Brands For Ro Units?

Been thinking about getting into saltwater. Bit of a big change. What are the best brands for the units? Not the specific type just popular brands. Also are all the filters you replace inside the unit universal or do you have to keep to the same brand?

 

I have a unit from Air Water Ice. And it has been great. Good luck! Welcome to the salty side!

 

Usually the cartridges placed inside the filters universal but it always good to do a background check. The availability of filter cartridges can be checked with a local filter parts supplier. The length and diameter needs to match.

water filter parts

 

I have an iSpring RODI unit and the cartridges are a universal size. This is not the case with every unit though, so it is important to do your research into a particular brand to see if their units take standard sizes or if you will always have to purchase these parts from that particular brand. As you might imagine, I would not recommend a unit that would leave you tied to a particular brand for filter replacements.

Okay, so with all of that said, and to answer your question... The most popular units in the hobby are those made by BRS (Bulk Reef Supply). They are relatively cheap, do take standardized parts... plus, BRS is a great place to shop for those filter replacements anyway. I purchase BRS branded cartridges and media for the iSpring from BRS.

 

There are a number of different brand names out there but many have the same basic design and cartridges/resins. The cheap units (ie RO Buddie) are portable and easy to hook up and cheap to buy. The downside is that they tend to produce more waste water (ie 1 gallon of RODI to 6-7 gallons of waste water) and don't have as many stages of filtration and the filter cartriges need to be replaced more often and don't have generic alternatives like the nicer units do.