I live in a hard water area. Until now, I've been using a standard water filter like Brita, which has worked fine, but I could never achieve the clarity I was looking for in my coffee.

So last week, I dipped my toe in the world of water recipes. I got myself a zero water filter, read up about remineralisation and made a few litres of coffee brewing water.

I wasn't sure what to expect or if it would make a difference, but man was I surprised! The difference is insane. It was the missing piece to tasty coffee that I had been searching for for so long. Needless to say, I'm sold now and theres no going back for me.

What concerns me us how much of a pain in the ass it is. I have to have a bottle for the mineral water concentrate, a filter jug for the distillation and another jug for the remineralised water. I don't know if I want all that hassle every day for the rest of my life.

So the question now is how can I streamline this?

I live in a rented city apartment, so space is limited and I can't make any big changes like under-sink ro installations. I have looked at countertop ro units, but they're very pricey

Is there anyone else here who makes their own water? How do you manage this? Any advice for someone who is just starting out?

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[–] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (22 children)

6-staged filter and reverse osmosis system with a remineralization stage as the last. This gives me treated water for cooking, espresso, drinking basically on tap. My unit installed under the sink and needed a connection to water line, drain, and a dedicated spigot, so not sure how feasable that is for an apartment.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 1 month ago (20 children)

    Does that live under your sink?

    Honestly, that seems like the best solution, if you own your own home. I'm renting, so I'm unsure about modifying the kitchen

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

    I rent and have a 3 stage water drop RO that lives under the sink. The tap is screw on and can be removed when I leave, and the drain is similarly attached between the dishwasher drain and sink connection with hose clamps also easily removable. At my last place there was no hole for the spout so I just 3D printed a bracket to attach it to under the sink. My new place has an unused sink hole that I plan on putting it on here.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (3 children)

    That sounds really interesting. Could you share the system you are using?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    It's the waterdrop g3p800. I actually got it for free because the company accidentally refunded me when they sent me the wrong one at first lol. Most under sink systems I've seen are easy to attach and remove because the water supply is just a splitter that you screw on in between where your cold tap connects to the pipe from the wall. The drain fitting wasn't included for mine but I found the "Watts universal drain line to garbage disposal" adapter on Amazon which lets you connect a push fitting tube to where the dishwasher already connects to a garbage disposal. Typically the system I got includes a "drain saddle" where you are expected to drill a hole in the drain pipe and clamp a thing in that lets you connect the drain from the filter to the drain pipe and I wanted to avoid that (RO systems flush their filters periodically so the flush water needs a place to go). Beyond that, the only challenge is where to put the filtered tap if you don't have an existing hole up through the sink deck, but like I did in my old place, just having the filtered tap underneath the sink works fine if you don't mind your guests seeing under your sink.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Thank you, I'll take a look at that unit.

    Did I understand correctly that your system isn't connected to the drains? Could you elaborate on how you dispose of the waste water?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    Like I mentioned I used a drain line adapter for garbage disposal for the drain on mine. As long as you have a dishwasher, there should be a spot you can disconnect it and connect an adapter in between for the RO drain line to also drain.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (11 children)

    Sorry, you replied while I was editing, I had accedently clicked post before I was done. See above.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 month ago (10 children)

    Thank you!

    Yes, it sounds like quite a big piece of work for a rented space...

    That is the dream setup, though.

    What do you do with the waste water for the ro process?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago* (9 children)

    I did a quick search and found there are countertop versions

    https://bluevua.com/products/ropot-countertop-reverse-osmosis-water-system

    For the waste, it goes to the septic, but I'm going to start collecting it since it is already been through all of the other filter stages before the RO,planing on useing it for water changes in the fishtank.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    Thats right, I have seen those units, but I dont know how reliable they are and they are not cheap!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (6 children)

    fwiw I've had this one for like 3 years now, no complaints. think it's slightly cheaper on ex amazon tho https://aquatru.com/products/carafe-countertop

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (3 children)

    What a yucky/scammy/click baitty website vibe, what's with the "click here to reveal your secret discount" and the forced subscriptions &auto billing on filters?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    yeah it's kinda awful, but I like linking directly to amazon even less lol

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    It also just appears that you can't change the RO membrane? Can't tell because it's purposely vague, but looks like if you don't get the subcription you don't get any filter to start with and have to pay an additional $90?

    Edit: its is RO but I don't see the RO membrane as one of the replaceable filters.

    Edit 2: found the RO membrane, it's $60 every 2 years so yearly cost will be $120 ($90 for filter + $60/2 for RO Membrane)

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    That's actually the unit I've been looking it. It's pretty expensive, so I'm glad to hear you are getting good use out of it.

    Would you recommend it? Is there anything about it you would change?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    nothing major.

    we have pretty hard water here, it was killing one of the generic charcoal pitcher filters within a month. the filters in this one haven't had any problems by the time they are scheduled to be replaced.

    a couple possibly annoying things:

    • the reservoir is on the back, so it's not great against a wall under cabinets. they have a little cart you can buy explicitly to help with that, but it felt silly so I just put it somewhere else
    • you can't just top up the reservoir, you have to wait for it to finish, dump it out, then refill. annoying when there's just half a tank left. I end up just trying to use an entire pitcher by dumping it into kettle/espresso machine whenever I use any water so reservoir is either entirely full or empty. afaik true of any of them that aren't plumbed in.
    • don't love the fact that I'm locked in to the manufacturers' filters. there don't seem to be any third party ones available if they ever discontinue them
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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    I also have a 6-stage RO filter under the kitchen sink. Cutting the hole in the sink/counter for the dedicated spigot is probably where a landlord will take issue. But tapping water and drain lines also would be problematic, but at least it's out of sight.

    I also put a whole-home UV filter on my cold water line after the sediment filter and softener.

    At this point, I could put pond water into the beginning of my water system and have a clean glass of drinking water out of the ro spigot.

    Well water, amirite?

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