One morning we awoke to a light sheen of an oily substance on the top of our drinking water. The water also was cloudy with a gassy vapor. Being on a well for twenty years with no issues, this was a surprise. The problem went away as fast as it came. Being concerned, we opted for a reverses osmosis five stage water filter system for our drinking water. After searching the web we settled on XYZ from the Acme Company. The filter system came complete except for a dissolved solids meter. That had to be purchased separately. In the boxes included ¼ tubing, fittings, water filter wrench, small optional water pump mounted to the filter assembly, and easy to understand directions with drawings. We opted for the optional pump to keep the H2O at a constant ninety psi. Listed in the directions, a list of tools needed, technical specifications on the individual filters, and recommended filter changing intervals. When you purchase the dissolved solids meter you could check your system’s efficiency and possibly get longer life by monitoring the amount of dissolved solids (DS) in parts per million (ppm). The water coming out of my tap with double filtering, one sediment filter and one carbon filter was 187 ppm. After the installation of the system, the drinking water runs between 12 ppm and 18ppm. With this number you now have a base line to gauge the membrane filter. A friend of mine also has his filter system connected to his dishwasher. We have identical systems except in my house I am usually the dish washer. The system can manufacture about 80 gallons of low ppm DS water daily with no trouble. The sediment filter is in clear filter housing. You can tell by eye when that gets too dirty. A simple description on how the system works is: four of the five stages filter larger particles first, then smaller as the go through system. The last stage is the membrane, this where the magic occurs. Here there are two chambers. Chamber one, the water flows in at sixty to ninety pounds per square inch (psi) standard household water pressure. This pressure pushes the H2O molecules through the membrane wall to a small holding tank. There is also a flow valve that diverts the water that does not go through the membrane to a drain. At our house this rejected H2O is used to make a bird bath in summer. In upstate New York some folks that harvest maple sugar use this filter system the opposite way. They reject the water and keep the syrup. This saves a lot of gas, oil, firewood etc, and you are not sweating to death or getting sticky, smart ah? Now we will talk the about installation. Here is where it can get tricky. If you are not handy around the house with tools you should contact your local hardware store or plumbing contractor. Our house was built in the late 1930’s. Recently we installed a water cooler with a faucet. The water cooler job took about a day, with a trip to the local hardware store. It took about three hours for the complete five stage filter installation, using the new pipes that the cooler system was hooked into. With the cool fresh water we now get and the peace of mind it is like, “A Taste of Springtime in Every Glass!”