Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was looking for a reverse osmosis water filter which doesn't waste too much water ( I live in the California - the Drought Stricken state ) I was leaning on to watt's zero waste system but i didn't like that it actually doesn't really save water, but it just redirects the waste water to the hot water pipeline using a pump. I was worried about the high back pressure causing any leaks or damage to plumbing. Finally saw this one in Amazon and thought I will give a try with this. According to the comparison charts they have, this one wastes much less water than other Reverse osmosis filters using their own technology ( that I don't really understand . I am an Engineer, but not a mechanical engineer. And the documents they have published online was not really something I could digest with my brain. Anyway, I got the first one, and while trying to install we noted that the intake shutoff valve that came with the unit was broken and I will not be able to use that at all. I contacted Amazon customer service and they readily initiated a free return and advised me that I could re order another one. The next one I ordered was luckily a good unit. I am not very good with tools, but the installation took me just about an hour, including unpacking, setting up, drilling the hole for the waste water and even fitting the faucet in the extra hole we had in the sink. And once I turned on the valve, in about 40 min the tank was full. As told in the instructions, I drained the water and allowed it to fill again, and then the tasted the next one. It was really clean and crisp. I almost had forgotten how good water tastes after having the hard water being filtered with just a Brita filter. ( Brita is good, but after just couple of days, the hard water tastes will popup until the next filter change, so was not really a good way for drinking water. ) Its been a month since I had this installed and so far no issues at all. We use about a gallon of water per day for drinking. ( I don't really care about the extra calcium in the water if I am not drinking plain water. ) Pros: - NO need for electricity., but still works perfectly with the water pressure/the ballon inside the tank giving a nice flow of filered water whenever needed. - Easy installation. If you already have a hole for the faucet, then all you need is an adjustable wrench and a drill to fit the waste water connection. - One box which looks good. But I dont really care about the looks. its anyway under the sink. Being it all in a single box helps avoid other stuff getting stuck between the filters etc. but no big deal. - Nice clean tasting water. NO more hard water taste. - When compared to other Reverse osmosis filters, very less water wastage. ( I haven't really measured it yet, but I plan do do it sometime soon. The waste water line is connected to the drainage via a easy fix connection, so its easy to connect it to a measuring jar and measure how much it is really wasting. - Cons: - The intake shutoff valve which goes to the cold water connection has a very weak link. The handle which is very tiny, which controlls on/off positions is like very fragile. If you plan to use it many times, I am pretty sure it will break soon. I had my first one already broken when I got the package. They should definitely have a better QA Process for this to make sure this kind of issues never happens. Or may be even recall the part and send a replacement with better design to all customers. - Not sure whether I can buy the replacement filters from any other manufacturers. In case they stop the model and parts, I am not sure what to do. However I think thats probably true with other RO filters as well. I am not very familiar though. - Even though it is a single box, it sitll is pretty big. I could just fit it barley under my sink. I wish they come up with a smaller sized model as well. This one has a 6Liter capacity for filtered water, but may be they can come up with a 4 liter ( about 1Gallon) capacity, as smaller families only need that much. And it takes only 40 minutes to fill it again. so if you are using it primarily for drinking water, we can always have a water pitcher outside. Also it helps to have a smaller size for people with less under sink space. UPDATE: 4/4/2016: The unit is still working as good as new. Clean tasting water so far. I use approximately 1 gallon of water per day on average so its not yet time for replacement according to the recommended replacement cycle for any of the filters. I did finally get some time to test the actual water wastage. Today, I made sure that the tank is full and then disconnected the waste water outlet and put it into my own bucket. Since the tank was full, no water was coming out of it at all. Then I filled my water jug ( 2 quarts ) and a water bottle ( about 600ml ), so approximately 2.5L ( 2.6Quarts ) of water was taken from the tank. The filter started filtering and filling the tank immediately, and the waste water started coming out. After about 20-25 min or so, it stopped competely. And when I measured it came to approximately a little less than 1.5Gallon.