So which RO system is "the best"?

[Starig]

Hello, I've been trying to find a comparison chart for all the existing Reverse Osmosis systems on the market, but nothing of substance has appeared. I've seen Kenmoore, Watts, and Culligan show up quite a bit, yet I'm unable to determine what the strengths and weaknesses are of these products. It would be great if someone could recommend me a decent RO system as well as a sound a reason for why I should buy it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your time!

Starig

[Andy CWS]

Most ROs have very similar features: A prefilter, Membrane, holding tank, post carbon filter and faucet. Below is a youtube on the new Kinetico K5-RO and an article from a respected water treatment publication.

In addition to those features the K5 also has a WOW tank. This means water on water tank. No air bag and all the handicaps that they have. Also, it is the only one I know that has an automatic membrane rinse system that baths the membrane in RO water causing it to last years longer and produce higher quality water.

Flow rate of 1gpm makes it one of the strongest anywhere. It also provide excellent service for remote locations on fridges, wetbars, etc. It produces 40 gpd under normal household conditions.

Warranty of ten years onparts and upto ten years on membrane.

This is very customizable including up to 5 individual filters working together. These include:

Sediment prefilter—used in well water applications to remove particulates and sediment;
Carbon/Sediment prefilter—used with city water installations to remove particulates and sediment as well as chlorine;
Chloramine prefilter—used with city water applications to remove chloramines, which many municipalities use in place of chlorine;
Volatile organic compounds (VOC) filter—used to remove VOCs (including pesticides, paints and paint strippers, cleaning supplies and building materials);
Purefecta® Virus /Bacteria Guard—uses Purefecta technology to remove bacteria (log 7) and viruses (log 4);
Arsenic Guard—provides extra protection against arsenic V and arsenic III;
Perchlorate Guard—used to remove perchlorate (a by-product of rocket fuel) from water;
Mineral Plus—cartridge that adds magnesium and calcium into treated water; and
GAC postfilter—removes any unwanted tastes and odors from water


Recent youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9XOLiHReHVs

http://www.wateronline.com/content/news/article.asp?DocID={278B9604-2F18-4DBB-A5F9-A4911852ABEE}&Bucket=Current+Headlines

I hope this helped in a comparison.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

[Starig]

Wow, that looks pretty nice! Thanks for the info Andy. Just out of curiousity, what type of filter do you have?

edit - Also, since you seem to know alot, do you if its true that RO is the only way to remove flouride from drinking water?

Thanks,
Starig

[Starig]

Just got back from a kinetico dealer, and I can't believe the prices. 1,800 and 1,600 - yikes! What confused me though was that I couldn't understand why they were so darn expensive - they looked just like every other Reverse Osmosis system out there. The lady there said she wasn't a salesperson and didn't have many answers for me, but she did set me up with an official sales rep this monday. Hopefully, he'll be able to help me answer a few things.

Starig.

[Andy CWS]

Kinetico RO

Not all ROs are the same. Kinetico, in my opinion, makes one of the finest ROs regardless of price. There're features that no other RO has that contributes to longer life, higher quality of water and easy of operation/maintenance.

The tank works off your household pressure rather than the weak pressure from typical bladders. This provides twice the volume, up to three times the capacity per day, and full pressure untill the tank is empty.

It has the only membrane that automatically rinses itself leading up to a 7-year warranty. It offers the only bio-pure system capable of ignoring boiling alerts.

Te new K5 model is the first customizable RO providing many filter variations to suit customers' needs including an even longer warranty on the system and membrane.

http://www.wateronline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid=278b9604-2f18-4dbb-a5f9-a4911852abee&VNETCOOKIE=NO

Let them have at least their say so you can be informed.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

[sparktite]

How much is it, and is there a site where i can buy it, it would be much easier for me to buy online than call some ppl up and make an order?