Tankless reverse osmosis systems are what I called countertop reverse osmosis system. They refer to the same thing but uses different terms. The important thing to know is that they don’t come with a RO water tank which is both a pro and con. These tankless reverse osmosis system takes up much less spaces but it also means they can’t store filtered water in advance. You will need to either wait for the refill on the spot or store the filtered water in advance using water bottles or other storage utensils.
I have written about tankless reverse osmosis substantially on this blog. You can read about what I consider the best countertop reverse osmosis system from APEC or the cheap version from Reverse Osmosis Revolutions. Today’s article will review another model from iSpring. So far, it is looking pretty good for the new comer.
iSpring countertop reverse osmosis system review
The first thing I noticed on Amazon is that it is out of stock! Must be a good sign since it is selling well that supply is catching up on demand.
The iSpring RCS5T is a commercial grade tankless reverse osmosis system and is able to provide more than the standard 100 galleons water per day. The level of filtration provided by the RCS5T is very high and measures 9 ppm on a TDS meter. This is on par with the water quality provided all the high grade reverse osmosis models in the market.
The system itself runs very smoothly. It is quiet during the filtration process and the water flow is fast and regular. The set up is pretty basic and should be manageable for someone who has done a bit of plumbing work before.
What I liked most is the booster pump that will help you to get the pressure you need for the water to flow faster and smoother. This is a god send feature for those commercial buildings where water pressure might be not strong enough to produce water flow at the speed which your business requires. With the booster pump in place, you can get between 320 – 380 GPD i.e. you get one galleon for less than 3 minutes. It is probably more possible to achieve the 400 GPD as advertised unless you have strong pressure in your plumbing system.
Maintenance is also kept simple by just the replacement of the filter cartridges. There is an option for you to sign up a 2 year plan for this replacement which can save you some money in the long run, rather than buying individual replacement filters off the shelf.
Flaws but not deal breakers
The iSpring RCS5T is high quality tankless RO system but there are some things that I feel can be improved. For one, the manual instruction can be better. If you have installed a RO before, there is no problem. For a complete newbie, the instructions can be confusing for some due to the lack of images and overusing of terms that a newbie will not know.
The most important thing to know is that iSpring will give you 2 pipes: A 3/8″ for fetching cold water and a 1/4″ flexible pipe for everything else. The trick here is to now that you need to cut the 1/4″ pipe yourself into different pieces so that you can one to the drain water and one to the RO faucet. Due to the lack of instructions, some might be searching for 2 1/4″ pipes within the packaging. Sorry folks, there is only one 1/4″ pipe but it is long enough to cut into several pieces.
Another shortcoming is that you also can’t connect this system to other appliances like an ice maker due to the lack of pressure and tank. I am not a plumbing guru so I am not sure if there are any tricks to work around this problem. For a layman like me, there is currently no way to do it as far as I can tell. This is not a design flaw but is a way the system suppose to work. I am highlight it here in case there are some who bought it thinking they can connect the water to the rest of the kitchen appliances. For this feature, please refer to my article on the best under sink reverse osmosis system for 2015.
Conclusion
The iSpring RCS5T is a solid commercial grade system that runs without much hiccup once you went through the trouble of setting it up. It produces high quality, runs quietly and requires very little maintenance.