Water purifier (non ro) with cheap maintenance?

I no longer use the Eureka forbes vacuum cleaners because of the noise and pathetic build and more importantly the price they charge for filters, which does a poor job.
I have since replaced my vacuum cleaner with this
Was wondering whether you'd have preferred a Dyson. Saw a cordless one that seemed intersting but with a steep price tag. Looks like something from some superhero comic book. Imagine the one you would want would be still more
 
Was wondering whether you'd have preferred a Dyson. Saw a cordless one that seemed intersting but with a steep price tag. Looks like something from some superhero comic book. Imagine the one you would want would be still more
Dyson vacuum are mostly used for floor carpet cleaning and is more of a consumer product. I wanted something that is rugged, heavy duty and built like a tank, So I considered only Bosch ,fein ,makita and Hitachi. Fein which I have, I bought it for 24k or something and its pretty quiet for a vacuum cleaner, the suctions is so powerful that the floor nozzle sticks likes a magnet. The equivalent Bosch was around 40k, makita was not available for demo. Hitachi was good too but a ? on spares like filter.
All the german machines like fein and bosch and some karcher have common accessories which are universal meaning you can use the hose of each other and so are the attachments, plenty of cheaper accessories on aliexpress.

In the eureka forbes, if i place my hand on the air vent exhaust hole, within a few seconds my palm feels like I put talcum powder on it ( because the super fine dust is coming out), thats not the case with the Fein, the first stage fleece bag in the fein is much better then the paper bag in forbes and fein as a second stage filter which can be swapped for a true HEPA.
Equivalent bosch model
 
So I was looking at DIY water purifier videos on YT. Came across these interesting videos.


What is that alkaline thing he's using in last stage? Does it really help our body? I thought our body was mostly acidic.


Indian guy with Amazon India parts:



Taking apart UF filters - branded vs local

 
I wouldn't trust those alkaline or mineral filters, god knows whats in them, for all we know it could have lead( i am talking about indian sources). Hence never bothered with it. As far as doing the carbon filter, its not worth the effort since carbon filters are cheap. Would rather replace them then wash them.
 
For Municipal water, using a RO purifier is waste of Electricity and water. UF is best suited. Also Polysulfen Spiral wound UF membrane are best, as they have smallest pore size of 0.01 -0.02 micron and have a long life of about 2 years if flushed for few minutes every 2-3 days as said by @adder .

Permionics and Membrane filter are two companies manufacuring it since long, there may be others also.

BARC has transferred technology to some manufacturers to make this type of membrane at a lower cost and investment. AquaDove is one of such companies , that manufactures Polysulfen spiral wound UF membrane with BARC technology. They sell it in two variants, one sealed and other cartridge type to be used inside a housing. I have used both, and currently using AquaDove make Spiral UF Filter as it was available on Amazon and was cheaper. On Viual inspection I didn't find any difference from Permionics make that I used earlier.

Almost every company claim that their housing is made of BPA free material, no way to ascertain truth.

My suggestion is that always assemble the water purifier yourself. I bought one cheap UV/UF purifier from Amazon, and replaced every filter in that over a period of time. The benefit is I have a small sleek purifier with generic filters that I can modify and maintain as per my requirements.
 
I have the same UF . My housing is definitely BPA free, since the exact same type is used in Ao smith undersink one and none of the other brands in India have them, compared to others my housing is heavier, it has a matte finish no shine whats so ever. Costs about 6x the price vs normal housing. If you go ask a RO dealer or even kent they don't have a clue about BPA .
I have inspected pretty much every housing sold in India visually in my hand and I can tell you mine looks and feels apart, I spent months looking for one.

Permionics prices are just insane, much more expensive then reputed genuine RO membrane. Prior to making my RO I wanted their NF membrane and their prices have remained the same even after 7 years. I guess either they are too greedy or their mass production scale isn't there yet(IMO its the former, since no exuse to price UF high, when many smaller start ups are giving UF membrane at a cheaper price using BARC tech transfer).
 
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If not looking for major diy, the cute range of water purifiers from cm purifiers can be purchased ( now known as itpl). All the filters are good quality along with spiral wound UF membrane. Also option of steel tank is there.
Flushing is via a manual operated valve.
All filters are of standard size and simple screw less cabinet.

Similar purifier with cheap filters and components is available as RUBY cute uv/uf , available on Amazon also. Throw the installed filter and install one's of your choice. Flushing is via a simple push button.

You can also implement fully automatic autoflush via a autoflush timer solenoid valve.
 
Guys, I have big 20 inch filter housings, housing my 2 sediment filters for my borewell. First a bag filter followed by a blown filter. The TDS of the water after this process is less than 100. I also got the water checked and it came out to be perfectly drinkable. However, I am seeing that when the water is boiled, it turns whitish and can also see an oily layer form on stagnant water in the buckets which breaks when stirred. No rotten egg smell though. I again went to get the water checked but the guys said, without checking the water, that with such low TDS, there can't be anything wrong with the water.
As for BPA free housings, I do have the option to shift to stainless steel housings from a reputed brand, but I don't think I will be able to use normal cheap filters with them.
 

Oil substance means there is some contaminents, if it isn't due to the above reasons in that link, considering this is india, then it could be from borewell motor. You can add 20inch activated carbon filter . If that doesn't take the oil out, a UF membrane would.
If you do add chlorine like in that link, activated carbon filter will remedy the chlorine too.

In my native the tds is like 1000+ in bore well, but suprisngly even after 3 years the first stage sediment filter is like new. Ro brings it to about 60tds.
 
High TDS is not the only thing bad in water. We all use filters on our municipal water whose TDS is less than 100 to get rid of Bacteria and Viruses.
The oily layer could be due to chemical impurities and bcteria. A combination of UF and carbon filter should help, as suggested by @adder .

Bag filter and blown filter are good only for removing visible impurities. These filters including UF filter will not lower the TDS. That means ground water quality at your place is really good, which I doubt for a place like Agra. May be the TDS meter is not properly calibrated.
 
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The borewell pump oil is what makes most sense to me, but it is a new pump, barely 4 years old and not used a lot either.

@bigbyte - I am in himachal, not agra, so yeah, the water is actually that pure. The only issue we had was very fine dirt/sand which used to clog up pipes over time and that problem has been taken care of by the sediment filters. I keep having to wash or change the bag filters, but the spun/blown polypropylene filter is as good as new even after a whole year. I also use a 500lph UV filter to filter and store the drinking water separately. I can see lots of white deposits in the drinking water container.
I also have the option to travel 500m and get my drinking water from an actual mountain spring and that water is the purest one can find but a PITA to go and get on a daily basis. I have been drinking the borewell water for the last 4 years and not faced any issues either in taste or otherwise. The oil and the whitishness are recent issues. Earlier, since the water used to be dirty, I probably couldn't see the very little whitishness. In fact even now, the water becomes white only when boiled. The oily layer is also a recent phenomenon and perhaps it could be the borewell motor which has started showing degradation due to use with fluctuating voltage.

IMG_20200128_214837.jpg
 
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My Aquaguard burnt. It suddenly stopped working and there was some burning smell from it. I'll clean it and salvage some parts off it if the pcb is burnt. Good riddance imo. This Unit was giving problem after problem.
What can I buy from Amazon that I can do by myself? Budget is around 3k for the purifier. Non RO only.

If i need new everything, then I need a sediment filter, pre carbon filter, post carbon filter?, uv filter, uf filter, choke, ac adapter, pipes and fittings. Maybe a box to put these into but looking at the prices, I'm thinking of putting it in a small 10L bpa free plastic storage box from amazon.
 
Your existing aquaguard didn't have any storage right?
The model in a few posts ago, is about the best you buy. If you want to make one from scratch buying parts from online is not going to be cost effective.
 
The second one would be better, since it has two 10 inch filters one a sediment and other a carbon filter. The first one has a inline filter for the second stage, you can't know the status of the filter, where as the first one its as simple as turning it left to remove (when its mounted on wall turn left to remove).

Second one has a use a throw casing for the UF membrane, where as the first one uses a RO housing to house the UF membrane. You can later on change only the RO housing , when the UF filter needs a change in say 2 to 3 years.

Ideally I would have three pre stage filter model.
 
yes, those are 3 stage pre filters. I am not able to find one with BARC UF spiral filter with 3 pre filters but there are other hollow fiber type ones.
 
I could add one of those filters later right? I've noticed that the filter housings have screw points on top.

Edit: The stand is too small and fits just two.

I'm seeing ready made one but with questionable filters on them. Like this.

Avipure's RO & other Open & Under-sink water purifier's 3 stage set of filtration(MLT, CARBON & GAC) with Bowl for 3/8". https://www.amazon.in/dp/B06XJ9JNHC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6rppEb3TATQ99


This company I posted above one or two pages back - RK something has three filters at bottom, but zero warranty if customer installs it. Bad ratings too.
 
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Products from this company are good. You can try this UF+UV filter.


A prefilter can be added for extra 500.


However this filter uses hollo fiber UF membrane, that should last for 8-12 months. After that you can replace it with BARC tech spiral wound membrane ( sealed housing variant) from aquadove.
 
I bought the second one that @adder recommended.

Bought it after looking at their YouTube instruction video.


I'm thinking of using the aquaguard 1/2 inch pre filter for the washing machine if its not required in the new filter. Just need plastic connectors for the pre filter. I hope the filter does not blast if the water pressure is too high in the pipe.
 
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