I first experienced a reverse osmosis system when I met a friend of mine many years ago. His water tasted remarkably better than our city water, made coffee that tasted better and wasn’t leaving hard water deposits in his kettle like my city water was. The taste is what really got me as I had always really liked the taste of my city’s water. I asked him about it, and he told me about his water filtering system. He was under a contract for this RO system at the time as internet sales weren’t so commonplace. It more or less got pushed to the back of my mind until we lived in a house that had pretty awful drinking water. Think a swimming pool that has a bunch of lawn clippings dumped in it. I purchased a RO system from a big box store that happened to have them and installed it. The water wasn’t as good as my friend’s water, but it was a vast improvement. I mentioned this to my friend a few months later and he picked up one of those systems as well, happily saving more than the cost of the unit the first year he no longer was under a service contract. My city has a lake for a water source. In some years, during part of the summer, the algae blooms slightly influence the smell of the water. It doesn’t really come through so much in the taste, but you do get a hint of it. During one of these a few years ago, I wasn’t feeling so good and the bare hint of the smell was enough to set me over the edge. I ordered the cheapest system with good reviews, this APEC system, and installed it. I could immediately tell the water was noticeably better than the big box store system. Since then, I have either installed or helped install 7 of the APEC RO systems. Most systems were installed on city water in an area with fairly hard water with water pressures ranging from 55-120psi. (Pressure regulated on the low end, unregulated were 85-120 depending on how close they are to the pumping station) One was installed on well water in the same area, 65psi. The well water had 650ppm in dissolved solids, local tap water has about 115-120ppm. After cycling the tanks, they all came out to between 12 and 18ppm. Fill rate for the RO tanks varies among pressures, but none of them had low water issues during daily use. One instance that did crop up was during parties or points of exceptional heavy water use. When I installed my system, I had no problems until I had a party and ran out of water. The 50 gallon per day rate suddenly became obvious, taking three or four minutes to fill a glass. Being cheap and realizing the problem, I ordered a second tank. When talking with friends on which to buy, we pretty much stick to the APEC line. While the APEC 90 system does fill faster, and would be fantastic for anyone who uses about 90 gallons per day, most families don’t use 50 gallons a day. After going by the increased costs for replacement filters vs tanks, everyone I have helped has chosen an extra tank or two for occasional use. On fittings and installation: The ROES-50 system uses 1/4” fittings, and includes everything you need to install the system. I have tried multiple brands of fittings, and after some extremely unpleasant results from several brands; I now only use either John Guest or Malida branded fittings. With other brands, I have had them fail to hold under pressure, Leak, fail to hold at all and I have even had some (More than one manufacturer) that arrived smelling so strongly of rotten fish that I had to air out the other items that came in the box. For longer runs of 20 feet or so, I usually step the size of the tube up to 3/8 inch. The tank that I placed under my kitchen faucets sits 10 feet or so down, and I have a 3/8 inch tube going from that tank to the tap to increase the speed of filling a glass. It was a marked improvement over the 1/4 inch tube I tried first. One of my friends wanted a tank directly under his bar, about a foot and a half from the top of the tank to the bottom of the faucet. Using the standard 1/4” tube, the faucet fills glasses extremely quickly. Pressure at the faucet are directly related to the both the vertical distance from the tank to the faucet, and the resistance of the tubing. If you have one faucet in a bathroom 50 feet away from a second faucet in the kitchen, it might be easier putting a second tank close to the second faucet rather than installing a larger diameter line. The tank will fill at close to the same rate, but delivery will be much quicker, and any holes drilled can be smaller. About the tanks: The bladders in the tanks occasionally rupture. When they do, and when they are the only tank in the system, you get half a glass of water, and then the system slows to a trickle. The industry said ruptures happen once every five to ten years or so. I have experienced three. The first was my friend’s tank, but at 20-25 years old, it had done pretty well. The second was one of the big box store brands, and the third was a different brand purchased from amazon. I have not had an APEC tank rupture on me yet, but I don’t really expect that’s due to anything other than luck. On a multi tank system, the change of a single ruptured tank is not likely noticeable unless you have installed a tank close to a faucet for increased flow. I test mine occasionally by turning them all off and only turning on one at a time to test. Odd things about my own house installation: I installed a separate APEC mineralizing cartridge on an extra faucet in my kitchen. I rarely want mineralized water, but wanted the option when I wanted it. On a branch line from the main kitchen faucet, I installed a one way valve and mounted an APEC Calcium Carbonate cartridge on the wall. As it gets very little usage, the cartridge will last me many years. As I do Homebrewing, I have ten tanks, which gives me about 30-35 gallons capacity. I have one installed under the kitchen taps, one installed under the bathroom, and the remaining eight in an array near the filter unit. I bought most of them separately over time. Most of the time I only have three tanks turned on. I leave the two tanks that are far away from the filter on all the time but once a month, I turn off the active tank and turn on the next one. When I am getting ready to brew, I turn on all the tanks and use what I need. I do NOT use the included piercing valve, as they can eventually leak, or cause a leak. Instead, I install a 1/4” compression fitting on the cold supply line with a shutoff to supply the RO system. All in all, I have had extremely good results with the APEC systems.
