"You have one on every floor?" Yes. I have three APEC RO filters, and I love them all. Let me explain: Where I live, we have "city water", but that's really a community well. The water here is EXTREMELY hard. The last time I had it tested to size out a water softener, I was hovering around 30 grains per gallon (that's about three times what the WQA considers "very hard water"). There's tons of sediment, too. At the tap, using my trusty

I’ve been using the APEC Reverse Osmosis Under Sink System for several months now, and I couldn’t be happier with its performance. From the moment it was installed, the difference in water quality was immediately noticeable. The taste is crisp, clean, and refreshing, making both drinking water and ice cubes far superior to what we were used to with our tap water. The installation process was straightforward and well-documented, even for someone who isn’t particularly handy. The system fits neatly under the sink, and the compact design doesn’t take up too much valuable space. One of the standout features is the five-stage filtration process, which effectively removes impurities and contaminants. I have peace of mind knowing that harmful substances like chlorine, lead, and other heavy metals are being filtered out. The water is not only safe to drink but also enhances the flavors of coffee, tea, and cooking. Maintenance is also a breeze. The filters are easy to replace, and the system includes clear indicators for when it’s time to change them. This ensures that the water quality remains consistently high without much effort on my part. Overall, the APEC Reverse Osmosis Under Sink System is an excellent investment for anyone looking to improve their home’s water quality. It’s reliable, efficient, and delivers on its promise of providing pure, great-tasting water. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a top-notch water filtration system.

My family household consists of 4 Disabled/chronically ill/elderly people. We've all been suffering from our atrocious public water supply, which is not only off the charts in hardness and poor ph levels, but we've had tests reveal all sorts of NASTIES in our water. Nitrates and Nitrites, and even our unfriendly neighborhood toxin LEAD! Its been a nightmare. On any given day the water will come out of the faucet either smelling strongly of Chlorine, or smelling like a dirty fish tank! 3 of us have horrible reactions to the hard, chlorinated water. We break out in painful rashes and blisters! But I digress... Our APEC RO filtration system has helped so much! I installed it under our kitchen sink. Now we can cook and wash our hands with clean water! Even when we wash dishes we give everything a rinse with the RO water afterwards and its been helping prevent our dishes from smelling like a wet dog after they dry. We bottle it and add minerals for drinking and making espresso and tea! I swear they both come out MUCH better with the mineralized RO water. Someday I would like to upgrade our system and get the remineralization cartridge that APEC also makes. We couldn't afford it at the time, but it would be nice to not need to keep buying mineral additive drops. The RO water comes out so clean and fresh tasting! We prefer to drink higher PH water, which is also why we treat the water we bottle for drinking purposes. Im happy to say that when i use a 16 panel water testing kit, the RO filtered water is MUCH better! No lead, no chlorine, flouride or those disgusting Nitrates and Nitrites. Hardness and PH are much better too. It definitely works and has helped put us a little more at ease. Honestly we want to get a filtration system for our entire house, because our local monopolized water company doesn't want to do anything about the problems with our water quality! That will likely be our next step to make our family safer, because we still have major problems with our showers and laundry because of our terrible water. Were really grateful to APEC for making us feel a bit safer in our own home. Their customer service has been friendly too. These units periodically go on sale and are definitely worth buying one then, if affording one at full price is difficult for some(I know its hard for us. We'd already have a whole home system installed if we could). The kit was relatively easy to install. Id like to note that if you're not comfortable with drilling a hole into the downstem for the drainage, you can purchase a new, flexible replacement that has a built-in nozzle that you can attach the drainage line from the RO system to. We got one at Home Depot. It was very inexpensive. Its called the SNAPPYTRAP. Ive included a photo of that as well. Its worked great so far with 0 leaks! Our old downstem actually corroded away and broke, which is why we went the replacement route instead of drilling the hole and mounting the bracket included in the RO kit. We're very pleased with our system so far. And it seems like the maintenance is fairly inexpensive. 2 of the cartridges only need to be replaced every 2-4 years and the 3 large filters get replaced every year. Its about $70 on here for a full replacement kit that includes all 5 filters. And it's about $30 if you want to just replace the 3 large filters. I'll definitely update my review if any problems come up down the line, but we installed ours several months ago and it's been great!

We needed a water filter that would actually filter out chlorine and other city water factors, not just minimize the taste. This water filter system fit the bill! Not only was it fairly easy to install (took about 2 hrs or so with using a youtube video guide in addition to the instructions), but it filters the water beautifully! No city water tastes whatsoever - tastes as good as regular store purified water! We have not had any issues with leaks in the system or faucet after a week or two of use. For $200+, you can't beat the effectiveness and practicality of this system. It's definitely good quality! The only "issue" we had was slightly cloudy/bubbly water when first using it after the install and initial rinse of the system. It didn't affect the taste in anyway, just looked a bit funny. However, after doing some research, the "cloudiness" seems to just be little bubbles that are completely harmless. I think it has also gotten better with use as well. That being said, I would barely even call this an "issue", it was just something that came up. All that being said, I would highly recommend this system! It has been 100% worth the money.

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.

Very easy install! Comes with everything you need and the water tastes great. I was concerned about the cost of changing the filters down the road, but they are reasonably priced and they last a long time. Great product! I love it!

This thing makes water clear and taste right! I like that it is a more off grid style with no electric parts. The most annoying (because we are off grid) is that the tank seems to empty without us being the ones to do it. So it runs our pressure tank at night which then runs us out of power during all the lower solar months. I wish it wouldn’t empty or drain out, it leaves us trying to collect the water before bed and then turning it off which takes 3 minutes just to twist the little screw twisty or run out and turn off the pressure tank switch but then there isn’t any drinking water come morning… the filters are spendy and we need to replace at least the first lower one every 3 months. We do have really sooty water. It’s easy to set up and does make clean drinking water so for now we aren’t complaining.

The APEC Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water System has redefined the way I view water purification, offering an unparalleled level of performance, effortless installation, and outstanding ease of use. With its transformative reverse osmosis technology and intuitive setup, this system has proven to be an indispensable addition to my household, deserving every bit of its perfect 5-star rating. From the moment I embarked on setting up the APEC RO Water System, I was greeted with an experience that combined simplicity and effectiveness. The installation process was remarkably user-friendly, thanks to the comprehensive instructions and well-thought-out design. Even for someone with limited plumbing knowledge, like myself, the setup was a breeze. In no time, I had the system in place, ready to provide my family with water that goes beyond simple refreshment. The true magic of the APEC RO Water System lies in its reverse osmosis technology. This system employs a multi-stage filtration process that goes above and beyond mere purification. It effectively removes contaminants, impurities, and even the smallest particles from tap water, delivering a level of quality and cleanliness that's noticeable from the very first sip. The result is water that's not only safe but also boasts an impressively clean and fresh taste. The system's design is a marvel in itself. Its compact footprint ensures it fits seamlessly into various kitchen setups, while the integrated water storage tank guarantees a steady supply of purified water without the need for constant refills. The thoughtful engineering extends to maintenance, with easily accessible replacement filters that ensure the system continues to perform optimally. Every glass of water produced by the APEC RO Water System is a testament to its efficacy. The water's clarity and purity, both in appearance and taste, provide undeniable proof of the system's capability to deliver water that exceeds expectations. In summary, the APEC Reverse Osmosis Water System stands as a testament to excellence in water purification. Its intuitive installation, transformative reverse osmosis technology, and impressive performance merit a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. If you're seeking a reliable, user-friendly, and highly effective water purification solution that elevates your water quality to unmatched levels, the APEC RO Water System is the ultimate choice. Pros: Effortless setup with user-friendly instructions Multi-stage reverse osmosis filtration for unparalleled water quality Compact design with built-in storage tank Easy maintenance with accessible replacement filters Cons: None to mention; the APEC Reverse Osmosis Water System excels in every way! In conclusion, the APEC Reverse Osmosis Water System is a pinnacle of water purification technology. Its reverse osmosis filtration, combined with its user-friendly design, makes it a must-have for those who prioritize the highest quality water for their household. The APEC RO Water System's 5-star rating is a reflection of its exceptional performance and value.

Bought this because my mom's tap water started to taste too much of chlorine. Firstly, the tank takes up some space so this water filter should only be bought if you have deep cabinet space underneath the sink. I couldn't fit this under my own home sink, for example, but my mom's kitchen has the space. The installation is *relatively* easy, and I say that because I have experience with DIY plumbing and drilling. The hardest part is drilling a hole in the drain to the pipe above the trap with a 1/4" drill bit and also drilling a 1/2" hole through the sink to fit the faucet. If you have never drilled anything before or have no rudimentary experience with plumbing, that's OK, I'd then caution against using this opportunity as your first time and hire a plumber for cheap. It's a VERY easy job for an experienced plumber so it should *not* be expensive. After draining the first tank fill per the manual's instructions, I did a particle test and the 152 ppm tap water got cut down to 35 ppm. An incredible feat! Something no Brita filter can ever do. The water finally tastes great. It was worth the purchase.

> I purchased the APEC ROES-50 to replace a similar 25 year-old system, largely because I was due for a completely filter change (including the membrane), and a tank change --- which would have costed as much as a new system. > The APEC ROES-50 system includes everything you need for a complete installation, including adapters, a splitter, and a valve to attach to your cold water line, and an RO (reverse osmosis) faucet. Caveat, I recommend a dual dishwasher/RO air gap, or at least an RO air gap faucet, which are NOT included. > Since my old system was a 1/4" tubing system (like the APEC ROES-50), I used the old 1/4" water supply line (meaning that I did not have to install any adapters, splitters, valves, nor a new line). I could have used my old RO faucet --- but I chose to use the (included) new faucet. EASE OF INSTALLATION > The two hardest parts of a new installation are installing the adapter (if necessary), a spliter, valve, and a new cold water supply line, AND drilling a hole in your countertop for the reverse osmosis faucet. If you install a dual dishwasher/RO air gap, that will require a second hole. Since I did NOT have to do any of that, my installation was very easy. Essentially, all I had to do was install a valve on the new tank (very easy), install the 3 primary filters (very easy), and connect lines to the water supply, to the tank, and to the RO faucet (easy). > Connecting the lines to the water supply, to the incoming water line, water tank, and to the RO faucet was very easy: You pull out plugs from the connectors, insert the new lines (IMPORTANT -- as deep as they will go), and then pull out on the new lines to tighten the connection. Remarkable. Installing the connections on my old system was much more difficult, and almost invariably leaked. The new quick connections were ridiculously easy, and after about 2 months, have not leaked. OTHER OPTIONS > Tempted by a smaller, more compact system? That's fine for a drinking water system, say in an office. But check out the tank capacity. You need a 5 gallon tank (which can actually deliver only 2--3 gallons at-a-time) for a home kitchen system. You may never use more than a gallon at a time, but that first gallon will be delivered quickly -- the second or third gallon will be tad slower. If you want a fourth or fifth gallon, you'll have to wait a half-hour or so. > I considered a ca $30 more expensive 3/8" line system (largely because I suspected that a 3/8" system would be less leak-prone). I'm glad I did not buy it. For one thing, I would have had to install new fittings for the water supply to the RO system. It is claimed that the 3/8" system fills big cooking pots quickly, but frankly, the 1/4" system does as well --- the difference would be measured in seconds. Theoretically, if you had to fill, say, five 2-gallon pots (a hypothetical 10 gallons total) at-a-time, a few more seconds per gallon might matter --- but the actual 5-gallon tank capacity is only 2--3 gallons (depending on your water pressure) at a time, so you can't fill five 2-gallon pots at-a-time anyway. By the way a 2--3 gallon capacity might sound inadequate, but in 25 years, I've never felt the need for greater capacity -- I virtually never used more than a gallon at a time. (As I understand it, it is possible to gang more storage tanks for greater capacity). Perhaps with several tanks ganged together (easily possible), or one or more larger tanks, such a system might be useful in a small commercial kitchen. > You can pay more for a 100 gallon/day rated system, but what's the point of that? You still can get only 2--3 gallons at-a-time (with a single 5-gallon tank). Again, perhaps with several 5 tanks ganged together (easily possible), or one or more larger tanks, such a system might be useful in a small commercial kitchen. Moreover, presumably a 100 gallon/day system probably generates 2x more RO wastewater than a 50 gallon/day system -- and the difference may add up to considerably higher water bills. > It was my impression that the ROES-50 system came with standard fittings, and that I'd have to pay more for a quick-connect system. But my ROES-50 system came with quick-connect fittings. No error by APEC nor Amzn -- the box and instructions were clearly labeled "ROES-50". TIPS > When installing the cold water supply, tank, faucet, and drain lines, it is best NOT to shorten them for a neater installation (as I did for my first RO system). In the future, you may need to change the water tank and the reverse osmosis faucet, and maybe even your main sink faucet. In the past 30 years I've changed my main faucet 3 times, my RO faucet 3 times, my RO tank 3 times, and my RO membrane 4 times, plus changing the other RO filters many times. If you shorten the lines, you might have to disconnect various lines for access, which can be surprisingly confusing, and might be difficult to re-install without leakage. If you leave the lines long, you can probably simply move the RO system aside for access without having to disconnect anything. > To install the cold water supply, tank, and reverse osmosis faucet lines, keep the connection clean until installation (i.e., don't remove the plugs early, and wipe off the ends of the lines with a paper towel (or, better, a clean cloth) just before you insert them into the connectors). Insert the end of the line as deep into the connector as it will go, then pull back hard to set the connection. Leave 3--5" space with your cabinet walls (or door) so that there is no sideways strain on the lines at the connectors. > Use (food grade) silicon grease (NOT included) when installing the three big filter housings. The 3" diameter o-rings in the three big filter housings come greased already with silicon grease (be careful not to contaminate the surfaces of the greased o-rings with dust or grit). When you change the filters in the future, you should clean the o-rings (until no more black carbon comes off on a paper towel), and re-grease them with silicon grease, and wipe off the excess. > The 2 large carbon filters also have rubber disks, which are best lightly greased with silicon grease (wipe off all excess). Don't forget to remove the shrink plastic around the three big filters before installing them (as one reviewer claimed that her plumber had failed to do). > APEC recommends installing the RO drainline into your sink drain pipe as low as practical to avoid the sounds of RO waste water dripping into your sink drain. Instead, I suggest installing the RO drainline below the level that the drain line exits the RO manifold (which depends on where and how you mount the RO manifold), but otherwise as high as possible, to minimize backflow from your sink U trap, which really has disgusting stuff (mats of bacteria) in it. Beware that the water level in your sink waste line can be higher than the top of the sink drainline U-trap if your sink is draining slowly. Be vigilant to maintain your sink waste line clear at all times and that water never backs up. [See "No Air Gap" below for a better idea] > Applying silicon grease to the threads of the big filter housings makes them easier to tighten tight enough to prevent leakage, and to later loosen to change the filters. (Read some of the negative reviews which complain that it is impossible to tighten the housings tight enough to stop leaks, or that it is impossible to remove the housings to replace filters. Trust me --- use silicon grease on the housing threads. Screw the filter housings on and off several times to be sure that the silicon grease is well spread). CAUTION -- Some day, your system or your sink will leak. So, I very strongly suggest that you invest in a leak detection alarm. You don't need to get fancy. You don't need WiFi and other silly features. I bought a package of 2 alarms for $8 twenty years ago, and they have saved my hotwater heater cabinet from being destroyed, and my sink cabinet from being destroyed a half-dozen times. These days $10 (each) alarms are good enough for this purpose. Weathertek (and probably some other manufacturers) also makes a sink cabinet mat which I highly recommend. The mat catches leaks before they puddle up enough to trigger your leak alarm. Slow leaks can damage press-board cabinets without setting off a leak alarm. NO AIR GAP > RO systems require a wastewater drain line --- almost always draining into your sink drain pipe. That's because additional water is used to flush the reverse osmosis filter --- you've got to get rid of those sodium ions, calcium ions , chloride ions, etc. trapped by the osmosis filter, or the filter would be quickly hopelessly clogged up. That RO wastewater has to drain somewhere. > I was surprised by the lack of an airgap in the wastewater line in the APEC ROES-50 system (which is usually built into included RO faucets). The cheapest option is to connect your RO wastewater line to your dishwasher air gap (if your dishwasher is adjacent to your RO system, and has an airgap). > The best option is to use a "dual inlet air gap" specifically designed for a dishwasher and an RO system --about $40 from Amzn. There is even a model with a 1/4" push-in fitting on the RO side (the same type fitting as this APEC ROES-50 system for all the other connections). The only downside to a dishwasher/RO airgap is that you need another ~1" diameter hole in your countertop. Also, the APEC ROES-50 wasteline is 3/8", so you'll need a 3/8" to 1/4" tubing adapter -- but that's cheap and easy. > If your dishwasher is NOT adjacent to your RO system, you can replace the included RO faucet with an airgap RO faucet. Easy-pesy, but an extra expense, and not as good a solution as a dishwasher/RO airgap. > If your RO system drains into the highest sink in your house or building, which is also and the highest sink in your neighborhood, you do NOT live in a flood zone, and your water pressure is stable (even after severe storms, etc.) -- then you are probably okay without an airgap, albeit I'd still recommend a combined dishwasher/RO air gap. > If you are at a comparatively low elevation of a municipal sewage system (i.e., if sewage may flow into your home during a flood, etc.), then an air gap RO system is recommended (and probably mandated by law if you are connected to a municipal water system). You MAY be able to recover from a potential contamination event by replacing ALL of the filters in the system (at about the cost of an entirely new system, which would be a better idea), but the true danger is in not knowing that your system has been contaminated. > Without an air gap, your system can become contaminated simply from the sewage-like gunk in your sink drain line if your RO system ever looses water pressure (say during a widespread power outage that shuts down the municipal water pumps, or even during maintenance of the municipal water lines). If your system is for vacation home etc., where you may turn off the water for long periods (or otherwise your water pressure is not continuous), then an airgap is probably essential. WHY IS A DISHWASHER AIR GAP BETTER THAN AN AIR GAP RO FAUCET? > That sewage like bacteria in your sink U-trap can grow up into your RO drain line and clog it, causing your air gap faucet to leak onto your counter (it is designed to do this). Your air gap RO faucet wastewater drainline needs to be cleaned every 4-6 months. Read the reviews -- several reviewers claim that they replace their entire RO systems every 2 years or so because of the leakage from the RO airgap faucet (even though, obviously, it would be much more practical to simply clean the RO wastewater line). > Cleaning the wastewater line of an RO airgap faucet usually means disconnecting the RO drainline at the U-bend and running a special brush up the drain line to the RO air gap faucet. Alternatively, RO air gap faucets usually have a ~1/8" diameter drain hole on the side, and it is possible to force a blast of air, or to inject an ounce or so of Clorox through the drain hole (and down the RO waste-water line) with a large syringe. The problem is that it is easy to forget to clean the line on schedule, and wake up to a flood on your countertop some morning. It's happened to me MANY times. > WHY WON'T AN RO WASTE WATER LINE ALSO CLOG IF IT IS ROUTED THROUGH A DISHWASHER AIR GAP? A bacterial mat won't grow up your dishwasher wasteline because the drain line is much larger, much longer, and is vigorously flushed every time you run your dishwasher -- and even if the bacterial mat got to the dishwasher air gap, the airgap would stop it from getting any farther. > Why does the APEC ROES-50 have a 3/8" wastewater line even though my old RO system had a 1/4" RO waste water line? This is apparently APECs attempt to reduce the probability of clogging of the RO wasteline with a sewage-like bacterial mat growing from the U-trap of your sink drain pipe. But, in my opinion the larger wastewater line only slows down the wastewater flow velocity, making it easier for the bacterial mat to grow up the line and into your RO system (since there is no air gap to stop it).