Reverse Osmosis System

A friend of mine did the whole house route (in the metro). He claimed it cost a little bit more, but he enjoys it for showers and washing clothes and all that. But I've never heard of anyone else doing this, and would imagine it would take a system 10X the size of one for just drinking.
 
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I put one in when we bought our house. Its a GE under the sink model.

I lucked out because my sump pump is directly below it in the basement so I just installed everything down there and then ran the lines upstairs to the sink and let it drain into the sump pit.
 
I put one in when we bought our house. Its a GE under the sink model.

I lucked out because my sump pump is directly below it in the basement so I just installed everything down there and then ran the lines upstairs to the sink and let it drain into the sump pit.
That's definitely a nice setup to have!
 
I am wanting to install a reverse osmosis system in my house. My plan was to get a unit installed in the utility room for the fridge line and kitchen sink (not whole home). Anyone that has an RO system, do you have -

-recommendations on best RO units
-recommendations on plumbers in the DSM/Ankeny area for installation if needed
-insight/experience on owning one.
-opinions on whole home vs system for specific lines used for drinking/cooking water.

Thanks in advance for your replies!
We have exactly what you are wanting to put in. We have a Culligan system and it's worked flawlessly. The water is so good that I can even use it in my ultrasonic record cleaner.
 
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We are literally doing this in our house this week. I bought a water drop to install under the sink.
With the under sink unit, are you connecting it to your existing faucet or are you putting in a separate faucet just for drinking water?
 
We have exactly what you are wanting to put in. We have a Culligan system and it's worked flawlessly. The water is so good that I can even use it in my ultrasonic record cleaner.
BTW...our system is installed underneath the kitchen where our utility (furnace, hot water) room is. Made it easy to run lines.
 
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We have exactly what you are wanting to put in. We have a Culligan system and it's worked flawlessly. The water is so good that I can even use it in my ultrasonic record cleaner.
That's really funny you say that, because my two research topics this week have been RO systems and starting a vinyl collection
 
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A friend of mine did the whole house route (in the metro). He claimed it cost a little bit more, but he enjoys it for showers and washing clothes and all that. But I've never heard of anyone else doing this, and would imagine it would take a system 10X the size of one for just drinking.
I have an RO system for an aquarium, & I later connected the fridge/ice maker. IMO the whole house deal is silly*, just run a softener for the shower and other stuff. Should be running one anyway if you're doing RO water.

*Silly: they make a ton of wastewater (Generally 2-4x the RO output) and besides drinking water, there is little if any benefit to RO water versus softened water.
 
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A friend of mine did the whole house route (in the metro). He claimed it cost a little bit more, but he enjoys it for showers and washing clothes and all that. But I've never heard of anyone else doing this, and would imagine it would take a system 10X the size of one for just drinking.
Did he install a water softener or a whole house filters system? A whole house RO! I've never heard of that before.
 
Do as much as you can.

Whole house of you can.

The amount of chlorine alone absorbed from showering/bathing is more than you think.
 
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I installed an Aquasure water softener back in November and it works GREAT. I am now looking at a RO system from them for the kitchen sink. The rest of the house will still have soft water but I will install a separate faucet for drinking water. The watersoftener was pretty easy to install and the RO system looks easy as well.
 
Did he install a water softener or a whole house filters system? A whole house RO! I've never heard of that before.

He told me whole house to, but I wonder if he meant softener.

I've never actually seen his plumbing setup; we're not that close :jimlad:
 
Living in the beautiful metropolis of Marion we have to have a softener. So you are saying that does the same thing essentially as RO?
 
Living in the beautiful metropolis of Marion we have to have a softener. So you are saying that does the same thing essentially as RO?
Ahhhh yes that good old Marion Water. I grew up in Marion, my wife in Cedar Rapids. She would rather die of dehydration than drink Marion Water.

A softener and RO system don't do the same thing. The softener uses chemical processes to remove calcium and magnesium making the water soft. The RO system filters the water for other contaminants, metals, organisms, etc.
 
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West Des Moines water, particularly out near the Norwalk border, tastes like pool water. We just got a RO system installed under our sink. So far it's pretty nice, our water tastes like nothing.

I think we used Golden Rule
It should taste like nothing as the purpose of RO is to strip everything...good and bad. With that said, unless you are adding nutrients back into what you are drinking, your water is providing ZERO benefit to drinking water.....removes essential electrolytes.
 
We have the Watt's Premiere Pure RO Plus 4 stage system. Have had many of the cheap eBay types and they were all a PIA to change the filters. This one has cartridges that are quick connect so it takes seconds to change them without getting water everywhere. We actually have two of them, one for Kitchen/Fridge and one in the master bathroom. We've had these for several years and I would never go back to the filter ones, the cartridges are so easy. Would also recommend getting a handheld TDS meter ($10) from Amazon so you know when to change the first two stage cartridges. The second two stages very rarely need replacement.

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Do as much as you can.

Whole house of you can.

The amount of chlorine alone absorbed from showering/bathing is more than you think.
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@Tailg8er

Laugh all you want.

A 10 minute shower is the equivalent of drinking 8 glasses of unfiltered water as far as chlorine bodily absorption.

So doing one without the other is only part of the solution.