Water purifier (non ro) with cheap maintenance?

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Aquaguard is a scummy company. They didn't send tech for last visit (of 4 visits) in the amc contract. Just kept calling me continuously everyday 3-4 times to renew the contract which I didn't renew.

Now they are charging Rs.1150 for changing both filters only. Also they are saying no guarantee and they will not clean the filter every six months.

Just looking at their system, looks like I saved a lot of money. will clean the bottom sediment pre-filter myself every 3 months. Just need to change the carbon filter when it goes bad in a year or two.

Edit: technician took away old filters and replacement filter plastic covers which had prices of the filters written on them. I think the pre filter MRP was 350 and carbon filter mrp was 375.
 
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The LDR of my system died. The light goes from red to orange and then back to red and keeps beeping. I could see the uv light turn on from the ldr window in uv chamber, so uv light is working.
Is this part available in shops or we have to call the technician?
 
An LDR if you mean light dependent resistor, then yes you can get it any electronic part store, many are online. You can even replace it with a potentiometer, but doing so you will not no if the UV has failed.

The price aqua guard charges is too high, even if you go and buy their part and service them yourself they charge a lot for the part. I say get rid of aqua guard.

In 2013 seeing the high cost of aqua guard parts, like for eg they wanted 600 bucks for the lamp and another 600 bucks for glass chamber, mine is the 1991 model. So i said screw them and went ahead and made my own water purifier, I am still using the same ro membrane that I got in 2013 and have gone through 3 pumps (first pump was a crappy make and it didn't last more then 8months) , while the kent branded pumps last about 3 to 4 years each.

On the another floor, last year I have a UF membrane based water filter that I made and it has no moving parts and has been doing a good job, I will change my RO filter to UF and eliminate the pump. I hardly spend more then Rs300 a year on replacing filters.
 
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I ran out of drinking water yesterday itself, so had to call the the aquaguard technician today. Got charged 450 in total. 300 for the ldr and 150 as service charges.

Interesting to see the difference between old and new ldr. Old is on left and new on right. The new one was a defective one which was put in first. The diode came off while putting it in the uv chamber window. The new one has the black part which came off together with the wires. I have both old and new black parts now as backup. Just need to get similar ldr (7mm) from amazon and solder them in place.

old-ldr.png
new-ldr.png
 
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300 bucks for LDR is daylight highway robbery. The sooner you replace the aquaguard the more you will save in future.
 
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6pack said:
How did you make your own water purifier? Any tutorial you follwed? What was the final cost?
Click to expand...
I just went to store saw a kent water purifier and immediately understood how its made. Total cost of about 6k for RO because I searchd for BPA free plastic housing which even Kent didn't have, luckily one importer had some and I spent about 3k for second UF purifier. You can even go much cheaper by using cheaper membranes and pump and other parts.

I use under sink type models easier to service like this . Even if you buy ready made like in that Link, they use good quality plastic filter housing, you can learn from it and later on service it yourself. The one in that link is what I have for the UF, albeit I made it myself with different stand base, hence mine is even cheaper but I make no compromise on quality.
 
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Post a wider shot of that filter, such that filter is fully visible from end to end, since its hard to tell what shape the filter is .
 
Another problem with the filter now. While cleaning and putting back the pre-filter, the tech managed to break 1-2 teeth of the pre-filter outlet that fits the pipe to it. Due to that loose fit, the purifier sucks in air instead of water from the pre-filter.
I managed to do a hack to it - bought some levelling plastic pipe and cut 2 inches of it and heated it on gas to make it soft and expanded it to fit the outlet of pre-filter. The extra plastic pipe fits snugly to the 1/4inch plastic pipe now and the pump sucks water properly. Do we get that straight 1/4in connector only? Most RO type come with a right angled elbow connector. I want a straight connector but for bigger pipe size. I measured the pipe diameter and it is around 5.1cm. So it's 1/4" pipe right? That part looks like in below picture with the green connectors too. The end parts which catch the tube got broken.

41m1bj6zvOL.jpg



I'm thinking of replacing the entire pre-filter with a transparent one so that I can clean it when i see it turn brown. Any good ones on Amazon or other sites? The old pre-filter is a threaded one. Should I get a threaded one or it doesn't make any difference?
 
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Please check the measurement or better post the actual picture of the pre filter pipe and housing. The 5cm means 2 inches which I doubt it is or did you mean 5mm.

The 1/4inch pipe use in RO is 6mm diamter. The picture you have put is a simple hose two way connector of 1/2inch and above sizes typicaly used to connect garden hoses.
 
So thats 3/8 inch pipe and since one end is threaded that goes into the filter housing, I believe the thread size is 1/2 inch and this is mostly a aqua guard exclusive connector. Since I have not seen these in typical water purifier shops.
You could how ever try fitting a 3/8 to 1/2inch thread connector or change to a 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thread connector and use a 1/4 inch pipe used like in pretty much in every RO style water purifier but that will mean you have to change all the hoses.
or buy the full set https://www.amazon.in/Chirag-distri.../8+aquaguard&qid=1579682343&s=kitchen&sr=1-19
 
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yup, the connector is 1/2 inch. I'm trying the feviquick trick today. Will try and stick the broken pins or what those bits are called to the connector.

prefilter-top.jpg


I'm guessing it would be better for me to wait some time and buy a new water filter instead of wasting money on this old one. One after another I'm spending close to 500 rupees every few months on this now. Already spent 1500 by now. And Aquaguard charges 2400 or something for a years maintenance and close to 4000 for 2 years maintenance. In that money I see lot of RO water purifiers selling on Amazon. I don't need RO though. Only siimple water purifier I saw was some thing using BARC filters.

Barebones with UV & without any cover - Rs.2499

R.K. AQUA FRESH INDIA Plastic 5 Stages Electrical Water Purifier (White, 21. 5inch) : Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen

R.K. AQUA FRESH INDIA Plastic 5 Stages Electrical Water Purifier (White, 21. 5inch) : Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen
www.amazon.in

I wonder if there is any sensor that will beep if water is dirty in uv tube or uv light goes out? I don't see any pcb so i doubt any of those safeguards is there.

Look at the terms and conditions -
- 3Months Warranty On All Electronic Items Offsite For Every Visit Customer Need To Pay 350Rs
- Installation Available All Over India In Major Cities @400rs Time -3days Service available only on Major cities only
- If Installation Was Done By Customer Itself Then Warranty Will Be Terminated Automatically We Not Recommend Any Customer To Install Purifier Itself
Click to expand...
Turns out to be costlier than Aquaguard O.O

With UV and storage (Rs.3680)

AQUADOVE Compact UV Water Purifier Technology for Home (7 L) : Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen

AQUADOVE Compact UV Water Purifier Technology for Home (7 L) : Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen
www.amazon.in
 
Yes it doesn't make sense to spend any more on Aquaguard, they are looters, when I wanted a dust bag for my vacuum they got another sales person along who was begging me to buy a air purifier. 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

There is no sensor in them, as long as you keep changing the first stage filter on a timely bases, the glass inside will be clear(mine is now 7 years running and the glass is still clear). You can see the UV light glowing through the white plastic water inlet connectors of the UV chamber, so you can know if its has become opaque.

The model I linked in the previous post has better plastics which is BPA free. Also when you have UF , the UV is more secondary. UV water needs to be consumed within a few hours, otherwise the virus will get reactivated, the amount of exposure time of water by domestic UV filters is inadequate to kill virus, it merely deactivates them for a few hours. UF on the other hand will block the virus.

In my UF purifier that I made, I am using a spiral wound BARC UF filter which has more life then the hollow fiber membrane based UF which needs a back flush to keep it from getting clogged. In a spiral would UF membrane I flush it every 2 to 3 days for a few minutes, so that I don't waste water. I could make it like RO which always outputs waste water but on the other floor, where I have installed it there is no drain located, hence I use a bucket any collect the water when ever I manually flush it.

Not sure what UF filter the model in that BPA free housing model, uses.
 
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