Comment by leonroy
1 year ago
Having had one for years they are fairly expensive, require some not insignificant maintenance and cleaning to keep them running optimally and are made almost entirely of plastic and are not recyclable.
A better option would be a carbon + sediment filter but again these are usually plastic fiber or at the least some sort of synthetic fiber and carbon in a plastic shell - a slight step up in recyclability than RO filters though.
I'd wager it's far more efficient for the municipality to get their water quality right at the source than every home fit a filter.
Use a different sediment pre filter that those cheap-o ones. It's just to prevent fouling of the rest of the system should serious sediment or scale come down the pipe.
For a final filter, it's a good idea to use a specialized filter for chemicals of concern, typically heavy metals and/or chloramines. (Example: https://matrikx.com )
NSF polypropylene should be studied more but I doubt it is a significant source of microplastics. Although, I wished pressurized residential RO systems could be 99% stainless steel or something else inert and easy to clean like thick borosilicate glass because PP does stain. It's important to use NSF listed / FDA compliant (CFR21.177.2600 A-E) O-rings and lubrication rather than random junk from Amazon. Any "water filtration" system that doesn't use RO or significant water pressure is only for taste and not a filtration system.