Customer Reviews With Photos

First and foremost, I award a 5/5 for the product living up to what it's supposed to do: filter water as a semi-portable countertop system. This system will allow you to use any filter cartridge of the 2.5x10" standard form factor. It'll get the job done. The housing is solid plastic; the kind of plastic formulation and thickness of walls that it can probably take a beating and survive - rugged. HERE IS WHY I AM GIVING THIS A 1-STAR. Neither the wrench, the base, or top head housing have ANY markings or indicators WHICH WAY TO TURN TO UNSCREW THE TOP HEAD HOUSING when you want to go and replace the filter. This has frustrated the living daylight out of me causing substantial grief over the years. This is what I'd like to call an "a-hole design" of a product. BUT, FOR YOU, HERE'S HOW TO DISASSEMBLE THIS ABOMINATION: the TOP HEAD HOUSING needs to rotate COUNTER-CLOCKWISE -FROM THE BASE-. Confusing? Sit your unit on the countertop as though you were going to dispense water from it for normal use, then look down at the unit from above it: the TOP HEAD HOUSING needs to rotate COUNTER-CLOCKWISE from the base. Now here's the tricky bit: the BOTTOM BASE barely has anything to grip to, but be confident YOU CAN GRIP THE INLET/OUTLET WITH YOUR THUMBS/FINGERS to apply counter-directional force as you use the wrench to rotate the top head housing. It'll take a little bit of effort, it might even hurt for a moment. If still having trouble, place unit in sink and run hot water on the seam where the base and head housing meet (unit oriented sideways, perpendicular to running faucet water), then try to unscrew it in-place with the wrench and gripping of inlet/outlet socket things. I HOPE THIS INFORMATION HELPS SOME POOR SOUL OUT THERE! BEFORE YOU PUT YOUR UNIT BACK INTO USE (while still partially unscrewed), CONSIDER MARKING (1) THE BASE (2) THE HEAD HOUSING AND (3) THE WRENCH AS TO WHICH DIRECTION TO APPLY FORCE/TURN FOR DISASSEMBLY. Unrelated to the above, I ordered a CT-2000 (this product page you are looking at!) but received a CT-1000 (but didn't realize until 1yr later, 2025-01-18, when posting this review via observation of sticker on unit). Doesn't matter: it is a simple system of plumbing designed for 2.5x10" cartridges to filter water in countertop form - THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS. Whether CT-1000 or CT-2000, neither models are going to wash the dishes, raise your children, or give China hackers access over Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/cellular frequencies. The content of this paragraph does not impact what rating I have given this product. @APEC WATER Store: send me a unit that has engravings and markings to guide on disassembly and I'll change my review from 1-star to 5-star.

We replace these filters about once a year, and they work great! No leaks. Attached is a before-and-after pic of replacing after 1 year.

Great product. It fixed the trickling problem I was having with my existing RO system. My existing system is a Watts RO water filter system. My two-year-old Watts RO unit never stopped trickling water into my sink drain. It just kept running and running and the sound was annoying, not to mention that it was wasting water. So I first changed the filters (not the membrane), but that didn't fix the issue. So I decided to change the auto shut off valve before spending a lot more money on the RO membrane. Lucky for me, the shut off valve fixed the issue. The water now stops trickling only a couple minutes after I fill a glass. However....this valve didn't fix my capacity issue. When my RO unit was new I could fill a 1.5 liter bottle in one shot, then it got to the point where I could barely fill an 8oz glass before the water ran out. I fixed the capacity issue by adding a little air pressure to my RO tank using a bike pump.

Had my Apec RO system for years. Third mineral cartridge replacement and where is the quality... No way will my family be drinking from something where the label is so haphazardly applied. Makes one wonder what's going on inside?? Returning for refund.

Just installed so this is based on first impressions. Will update with longer term review. Pull up a chair- this is going to be one of my longest reviews. First, I decided to get this system because it claims to have filters that only need to be changed once per year. Also it has almost twice the daily volume of the 50gpd system. Using a TDS meter, my tap water is around 360 to 340TDS. Ouch - that's very high. Min standards for city water is 400ppm for TDS so this is right below the limit. To compare, distilled water purchased locally has a TDS of about 120 ppm. Some bottled water I had handy was about 30 ish. Installation - Effort: I would rate this as easy for people who've installed things like a sink disposal. My only tools I needed were two adjustable wrenches. Make sure you have a stubby handle adjustable wrench with wide jaws. If one has never installed anything under one's sink then it might be seen as medium easy. What will make this more difficult is deciding and drilling the hole for the faucet. I have a corian/synth marble top so I'm nervous about drilling. Have not done it yet. Many people will have an existing accessory hole so that will make for a much easier install. Time: I took my time and double/triple checked for leaks. Very important. I found a few and had to make some adjustments. It took about an hour. But keep in mind I have yet to drill and install the faucet or waste line (more on that later). I did connect everything up and ran the waste line into a 7.1 liter bowl. The three large main filters need to be unwrapped and installed. All the other filters are pre-installed. What caused me to pause a bit was that the three main filters (sediment pre filter and the two carbon block filters) when placed in the screw on housings, prior to screwing them on; the filters rattle around. There's a good space around each filter. The filters are about an inch smaller in diameter than the inside of the housings. Also I was not quite sure how this would align to the inside of the top portion. I should have taken pics of this. Judging from how it operates after putting it all together I am thinking it must self align. Although there might be potential for mis-aligned filters. I hand tightened the 3 main filters and then snugged them with the supplied wrench. I opted to not use the wall mountings as I would like to keep the filter unit in a small basin as protection against any potential leaks and for monitoring such. That being said - I observed no leaking from anywhere so far. It's only been about 3 hours since I installed it. After assembling the system and connecting it to the cold water supply. One turns on the needle valve to supply and fill the filter and tank. I suppose one could pre-charge the system with filtered water but I let it fill as normal. There was quite a bit of air in the system and I bled that out through the faucet which I had connected but have not drilled and placed into the counter. The first liter of water was blackish due to the carbon dust from the filter. WASTE Water Ratio - OK this was one of my primary concerns. I read here and there people saying this system wastes water. Well, yes - but not on a constant basis. Here's what I found out. For me- as the system and tank filled, the Waste water ran out pretty quickly from the black tube. I timed and measured this. The manual said expect to take 2 to 3 hours during which time the waste water outlet tube will run constantly until the RO filter stops the flow when the 4 gallon pressurized tank is full. I started filling at 11:32 and the waste water tube was filling up 7.1 liter stainless steel bowls at a rate of about 9 to 10 minutes per bowl. At 12:36 the waste water stopped flowing into the bowl. According to the manual - if one has higher water pressure it takes a shorter time to fill/charge the system+tank. So, my water pressure must be a bit higher than 60psi. They also note that if one has lower than 40psi, the system could run all the time meaning waste water would continually drain out and that would be a huge waste of water. WATER PRESSURE NOTE- One should probably test their water pressure before buying this or any other RO filter. Also, if / when water pressure in the house supply drops that will cause the RO filter to open up and your water bill will go up due to water being constantly wasted through this system UNLESS you shut it off except when you are getting filtered water. ALL RO Filters have a ratio of filtered water to "wasted" water. This is because the filter lets by purified water and blocks the contaminants which are carried by the "waste" water. HOW MUCH WATER IS WASTED? So - manual says to drain the first tank. Don't drink the first tank of water. Says that will take about 5 minutes. I drained the system by using the faucet in fully open position. It took about 9 minutes and filled about 2 bowls of 7.1 liters until the water from the faucet slowed to a trickle. So about 14 liters of filtered water. During this time I ran the waste/drain black line to another 7.1 liter bowl. The waste bowl filled up about 4 liters. I shut off the faucet and the system started to re-charge itself. During this time, the waste water drain line continued to flow and I kept close track of this. I ran my stop watch app. Each time the 7.1 liter bowl filled, I registered a lap. First lap / 7.1 liter bowl took about 9min33sec. The second lap / 7.1 liter bowl took about 11:30. Third took 12:07 etc. So the waste water flow was slowing as the tank filled. The waste water stopped flowing at 59minutes and some seconds. About 2:06 into "lap 6". SO - that means 5 whole bowls + about 1/3. Plus about 4 liters of waste water that was produced during the 9 minutes / 14 liters of filtered water "used". To sum up - for the first 14 liters of Filtered Water, my system "wasted" about 6x7.1 liters of water. So ratio is 14 Liters of Filtered Water to 42.6 Liters of "wasted" water. Remember, the system has stopped draining any water since the 4 gallon tank has charged. This means my system with my water pressure will use 3 gallons of water for every 1 gallon of filtered water. This sounds like a massive amount but consider that this is for drinking and most people consume about 1 gallon / person / day. So for an average family of 3 drinking 3 gallons of filtered water per day will also waste / use an extra 9 gallons per day x 30 days = 270 extra gallons per month. For me I use about 2 gallons per day for drinking and cooking so that's only 6 gallons per day more than normal use = 180 gallons extra use per month. NOT Bad and probably not enough to spike or increase my water bill. We'll see. UPDATE - Purchased a 1/2 inch Bosch BlueTurbo Granite Carbide bit to cut through my cultured marble top. WOW. This is tough stuff. Took about an hour to drill through about 2 inches of the counter top. TIP - use a smaller carbide bit 1/8 inch to start the hole to prevent any wandering of the larger bit. Then, use a 1/4 inch bit to widen the hole. Then I used the 1/2 inch bit to go about another inch. Then I went back to the 1/8 and bored all the way through. Then the 1/4 inch through and finished off with the 1/2 inch bit. The Bosch 1/2 inch bit cost about $10 so budget that into your installation and was worn out after. Drilling through a stone/marble counter top increases the difficulty of installation. I would not relish the thought of drilling any more holes through that stuff.

This fits, trouble at all, no adjustments. I really like how the neck swivels. The brushed nickel matches my other faucet.

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.

The filter might be fine but the tubing they send with it was way too large in diameter. I had to go buy the correct tubing! Frustrating to spend more money when I already paid a lot for this item!

I've been getting these filters for years, and the quality has always been consistently top notch... Until now. This last set I got had a noticable drop in quality. Stages 2&3 are a much smaller diameter now, and weigh about half as much. Seems like much less carbon now, so I'm suspicious they won't last as long as before. Stages 1 seems to be a different (cheaper?) material. The plastic ends are now more brittle, and they arrived shattered (had apecwateroutlet.com send replacement). These at least used to be made in USA, but the obvious corporate penny pinching to raise their profits is sickening! I'm so very disappointed with Apec now, after loving them for years.

All 8 of the mounting tabs that hold the filters to the plate are split... how? This is not usable in this condition

I added this to my APEC RO. The water tasted almost the same to me. The PH was also unchanged. The part that worry me the most was the cloudy water. The cloudiness was gone after left the water sit for a while. The most issue was the small white particles that left under the glass. It looked almost like tiny grains of sand. I took it out and returned it. Waste of time.

Se mira que estaba usado, esta muy sucio

Is this normal that the carbon particles are outside? I received them just like this.

I gave it 4 stars because I've not tested the water to know what the arsenic level is if any after going through the filter. Our water had a strong metallic taste. I bought my drinking water but my conscience began to work on me when I'd see all the plastic bottles. We had our water tested and found it had 220 ppb arsenic. We'd been drinking it for cooking and coffee for 5 years! My husband did the research and found this under the counter system. It was easy to install. Everything was in the box needed to hook up. We are very pleased with it. I don't usually use more than a gallon and a half for coffee and cooking each day. We have tested the capacity and I have gotten right at 3 gallons at one time. I'm happy! The water taste great! Wish I'd done this years ago! We had a issue with the system after hooking it up. The part that says USA-700 on it had a small leak. My husband emailed the company on a Saturday. They responded on Monday and said they would warranty the part. They shipped us the part and with the black hoses attached. As you can see in the photos we placed the pan under the filter because of the leak. With the new part it no longer leaks. We would purchase this product again.

The wrench doesn’t say Apec as advertised. I’ve used a half wrench before with no problem, and I lost my last wrench, I ordered this one, but it didn’t work and feels like I can snap it with my hands.