- Intelligent Monitor lets you know when its time to change the filter
- NSF certification means you can trust the filter with your health
- Stylish design looks great in any kitchen
- 1,000 gallon filter life lets you enjoy clean water for up to a year
- Limited lifetime warranty gives you piece of mind
The WaterChef C7000 is an excellent water filter. I will go in order from packaging to installation. We obtained ours just last night, so it has been in use for under 24 hours as of this review. My water is coming from the Red River and Red Lake River in the upper Midwest. So, it is pretty gross, especially since it travels through agricultural land before it arrives at the treatment plant. We have had multiple instances where the water tastes like fish during flooding season as well. So, in short, the water is nasty here. In the past, we owned multiple Pur, Brita, and DuPont brand filters. Both of us were so fed up with poor build quality, expense, crappy water filtration, and how dirty the units became. After much research, the WaterChef C7000 seemed to be the best frugal choice for us. We considered more expensive filters, but we aren''t using well water, so it wasn''t worth the expense.
Packaging and documentation:
1. Packaged with bubble wrap inside a white box.
2. Comes, as described, with a water filter pre-installed. It also includes the hose, diverter valve, aerator, battery (in tray), three different adapters for various faucet types, the hose, instruction manual, NSF certification, and warranty information.
3. If the adapters won''t work on your faucet, they are willing to send you a custom one based on your aerator''s threading.
4. They will send a new battery with the purchase of a new filter (new filters are around $50). So the battery is designed to last all year. They mention not removing it between filter changes because it will reset and/or lose data. The intelligent monitor operates off a gallons consumed meter.
5. They say the filter is rated to 1000 gallons. However, if you read the independent NSF testing, they rated it to 800 gallons. That is still a very good rating. To put it in perspective: 800 gallons is 12,800 cups of water. For one person that is 1600 days or four years and four months of water at eight cups per day. For a family of four, at eight cups per person/per day, that is 400 days of water. So even a family of four would be able to utilize a single cartridge per year. The catch here is, it is recommended to replace the filter annually. So it is in your best interest to utilize the filter as much as possible throughout the year. It goes without saying that the filter''s longevity depends on your water quality as well.
6. The instruction set is very clear and easy to understand.
Initial thoughts on build quality and design:
1. The interior of it is plastic with the exterior shell being stainless steel, with a combination of plastic fittings. Overall, I find the build quality very good.
2. The hose is a heavier duty flexible plastic. I am not concerned with its quality.
3. The diverter valve is made of metal. It has some interesting, well thought out, features as well.
a. It has a high quality o-ring in place to make a tight seal on the faucet head
b. The threading to mount it on the faucet rotates independently of the rest of the diverter. This helps prevent unthreading when the diverter is being moved around.
I. I did find the diverter and the threading moved together at times. Not sure if that is because it is new or not. I would consider installing locktite or plumbers tape.
c. The included aerator un-threads so you may install your own aerator. I found this was consumer friendly and well designed.
d. The switch to divert the water is spring loaded. This a good feature.
I. Once you make sure the water is cold, pull the diverter pin (switch).
II. It is under pressure, so it stays in place when the water is activated.
III. Unlike cheaper faucet based water filters, you DO NOT have to reset the switch when you turn off the water. Just turn off the water and the pressure loss will reset it.
i. This is a very nice advantage. It prevents you from forgetting to reset it and turning on hot water later, damaging the filter.
ii. At the same time. If there is not enough pressure (as in a thin stream), the switch won''t stay in place and will reset. You could just hold it in place too.
4. As you can see in the pictures, the water is one way: faucet to filter. This is an advantage over some other brands of similar setup that reroute the water back to the faucet head. That advantage is long term cleanliness of the spout for the filtered water. History has shown me that the traditional faucet mount water filters and their spouts will get very dirty from being so close to food preparation and dish washing. On top of that, I found they are difficult to clean thoroughly. So the WaterChef C7000 has a major advantage here.
5. I did my research across these counter-top style filters and found that this is the only one (that advertises) having .5 sub-micron filtering. The only thing I found better was a gravity fed system that was supposedly .3 microns but not certified in any way. Many of the other faucet based counter top filters seemed to be 1 Micron based. Given how nasty the water is in my area/building, I am much more comfortable with this setup.
Installation:
1. Easy. You screw the diverter on the faucet, and plug the other end of the hose into the hole on the bottom of the unit. Then, all you have to do is run cold water through it for 15 minutes to flush the cartridge and it is ready to use. Very simple.
Water Quality and Use:
1. The water tastes amazing. In the past, I had to put my water through two separate (cheaper) filtration systems to get it to taste this fresh and clean.
2. It fills a cup and a half of water in around 10 seconds. I haven''t timed it exactly, but that is pretty close.
3. Since I have the spout over the counter, I do need to place a towel underneath it. Reason being, when you turn off the water it does have some residual pressure that allows a thin stream of water to continue to flow for a few seconds. Then it will drip slightly for a few more seconds. Having the towel is nice to absorb those residual drips. I am sure physics are the culprit here over a design flaw. The only thing I can think of to stop that problem would be to install a one way, spring loaded ball valve in the spout stream that would close when the water pressure drops. However, something tells me simplicity rules in this case, given how well engineered this product is.
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I am pleased with this product in every way except one.
The one big problem is, it drips after shutoff. Not very much, initially. But after it''s been in service for a while, the post-shutoff dripping gets worse. Eventually it becomes a dribbling stream that lasts ~5 seconds.
This happens because (like all such devices) the filter is full of water between uses, and there is air dissolved in the water. Sitting between uses, the air comes out of solution and forms a bubble inside the filter chamber. This bubble is compressed when the water is turned on, and expands when the water is turned off, pushing additional water out of the filter after shutoff. Eventually this bubble becomes large enough that it causes a significant and sustained post-shutoff dribble. This isn''t a big deal if your filter overhangs the sink, but ours does not so it leaves a puddle on the counter.
I communicated with the manufacturer, and this is a known issue. However, it is most likely an issue with ANY product of this type the creation of an air bubble is inherent in the design of this kind of filter, so I don''t think the problem is confined to this product.
The solution is to mount the unit overhanging a sink, or buy the under-counter model which has a valve downstream of the filter and thus does not suffer from this problem.
In the manufacturer''s defense, they were very nice about it: they offered to give us a refund (after the normal refund period), replace the unit (while noting that this would not actually help solve our problem) or give us a discount on the under-counter model. Unfortuantely, none of these solutions will actually eliminate this problem with this product.
If it weren''t for this issue, I would have given the product 4 stars. If you don''t think this will be a problem for you, then I recommend this filter.
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We live in an agricultural area with lousy tasting water and have had to rely on bottled water for drinking water. I bought this product for our family as I was getting tired of spending $45 to $50 a month on bottled water. After a couple of months with the WaterChef C7000, we can''t tell the difference between the bottled water and the water coming out of this unit. The unit is compact, easy to install, and blends in nicely on our counter top. Although we have not gotten to the point of changing the filter, I like the intelligent monitor as the issue I have had with previous water filters (mainly the pitcher unit) was figuring out when to change the filter. I totally recommend this unit.
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I am always surprised by the deficiencies of most faucet or counter-top filters. This reflects both my own experience and the product reviews. So far I have tried pitcher filters (Pur, Britta), faucet filters (Culligan), and counter-top filters (Purenex you can find them on Amazon). The pitcher filters work well for a while, but then start to filter very slowly and you''re always playing catch up with filling the pitcher. The faucet filters seem to have issues too. I tried the Culligan. The water tasted fine, but the flow rate was impossibly slow (within two weeks it was literally drop by drop -took 10 minutes to fill a bottle). I have an extensive review of the Purenex. It''s not a bad filter and I bought it because it''s cheaper than the WaterChef -penny wise, pound foolish.
The Purenex, at least for me, had a long burn in period -the water tasted funky (worse than direct from the tap) for a week or two. After that it was fine.
The WaterChef is superior in everyway, except the price. After 15 mins of flushing, the water tasted fine. The unit itself is designed better. The diverter switches back to tap after you finish, which is a big help. Install is very easy -no tools needed. There is used-based light on top that tells you when to change the filter. The unit can be placed to the left or right of the faucet (you adjusted the base so the hose comes in from the correct direction). Finally the flow rate is decent. Not as good as the Purenex, but then in some ways that is comforting, since if you''re filter water well you do imagine it flows a bit more slowly. But I can still fill a bottle in about 10 seconds. Plenty fast.
It is worth noting, as other reivewers have, that you really need to have this over the sink. The drip after usage is sufficient that I wouldn''t want to have it on a counter, even with a drip tray.
The only qualification to this 5-star review is that I''ve only used the unit 3 days. I''ll update the review if my opinion changes. But so far this is it!
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I used to be a plumber long ago, and in my opinion this is a great unit. I did some checking around online and settled on the WaterChef. Seems to me another top rated company paid off a certain " Consumers" magazine. Go online and find the fake website slinging mud on their competitors. I installed this unit in 5 minutes and used my multitool to tighten the extended diverter/aerator. A light will come on once the battery is installed then run water through it for 15 minutes to clear any loose carbon particles. The water tastes great and it is exactly what I was looking for and the price is worth the quality and features.
