[mike31154]

It would be helpful for those who report problems with their particular units to describe the problem in more detail. Do they leak? Something broken like a housing, etc? Performance of the membrane? Customer support problems can be a major issue after purchase for sure, that's why eBay may not be a good choice if you have problems down the road. Units shipped from the US will have brokerage fees, duty, taxes, US$/Can$ exchange rate to deal with, so while the initial price may look more attractive than one from a Canadian vendor, the end result in most cases will be little difference in final cost. Expect to pay between Can $200 to $240 for a good quality unit that will meet the needs of most applications. The market for these systems is relatively small and most vendors expect the buyers to have more than the average knowledge about setting them up, so instructions may be somewhat brief and not as detailed as some folks would like them to be. That's where customer support comes in.

RO/DI systems are not rocket science, most of them use standard 10" cartridge housings and plastic tubing/fittings. I'd guess the majority of the components these days are manufactured in the far east and are assembled by the vendors who stamp their label on the filter mounting bracket. So in the end I reckon it largely depends on the quality of the membrane, pre filters, carbon filters, and DI media. The quality RO membranes are apparently made by DOW and the best fittings are John Guest, although there are other manufacturers of the quick disconnect fittings of equal quality, as well as some cheap knock offs.

Ok, enough of my 'rant', now for my personal experience.... I purchased a BWI (before they became a sponsor here) 75gpd system almost a year ago and it has performed well. The only issue I have is that the auto shut off does not work properly. I can deal with that since I'd be hesitant to leave the house with any RO/DI system running. I run the system only when I'm home to keep an eye on things since I also collect the waste water for use around the house & yard. I've retrofitted a couple of pressure guages to help determine performance of the pre filters and RO membrane. I've pushed close to 750 gal through the system and am still running with all the original filters. My source TDS is between 210 & 220. The system came with a 1 micron poly pre-filter and a 0.5 micron chlorine guzzler carbon filter which is reportedly good for up to 20,000 gals. It also has an additional 1 micron carbon block filter so I reckon I can probably go another year or so with those. I purchased a chlorine test strip kit for swimming pools to check for chlorine just in case. Think it might be almost time to change out the poly filter since it's looking a little funky now, although with the cold winter water, my TDS out of the RO stage was 0 during the last run, so the DI media is not having to work hard at all.

Seems to me the vendor I've purchased from is eager to provide support and the price was right for a good quality unit with clear housings. Clear housings are a bit more expensive, but it's nice to be able to see what's going on with the filters.