I admit it. I’m kind of a clean water freak. I don’t like the thought feeding my family a regular dose of chlorine, chloramine, fluoride and pharmaceuticals found in most city water. We also moved to an area with a neighborhood well and nearby fracking so no telling what else ends up in our water.
We love getting our cold water from our refrigerator so I started testing various refrigerator water filters for our LG refrigerator using an inexpensive TDS meter. Granted, TDS meters aren’t perfect. They don’t actually tell you what is in your water but they can give you an indication as to how much your filter is removing. Simply test tap water, record the TDS number then record the refrigerator water after it has been filters and compare the two numbers. In my testing, the water filter was doing almost nothing to remove the total solids.
So, I started looking into other options. It was clear after a few hours of research that the only filter that can remove chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, pharmaceuticals, and much of the junk coming out of a well is a reverse osmosis filter. Now, these filters are a little more complex but well worth it. Basically, they filter a small amount of water throughout the day by forcing it through a semipermeable membrane then store it in the storage tank for when you need it. The excess water and contaminants left over get dumped in the drain. The water out of the system is low pressure so you can’t push this through your normal faucet. It is only intended to fill water glasses, etc…
So, I really wanted to hook up a reverse osmosis system to my refrigerator so I could continue to get cold, fresh water from my refrigerator water dispenser. I did quite a bit of research and couldn’t find a clear answer. Some sites said yes, others said no, there wasn’t enough pressure out of the osmosis system to push through the refrigerator.
I decided to give it a try. I did tons of research on the reverse osmosis systems and purchased the iSpring RCC7AK 6-Stage Under-Sink Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System along with the refrigerator connection kit. The package arrived quickly and in good condition. While there are lots of parts, the instructions were clear, everything was color-coded well and it all went together in about an hour. Of course, it comes with a water dispenser for your sink so I just didn’t install that. Instead, I connected the outflow on the reverse osmosis filter system to my refrigerator water line. Unfortunately, you won’t know if it works right away as it takes some time to filter the water and fill up the tank. However, after a few hours, I tried it and IT WORKED!
The instructions suggest you fill and dump the water a few times to clean out the filters, etc.. After that my TDS numbers went from >600 in tap water to under 50 through the filter.
*** Update – a year later I’ve changed the filters once and my iSpring RCC7AK is still working perfectly with my refrigerator water dispenser. Our family loves the fresh, clean, cold water at our house. They take huge water bottles full to school as they don’t like the taste of the water at school. I purchased the two-year water filter package just so I’d have plenty of filters on hand when I need them.
*** Update 2 – Looking back, I probably should have splurged a bit and purchased the iSpring reverse osmosis filter with the UV sterilizer just for a bit more peace of mind.
*** Updated 3 – two years later and our reverse osmosis is still rocking some clean water through our refrigerator water dispenser. We haven’t replaced the filters every 6 months but I’ve found that our water was actually quite clean to begin with.
