I love the APEC system and have replaced components for years. This order was disappointing because only 2 of the 3 were the correct size. One was noticeably larger. I had to put back in one of the old ones to make it work because it kept leaking. Hopefully APEC will work on their quality control to prevent this from the future.

I have purchased these before and had good luck with what I received … until this last time. Sadly the charcoal filter was opened and damaged and not usable. Frustrating as this was very noticeable upon opening the box and indicates pretty poor quality control.

EDIT- I was finally contacted by APEC, and not only did they help troubleshoot my issue, but they sent me a few replacement filters, free of charge. This is bittersweet… Yay for problem solved, but what a headache to get in touch with someone who knows what they are talking about at APEC. I have changed my rating from ONE star to FOUR, and if the solution APEC proposed works, I will amend my review accordingly. ************************************************ Original Review- I’m on city water, (10+ years) and traditionally filters are changed with consistency according to manufacturer’s specifications. In the past, NEVER have I had a filter plug up prior to the recommended change interval. I switched to APEC when my last filter bit the dust, and changed at the recommended one year mark. The replacement filters lasted 2.5 months before they completely plugged. When I pulled the replacement filters, they actually looked BETTER than the original filters- minimal sediment accumulation/rust visible. I contacted APEC, in part to troubleshoot, in part because changing the filters every 2-3 months was not acceptable, esp given the history of my water, knowing that the original APEC filters made it an entire year. Now COULD something have happened, something that hadn’t happened in the past 10+ years, where the City water all of a sudden flushed a bunch of invisible contaminants into my RO system? YES! Not likely, but YES. This is why I just wanted to discuss with APEC, and get to the bottom of the issue. To date, I have not been able to connect with an APEC representative that can give me a straight answer about ANY of the products that they sell. I suspected I had a faulty 4th stage, reverse osmosis membrane, but to be honest, I really don’t understand all things Reverse Osmosis. The waste water that’s created as part of the RO membrane can be puzzling. For instance- APEC sells a ROES100 Reverse Osmosis system that is the ONLY system they sell that has an advertised “1:1 drain ratio that reduces waste water up to 300%”. If that is the case, I would assume that on the ROES100, the first three stages would last up to 3x longer, as they need to filter up to 3x less than the ROES50, which has a 3:1 drain ratio? APEC replied that the ROES50 and ROES100 water usage was the same, but the ROES100 merely wastes less. I’m sorry, but this answer makes no sense. Until I can get a straight answer from APEC, I will assume that the product I received was as awesome as the customer service I received.