Reverse Osmosis Filter Maintenance Guide: Tips for Long-Lasting Filters

Reverse Osmosis Filter Maintenance,Alright, so the water at my place started tasting a bit funky, and I figured it was probably time to mess with the reverse osmosis filter. I’m no plumber, but I’m pretty handy, so I decided to tackle this myself. Here’s how it went down:

Gathering My Stuff

First things first, I needed to get my act together. I made sure I had:

• New filters (sediment, carbon block, and the RO membrane – the whole shebang)
• A filter wrench (sometimes those housings are on there TIGHT)
• A bucket (for the inevitable spills)
• Some towels (again, spills)
• A bit of food-grade silicone grease (for the O-rings)
• My phone (to take pictures and look up stuff if I got stuck)

Shutting Things Down

Before I did anything else, I shut off the water supply to the RO system. There’s usually a little valve under the sink. I turned that bad boy off. Then, I opened the RO faucet on my sink to relieve any pressure in the system. Gotta let that water out.

Reverse Osmosis Filter

The Dirty Work

Okay, here’s where it got a little messy. I put my bucket under the filter housings. Then, using the filter wrench, I loosened each housing. Man, some of them were really stuck on there! Once they were loose, I carefully unscrewed them by hand, trying not to spill water everywhere (I mostly succeeded).

I dumped out the old water and pulled out the old filters. They looked pretty gross, which confirmed I was doing the right thing.

Putting in the New Goodness

I rinsed out the filter housings with a little water – no soap needed. Then, I popped in the new filters, making sure they were seated properly. The sediment filter usually goes first, then the carbon block, but your system might be different, so double-check.

Before I screwed the housings back on, I lubricated the O-rings with a tiny bit of that silicone grease. This helps create a good seal and makes it easier to unscrew them next time.

Then, I screwed the housings back on, hand-tightening them first, and then giving them a final snug with the wrench. Don’t overdo it!

The Grand Finale (and the Waiting Game)

With everything back together, I slowly turned the water supply valve back on. I checked for leaks around the housings – all good!

I let the RO faucet run for a good few minutes. The water was a little cloudy at first, but that’s normal. It’s just air bubbles and stuff getting flushed out.

Finally, and this is important, I let the system fill up the storage tank completely. This can take a few hours. Once the tank is full, you should be good to go with fresh, clean water. And I did the taste is very better!

That’s pretty much it! It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Just take your time, be careful, and you can totally do this yourself.