Culligan FM-15A Level 3 Faucet Filter
by Culligan
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Culligan FM-15A Level 3 Faucet Filter
Customer Review: Cleaned my pipes well!!
Summary: 5 Stars
My town is currently going through upgrades to most of the water mains around my house. This has caused our water to take on a horrible chlorine like smell and sour taste. The water department told us that it is just the residual ......(they never explained what the residual is!!) and that the smell and taste would be gne within a few days. After a full week and living off of bottled water, I decided to give this faucet water filter a try due to its low price.
I got the filter and had it installed in under 30 seconds. For me, that is huge as I am petrified of anything plumbing related. For anyone with modern plumbing this filter just screws on to your existing faucet with no tools necessary. If you have an older faucet, this comes with multiple attachments that are supposed to fit most other connections. I can't comment on that as mine went on without needeing them.
Once it is installed you need to run the water for about 10 minutes or so to completely clean out the filter and then you are ready to go. To activate the filter you need to pull out the metal tab. Once the water is shut off, the tab automatically returns to its closed position so the filter is shut off. The water will automatically run through the normal faucet until you pull the tab agin for filtered water.
After my filter was "cleaned" I filled to glasses with water. One from the unfiltered tap and one from the filter. The unfiltered water had the horrible chlorine smell and sour taste(and waht appeared to be a lot of sediments). The filtered water had zero smell, no sediments and tasted, well...didn't really have a taste at all. Just plain water which is what I expect from my water!
So far, I am very happy with this filter. I will post back once I need to change out the filter (2 months or 200 gallons) to give an update if I have any problems. But for now, the price can't be beat to get great tasting and clean water from my tap. And I am happy I don't have to spend $1 or more per gallon for water at the market which, in my opinion, is no better than most tap water.
Update: February 18, 2009*****
After a full two months of use I can say that my initial impressions have not changed. The water filter has continued to operate as expected and I find myself drinking more water than in the past due to the clean taste.
My only issue is with replacement cartridges. The only place I can find them is here on Amazon. Problem is that the seller has them listed for $9.50 or so plus $7.50 for shipping bringing the total cost to $17.00 (or my original purchase price of the unit itself. The listing only states one filter so the cost to replace a filter is the same as buying an entire unit.
Amazon recently reduced the price of the whole unit to $14 and change. Because of this, I find it cheaper to just buy the entire unit rather than just the filter. I get free shipping from Amazon so I ended up buying two more units. Hopefully the filters will become available through Amazon (as the seller) so we are not hit with shipping charges that are almost as much as the filter itself. Otherwise, I will end up with a ton of leftover parts!
Customer Review: Sick and tired of PUR? Get this
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start of giving a few bullet points when compared to other faucet filter like PUR.
Pros:
Does not leak
Cheaper
Easier to change cartridge
Smaller in size
Con:
Slower water outflow
Difficult to find in stores
I have used various version of PUR faucet filter as well as a Dupont faucet filter (PUR FM-3700 3 Stage Vertical Faucet Mount with Filter Chrome, PUR FM-9400 3 Stage Horizontal Faucet Mount with Filter Chrome, FM100W DUPONT Faucet Mount Filtration System (White)). These faucet filters eventually all leaked around the connection joint in a few months. I would then tighten the joint more and more and finally they completely fell apart. For years, I accepted this as the norm and treated the PUR faucet filters as disposable items. I would get a new PUR faucet filter when the leak gets to be too bad. I have bought 4 or more PUR faucet filters.
Finally, I decided to look around for a water faucet filter which lasts. I searched on Amazon and found this faucet filter with amazing reviews especially regarding its ability to resist leakage. The rest is history. I bought it and have been quite happy. I wanted to write a review earlier, but I also want to use it long enough to stand by my claims.
The Culligan filtered water tastes fine; I cannot say it is better or worse than PUR filter water. The filter cartridge is easy to change because there are handles to grab onto; easier than changing PUR cartridges. Both the Culligan faucets and cartridges are cheaper than their counterparts from PUR. It is smaller and therefore does not get in the way like the PUR filters. Most importantly, the faucet has not once leaked. This is absolutely amazing. I am willing to pay three times as much for this filter just because it does not leak.
A shortcoming of this faucet filter is that the filtered water comes out slower than that from a PUR filter, but it is not unreasonably slow. In my experience, the water flow from a PUR filter dramatically decreases as its cartridge ages, whereas the water flow from this filter is stable from beginning to end. Culligan is about 50% slower than a PUR filter with a newly installed cartridge and Culligan is the same as a PUR filter with a well-used cartridge. Another shortcoming is that this filter and replacement cartridges are difficult to find in stores.
I highly recommend this product.
Customer Review: Blood, Sweat & Tears So Far! Now Let's See...
Summary: 4 Stars
I have high hopes for this Culligan Faucet-Filter; it had BETTER deliver - it's taken lotsa sweat even to get it installed! [Okay, I exaggerated in my caption, talking of blood and tears. Sue me.]
I earlier bought a Pur Faucet-Filter, but returned it to the store unopened, scared off by the multiple reviews claiming that its plastic components cracked with little use. Passed on getting a Brita for the same reason. The glowing reviews of this Culligan model, many emphasizing its robust metal fittings, sold me on it. So, via Amazon, made the purchase.
The Filter arrived with Amazon's usual shipping speed; then trouble began. Turns out the faucet in my apartment is from an older era, with a smaller diameter than today's standard fittings. So its external threads couldn't begin to mate with the corresponding internal threads of the Culligan's built-in sleeve. The Culligan came with two different male/male couplers, but both of those were designed to allow its sleeve to mate with internally threaded faucets. I needed a true male/female adapter, externally threaded on one end to mate with the Culligan's sleeve and internally threaded on the other end to mate with my faucet. Trips to Lowe's and Home Depot were fruitless. One of them actually had the right type of adapter, but in much too large a size.
A desperate call to Culligan gave me the verdict from their technician that the two couplers as packaged with their Filter were all they could provide; I was on my own. Drats.
Cutting to the chase, salvation came with a trip to this local specialty plumbing supplier which everyone kept telling me about. After describing to them what I needed, we started exploring their bins where such adapters and couplers were stored; most of these bins were empty and it looked like a losing cause... until one bin had exactly two of the little baby I needed, at $2.40. Sold!
I've rated this Culligan Filter less than a full Five Stars because the aggravation and turmoil of seeking out that extra accessory to make it work has to detract from the product, even if it is not their fault that my faucet doesn't meet the latest standards. Several reviewers here have reported the identical problem, and most assigned this Filter One Star as a result.
So far, I've noticed that the water-flow through the filter is half of what the bare faucet allows, but this is to be expected and will be tolerable as long as it doesn't lessen significantly. As to the taste test, that is yet to come.
A follow-up review will appear from me in due course.
Customer Review: Finally, a good quality faucet-mount water filter
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using a Brita filter pitcher for the past seven years. It still works fine, but I've gotten tired of having to constantly replace the filters, and it seems like the new filters aren't doing quite as good a job as the old ones, so I decided to look into a faucet filter. I immediately ruled out the ones made by Brita and PUR after reading all the bad reviews.
When I came across this filter from Culligan and saw the high number of favorable reviews, I decided to give it a try.
I've had the Culligan FM-15A for a couple of weeks and so far, so good! It does a nice job of making my water taste better. It doesn't taste quite as lovely as a cold bottle of Poland Spring, but it does taste as good as, or slightly better than, the water I used to get from my Brita pitcher.
Installation was simple and took about five minutes. The only tricky part was trying to figure out which adapter to use in my internally-threaded faucet. After that, it was smooth sailing.
The instructions say that the filter core is good for two months or 200 gallons. Since I live alone and certainly don't drink 200 gallons of water every two months (I probably drink a gallon a day at the very most, which would be 60 gallons every two months), I wasn't exactly sure when I should replace the filter. I sent an e-mail to Culligan and received a reply the next day. They stated the most important factor is how much water has passed through the filter. So, if you're like me, you can get away with replacing the filter every six months or so. On the other hand, if you have a big family that consumes more than 200 gallons every two months, you may need to replace it sooner than that. I would suggest measuring your drinking water usage for a couple of days, and then sitting down with a calculator to figure out how often you should replace your filter. I'm absolutely thrilled that I'll only have to replace mine every six months!
One final note: the product description on this page (as of the day I'm writing this review) says that the product has a five year warranty; however, the product I received has only a two year warranty. Five would have been nice, but two is still better than one. Hopefully Amazon will update the description accordingly.
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UPDATE August 29, 2010: I've been using this filter for a year and it still works great. Haven't had any problems with it at all. Very happy with it, and have recommended it to friends and family.
Customer Review: IT DOESN'T LEAK!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know why, but I went through THREE Pur faucet filters before finally chucking them in the garbage and buying this Culligan. The Pur filters were always leaking from the connectors. And if you tried to adjust them, you'd end up stripping the plastic from the connector and being left with an unsightly, scraped up piece of plastic on your sink. And if you do manage to get the Pur filter off to try to repair the leak with plumber's tape, good luck getting the filter back on again.
But the Culligan's connector is made of metal (whereas both the filter housing and the connector of the Pur filter was made of plastic), so it's easy to get the Culligan filter on and off the sink without any leaking whatsoever!
I also love how easy it is to replace the filters! Just a twist of the fingers and it comes right out. I once got a deep cut from replacing a Pur filter where the edge of the cap sliced right into my hand while I was twisting it off, since there were no finger grips to hold onto.
The Culligan is also nice b/c it doesn't sit as low as the Pur filter, so you can put tall bottles or water pitchers under it with more ease. And the quality of the filter and the taste of the water is the same, if not better than the Pur filter. My main complaint against the Culligan is that it doesn't have an indicator to show you when to change the filter; they tell you just to mark it on your calendar, when to change the filter next.
One last hesitation I had about switching over was the fact that I didn't see replacement Culligan filters readily available in the stores. Pur replacement filters are sold in bulk at Target and my local warehouse store. But once, when Amazon was running a buy 1, get 1 half off sale on the Culligan filter cartridges, I saw that buying them one by one on Amazon.com was STILL cheaper than buying the Pur filters in bulk at the warehouse store. Add to that the fact that the Culligan filter is cheaper to begin with and you won't have to waste money replacing it periodically when it breaks down and you just have a product that makes good "dollars and sense".