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78 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Clean Water At Will, June 2, 2006
I've been using the Aquasana 4000 countertop filter for about 5 months. Prior to my purchase I spent alot of money on bottled water. I would typically spend about 3-5 dollars a week on water at the supermarket and while on the go. I decided that buying a filtration system would be more convienent and cheaper for me. Now about the system itself.
Pro's
+Convienent. You can get clean water whenever you want.
+Tastes better then tap water.
+Better filtration system compared to other brands.
+Installation not too difficult.
+Saves money after intial investment.
+Replacement filts reasonably priced and easy to find (Amazon has them).
Con's
-Intial investment is costly compared to cheaper systems.
-Requires water pressure to be low.
-Slow output, because of low water pressure takes several minutes to fill items from the faucet.
-Cannot be used with hot/warm water.
-The switch from tap to the filter system will sometimes activate by itself (explained in detail down further).
-Will begin leaking if too much water pressure is used.
Skip to the summary if you don't care to read my personal comments.
Some things I experienced.
1. I had trouble installing the product even though its not hard to do. I attribute most of that to user error, the instructions were fairly straightfoward though I kept thinking that the system didn't seem correctly installed. The company has a video on their website of how to install the system. I had trouble tightening the filter ring onto my faucet, perhaps becuase I was using a cheap wrench. Hopefully most people will do better then I did.
2. I have a high water pressure faucet, so I had to learn early to be very careful with how much water pressure I allowed to be used. I have to be very careful when I'm going to switch to the filter. If I allow too much water pressure to be used I end up making the system overflow and leak on the countertop. I got used to this after a couple of weeks and haven't had any incidents since.
3. Because of the low pressure of the system it takes a very long time to fill anything up. I have issues standing there and letting a class of water fill, as it takes around a minute. Instead I prefer to fill 1 gallon jugs. I let the jugs fill unattended over a few minutes and then return when they are full to turn off the water. So if your like me and don't have all day to stand and let things fill all the time you'll do like I did and buy several jugs or bottles that you can fill in your sink. I bought 3 - 1 gallon bottles, and two smaller sport bottles. I typically wait till all the 1 gallon bottles are empty before taking the time to fill them. Whenever I use the filter system I just fill all my bottles at the same time, switching them out as they fill unattended. Consider the extra cost you will need to pay if you plan on buying extra re-useable water bottles. It cost me approx. $20.00
4. As stated in the warrenty you cannot use warm/hot water with the system. You have to turn on your tap water and make sure you run it cold and then switch to the filter system.
5. As mentioned earlier the filter to tap knob is sometimes problematic. Basically whenever you wish to switch to the filter system you pull a little knob on your faucet towards you. The filtration system activates and you use it as normal. When your done you push the knob back in towards the faucet to switch back to tap water. However occasionally the knob will push itself back out on its own from the water pressure, activating your filter by itself. ***This has only happened to me shortly after using the filter system because of the pressure still in the hose.*** This is important to note, because if you switch to your filter to tap and then up the pressure on your tap it will often turn back on the filter automatically and the higher pressure you switched to can potentially ruin the filter system (as stated in the warranty). There is an easy fix for this however, if you simply hold the knob in after using your filter system with one hand, and increasing the pressure of your tap water faucet with the other. This de-pressures the hose and the knob won't go out automatically, I do this every time after I use the filter just to be safe.
6. The water chambers of the filter fill up with water each time the system is used. That water that stays in the chambers after you use the filter will be room temperature. On your next use of the filter system you need to let it run for about 30 seconds before the fresh water will be in the system and the older water from its last use completely expelled.
----Summary----
The filtration system is at a reasonable price compared to others. Manual states about 6 months of use before a replacement filter is needed (they cost around 40-50 dollars, you can buy them from amazon). I will probably use mine about 9 months since I live alone. If you replace your filter every 6 months after the intial purchase it should cost you around 8 dollar a months, better then the 3-5 a week I was spending. There is a stated gallon usage for the filter, though I can't remember exactly I think its between 500-600 gallons for the life of the filter.
If you typically buy your water this filter system will end up saving you money. Some drawbacks would be that you may need to invest in safe plastic bottles to store your water. The filter system is too slow to use frequently, I recommend filling several bottles of water every few days to limit the number of times you need to use the system. Because you can only use cold water and a low water pressure with the system some people may find it unconvienent. It will certainly take awhile to get used to using it. Overalll though the water tastes fresh and clean, much better then my tap water. Its more useful then a brita or similar brand filter and has a much better filtration system that catches more contaminents. If your like me and want to live healthier and save some money the Aquasana 4000 isn't a bad choice. I certainly wasn't able to find a better sub-$500.00 system on the market. Even with all the drawbacks I listed, this is still very useful for me. I hope you found this review helpful in making your decision.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good water, but poor quality housing, November 3, 2006
I used one of these for about 3 years. Every 6 months the housing cracked and started leaking after I changed the filters. They will replace it for free if you join their "water for life" program, but you still have to pay $10 shipping every time and go through the hassle of water spills and waiting for delivery.
I got fed up and bought the Multipure. The water is as good or better and the housing quality is much better. The Multipure's flow is also about twice as fast, which is nice.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unit cracked, January 27, 2007
I purchased the sink top model AQ4000 with dual filters on 9-12-06. On 1-24-06 the right cartridge unit (inside the housing) cracked at the bottom and started leaking quite a bit. It was just sitting on the counter when this happened. We have low water pressure (can't run two things at the same time!) so I know it's not that. We do use a lot of water. Anyway, our 90 day warranty had run out but my husband called the company and, because we are on the water filter replacement plan, they replaced the unit at no charge. Customer service was just great. The new unit came 3 days after we called, so we are in business again. We have enjoyed the system and wanted to keep it.
Follow-up: We have been enjoying the new unit that replaced the defective one. But, incredibly, on Nov 6, 2007, the second unit cracked! It leaks terribly! It is still not even a year old. We called, and because we are on their filter replacement plan, we are receiving another unit. We have to pay for postage, however. The filters run about $45 and last about 4 months for our busy household. Aquasana had a lifetime guarantee as long as you are on their filter replacement plan. So no matter how many times this unit cracks, at least we can get another one.
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