Stage Reverse Osmosis System Here
I only installed (properly) this unit for a few days. It seems to work well. That is not the point of my review. I purchased and installed my first unit a few weeks ago. The waste water gushed down to the drain instead of tricking for few hours after each use (e.g., filling up a glass of filtered water). I thought the shut-off valve is bad so I got a replace unit. The second unit behaved the same way. At that point, I thought it is just a poor design -a very wasteful design. As I was reading the review of other similar filters (I was ready to return my 2nd unit and buy a different model), I saw someone wrote something about there is section of tubing that has a insert in it. That immediately reminded me that I removed a section of tubing (a short red one on the waste line) that appeared to be redundant. Fortunately, I still have that piece of tubing. There it is! a small plastic insert on one end of the tubing. Apparently, this insert is to crease a back pressure so that the shut off valve can function correctly. After I put this section of tubing back in, it no longer continuously discharges water to the drain. I feel bad about returning that first unit. They probably should have include a line in the instruction to warn smart people like me.Want Watts Premier RO-Pure 531411 4-Stage Reverse Osmosis System Discount?
After one year of wonderful use, a plastic or rubber flavor began to emerge in the water. The flavor was similar to a very weak version of the flavor that you might get from drinking out of a garden water hose. I replaced all four filter cartridges, and the flavor persisted. I called Watts Premier and followed a Watts engineer''s instructions and we determined that the flavor was coming from the storage tank. I also noticed that the flavor was strongest in the morning, when filtered water had been sitting in the storage tank for a while; the flavor was least noticeable after allowing filtered water to flow down the drain for a long while. Watts sent me a new storage tank free of charge, and I was happy with that service. Unfortunately, the flavor persisted even with the new storage tank. I believe that Watts Premier storage tanks contain a lining that puts a faint, unpleasant flavor into the water.Save 56% Off
You can have this same ro pure at costco for $199 . Installation is pretty simple a Do-it-yourself. Just make sure that the drainage tube (black) goes all the way to the drainage pipe of your kitchen otherwise your gonna have leaking problem at the base of your faucet.Do not hesitate to make a penny size hole on the drainage pipe.
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