I am currently setting up by 75 gallon tank in my apartment... and am interested in purchasing a RO unit. I have looked at some of the units members are using here.. and their under the sink pictures look pretty intense!!
Is this something I can hook up in my apartment without modifying much? Im not able to modify their plumbing too much I dont think.
A friend of mine has his setup on the washer line. He put a T valve in-line. And whenever he needs water he just twists the valve to turn it on. I'm thinking of doing the same.
Go with a filter direct unit. They come with a hook up that goes right in between the cold water supply and the connection for the sink. It requires no cutting, but you just have to buy a 1/2" to 1/2" connection hose.
Feed Water Adapter: for under the sink installation, we give you the adapter with valve to put in between the cold water line. Our adapter has several advantages over the self-piercing valve. Our adapter will not clog up like the needle point piercing valve. also our adapter does not require putting a hole in the pipe. also you can easily replace the valve or relocate the valve without changing your piping, unlike the other self-piercing valve, where once it punctures a hole you cannot replace the valve, then you need to replace the pipe and the valve.
I live in an apartment too and had the same problem. I just bought a unit that I hook up to my faucet. It is the same one that people will take on their RVs and is considered to be portable. I am just using it for the first time now. I don't know anything about plumbing and all that and it took me under 30 minutes to set up. Most of that time was waiting for water to boil so I could get the tube soft to attach it to the adapter!
I live in an apartment too. I bought a Filter Direct 6-stage unit. It is an "under the sink" unit and must be plumbed into the cold water line with a Tee and a valve to shut it off and on.
It may take you a few trips to Home Depot, but it's not really hard at all. I had mine hooked up in just a few hours.
Underneath your kitchen sink there are obviously 2 water lines. A hot and a cold. There's usually a hard copper line coming out of the floor or the wall. Then there will be a flexible line attached to the copper. This flexible line is usually about 2 feet long. The other end of the flexible line goes up to the sink and attaches to the under side of the faucet.
Locate the cold water line. There's always a shut off valve here too. Turn it clockwise until it stops. Now turn on the faucet to drain any left over water.
Grab a pair of pliers or channel locks and unscrew the flexible line where it connects to the hard copper line. Have a small cup or container there to catch any spilled water as you unscrew the flexible line from the copper.
Now simply install a Tee fitting on the copper line. Screw the flexible line back on the Tee fitting.
Now screw your feed line for the RO unit onto the Tee and install a shut off valve.
You need to drill a hole in the plastic drain line under your sink. There's usually a garbage disposal. The drain line from the garbage disposal runs across and dumps into the rest of the drain. Just use a 1/4" drill bit and pop a hole in the side or top of that drain line where it crosses from one side of the sink to the other. DON'T drill the hole on the bottom. Water doesn't drain uphill.
Put your saddle piece on and screw it down so the drain line from your RO unit is dumping into the PVC drain lines under the sink.
The two most common ways to tie into the plumbing that we recommend to folks in apartments (assuming they don't have laundary facilities in the apartment) are eaither a faucet adapter kit, or an undersink shut off supply valve.
Both can be installed easily with no permanant changes to the plumbing.
