WFS-1000 Super Capacity Premium Quality 3 Stage Under-Sink Water Filter System

I can only rate the taste of the water, not whether various impurities are gone. The water tastes very good. About as good as bottled water. We had been using a Brita pitcher which was working really good, but then the water quality in our area got a lot worse. I assume it is/was related to drought conditions. The water tasted horrible even with new Brita filters. This filter system fixed that, although I have to say that the water straight from the tap has improved some during the same time. Still pretty bad straight from the tap though. Our problem is with chemical tastes. I didn't want minerals removed, so reverse osmosis was out.This was extremely easy to install. A few people complained about the feed water adapter and I have to say that this is the weak link with the product. Mine didn't leak, but the needle valve was stuck. I did get the valve working fine, but I was a bit worried I was going to break the thing since it took some real effort. Other than the feed water adapter, everything was very straight forward to install and seems to be very high quality.Filter replacements are cheap and supposedly the filters last about a year. If not, I'll come back and ding this review a star.I recommend this product, but make sure you know if you just need a carbon filter (this system) or reverse osmosis (some other system) to address whatever problem you are having with your water. Note that this system uses two carbon filters. They are the same part. At first, I thought this is a gimmick. It is not. It results in the water having to go through more carbon area and improves the filtration results.

I've been installing drinking water filters in every house I 've lived in for many , many years.Whether I've owned or rented. Country cottage, or city condo. The last one was a 2 stage G.E. undersink model which lasted about 9 years, until the filters started to get bad manufacture reviews. It's hard to find filter systems that are super quality, pro size, like the APEC WFS-1000 without going reverse osmosis. This system is the same size as a whole house filter, but made for undersink drinking water!All other filters I've used up to this point are pathetic in comparison. This system just makes sense! And it fits easily under my smaller single sizecondo sink. It installs with high quality, easy fit, parts. The tubing simply slips into quick connect style fittings. The tubing is industry standard size.You won't have to look for some companies special, proprietary connectors and tubing size, years down the road. This is heavy duty, high quality,stuff you'll find at your hardware store. But APEC puts it all together with American parts. The standard issue sink faucet is above average quality, and the water flow is way more than the 2 stage filter I replaced! Taste is as good as it gets! Really! And you just gotta know that water quality issuperior, because of overkill in the filtering capacity, when compared to anything but a reverse osmo-system, but without the wasted water.The only upgrade I wish APEC supplied, is a clear canister for the 1st stage grit filter. This would put the system "over the top" in convenience for filter experts like me. Since water supplies vary from place to place, a person could visually monitor the condition of his replacement schedule, without relying on an arbitrary 1 year change-out. This schedule in reality is directly effected by tap-water quality, and amount used, in a specific time. Also, check it out....the price is right!!

As a system, its fantastic. The universal 10" filter cartages allow you to put in whatever your hearts desire, from standard carbon filters, to Hydrogen Sulfide Reduction filters, to special nitrate removing filters. The setup was easy and straightforward, they included teflon tape which was a plus. You really don't need to go to the hardware store at all.However after doing some research, it appears that the filters included in this kit are good for removing chlorine and other compounds but not lowering TDS. With the filters that come with it, the TDS is lowered by 10 or so, from 350 at the tap, to 341 from the filters. I tested it against my Britta water pitcher and it averaged 230 over 3 readings.The pore size of the filters is about 5 microns, which is small (the thickness of a piece of printer paper is around 50 microns), but you can definitely get smaller. After searching around on the APEC website, you can buy filters down to 0.5 microns. Further digging led me to another company that sells a sediment filter with a pore size of 0.2 Microns for about $35. I can't find anything smaller.The bottom line for me is getting a 200 or lower TDS from this filter system. Maybe its impossible without R.O. But I will update this review once the 0.2 micron filters get here.***UPDATE***After the 1micron and .5micron filters arrived I installed them in my unit. Alas it only lowered the TDS by an additional 20, so you can lower the number of TDS by 30 (±10) when using the 5micron, then the 1 micron, then the .5 micron. Lets be honest though TDS stands for total dissolved solids, asking a normal sediment filter to remove that is a tall order. I will say it did improve the taste though.