Don't buy if you live in a rural area. . . .
"I REALLY regret paying over $11,000 for a whole house RO Defender system from US Water Systems. I live in a rural area in a small town with poor public water quality (very hard) and gravity-fed water pressure. The RO system requires a minimum operating pressure of 50-60 PSI to function properly and the plumbers who hooked up our system failed to mention I'd need a pressure boost system to maintain the operating pressure needed to have the unit run properly. You get ZERO support from US Water Systems after you purchase a unit like this. There's no local plumbers who know, or are interested in understanding, how the system is supposed to work, so if you purchase one of these, and live in an area where you're likely to really need one, you need to be aware of what your signing yourself up for. You will be the "expert" protecting your $11,000 investment. The biggest issue I have with this whole system though is the pre-filter design. It's the most common maintenance aspect of the system. The pre-filter is huge and it's impossible to change without making a huge mess and/or damaging the system, as we unfortunately did on one occasion. The pre-filter housing is close to 3 feet long and is full of pressurized water when you have to change the filter. I've not weighed it but it's probably close to 50 pounds of unstable weight you have to spin off the fitting, try not to drop, then use another hand to manually pull the paper filter off the interior fitting so the whole pre-filter assembly can be pulled free from the unit. It's the worst F-ING design flaw imaginable for the most common maintenance procedure on this system. My 18 year old son accidentally dropped a full assembly and it broke the inlet water fitting clean-off because that was designed to be directly under this stupidly designed pre-filter assembly. There's very little room to get the filter wrench into the unit to loosen the pre-filter and as stated earlier, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the entire assembly removed from the unit without creating a huge mess. You have to tilt the pre-filter housing to free it from the interior of the unit so your dumping at least a quart of water out on your floor every, single, time. A simple fix would have been to place the prefilter in a more accessible location OUTSIDE the main unit of the RO system and put a F-ING pressure relief valve on the pre-filter housing so users can relieve system pressure, making it easier to loosen the pre-filter assembly, and drain all the water weight from the assembly into a bucket to reduce the mess and make it easier for an average strength person to change the F-ING thing every 2-3 months. This system may be great for people who in more populated areas where qualified plumbers are readily available but for small towns in more isolated areas should contact the most reputable plumber in the area they live in BEFORE buying a system like this. Tell them what you're interested in and let them tell you what they would recommend based on your water quality issues. Thought I was smart for doing all this research and trusting the reviews many other people have made on this company and this RO Defender system. . . I learned the hard way on this one. If you are still in love with the idea of whole house RO and like this system, call the company and ask who they have as a certified plumber in your area who can do the installation first, then call that plumber to make sure they are still in business and are willing to instal one of these systems and help keep it running when you run into problems. . . which you will."
