Watts WP5-50 Premier Five-Stage Manifold Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment System
by Watts
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List Price: Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Watts WP5-50 Premier Five-Stage Manifold Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment System
Customer Review: Dummy Proof Install
Summary: 4 Stars
I ordered this unit with Free Super Saver Shipping and it arrived in three days. Amazon.com has yet to dissapoint me. Upon delivery I discovered that the second carbon pre-filter had been improperly seated before it was screwed in at the factory. It crushed the O ring on the plastic housing and gasket on the filter itself. A quick call to Watt resulted in a new plastic housing and filter being shipped out. The support rep was kind, friendly and extreamly helpful.
Install: The unit is easy to install, if your sink and fittings are equal to what is included in the kit. They make it so dummy proof that it makes it diffuclt to modify... To make a long story short, I had to purchase several 3/8 to 1/4 step down/up adapters to get this thing installed. Also, I mounted the water tank in the basment directly under the sink. This saved a whole lot of room under our sink. The only thing under the sink is the filter housing and it hardly takes up any space along the side of our cabinet.
Performance: I monitored the waste water output upon turnig the water on the first time. In my estimation, the unit sent 30 gallons of water down the drain to fill the 3 gallon fresh water tank the first time. That seems to be a lot of wasted water, so I will be looking into a permiate pump. To sum it up this RO unit creates some really fine tasting water. Over all I would recommend it.
Customer Review: Oh if I would have only bought this one the first time
Summary: 5 Stars
This is our second RO system. The first one we bought was a GE from Lowe's. We were in the store, my wife had recently watched an Oprah about water quality and people flushing pills and narcotics down the drain. Turns out those chemicals don't magically disappear. It also turns out that RO systems are the only filters that can reduce their presence.
So, we grab the first decent looking reverse osmosis system from Lowe's. GE is a good brand right? I'll spare you the pain of installation, the confusing instructions, and the unhelpful customer support.
Let's fast-forward one year. In our kitchen sits an unused GE reverse osmosis water filter. The air gap is clogged. There is a miasma of clamps on one of the tubes because at some point the whole thing decided it wanted to leak all over our floor and I had to cut it's water supply off. And that oily film that I called customer service about just never went away. I didn't know clean water had oil in it GE, go figure.
Frustrated, we decided to do our research and give this one more try. Let me cut to the chase. Watts was easy to install. The instructions were great. The hardware, superb. And the thing just works.
The lesson learned? Do your research before you buy. Read reviews, like mine, and don't assume a well-known brand is going to provide the value for you dollars.
Customer Review: Great filter - But Not for Use in Sinks that Back Up Often
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a fantastic product, but I would strongly recommend against this model if you have a sink that backs up often (such as in an old house, like mine). I bought and installed this unit, but had to return if after encountering this problem. Basically, there is a "waste water" tube that connects to your sink's drain pipe, so when the sink backs up, all the water/food/gunk in your sink's drain pipe gets pushed up this tube also and clogs up the actual filter faucet. I spent some time on the phone with Watts support, and they indicated this is a common problem when sinks back up. They recommended purchasing a different model, in this situation, which is the "zero waste water" model. I found it online at costco. This zero-waster model doesn't have the waste water tube,and thus is not succesptible to this problem. (I gave this product 3-stars, because for a limitation this major, I felt the product details should definitely have said "not recommended in situations where drain backs up frequently.")Customer Review: Works great
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a lot of people who complain about the hissing noise - but this is part of how a RO system works - and frankly it is quieter than the older system I had.
As mentioned - I owned an older Watts RO system (I bought it about 8 years ago at my former residence) and this newer model is definitely an upgrade. The water flow is much higher; the water quality excellent, the assembly much easier, and the overall system was better built/designed. I did have one quick connect hose fitting that leaked and I eventually had to pull it out, re-cut the end, and re-install -- but other than that it was pretty easy to set up. One reminder - make sure you install the clean water line to the RO water faucet before you put in the filter / tank as getting to it at the end of assembly is a bit of a pain.
We liked our old system so much, my wife made it a priority to install one in our new home - even before curtains!
Customer Review: Much less tubing to run but noisy
Summary: 4 Stars
Prior to this system I hand an 5 year old WP-5 system that served me well. I was moving so it was time to buy a new system. This system is great! Easy to install. They have drasticly cut down on the amount of plastic lines you have to run.
Cons:
1. Its noisy. Compared to my old system this one is much louder. My old system you would here water running down the drain and a slight bubbleing sound. This system sounds like your dentist is using the sylvia sucker tool.
2. The faucet seems cheap. Compared to my old model which had the push button on the front, this faucet seems underbuilt and flimsy. It does its job but it has a "be careful" look and feel.
Overall: Even with the above cons I think this is an excellent value for the system. The water is better than botteled, tastes great (my friend calls it glacier water) and it almost eliminates hard water buildup in humidifiers.