AO-WH-PRE

Making sure the water coming into my home faucets, showers, hoses, and sprinklers is as pure as possible is very important to me. All city and well water has either chemicals for treatment and/or minerals that can reduce the life of appliances like dishwashers, water heaters, washing machines, and these chemicals and minerals are not good for your skin, hair, sinks, showers, and clothes. I originally called 5 different plumbers to quote me to install a whole house system that could address these issues. Prices ranged from $3000 to $10,000 installed. I did EXTENSIVE research including talking to my city water department to determine exactly which chemicals were added to treat my water. I also had the water tested to determine the amount of chemicals, minerals, and sediment that I was trying to remove from the water. After a week of research I found this product on Amazon that would filter most of my concerns for only $329. Because I have brand new appliances including two tankless water heaters, I wanted extra purification features. For this I bought separately the GOLDEN ICEPURE 3 Stage Whole House Water Filter System for $299. I'm fairly handy but was not comfortable installing on my own. I hired a plumber, and for $600 and they installed both units for me in about 4 hours. So, out the door I only spent $1200 for a great system! My family immediately noticed a difference in the shower. Everybody noticed their skin was softer and not irritated, soap and shampoo washed off easier, and clothes came out cleaner and softer. I like to wash/detail my cars at home and I noticed the water spotting was much less and easier to clean than before I had the system installed. PROS: 1. MUCH CHEAPER than a whole house water filtration system even when adding on additional filtration system. 2. Low profile for space saving installation 3. Works great and water tested showing chloramine, sediment, and water hardness removed 4. Saves money up front and long term by extending life of appliances that use water and are normally damaged due to mineral deposits 5. Skin feels better and not irritated 6. No salt to refill 7. If the power fails the system will still function as apposed to electric descalers 8. My wife is happy! CONS: 1. I would not attempt to install this on my own. Its not really supposed to be a DIY for the average home owner. My plumber said it was easy to install and I'm happy with that. This has been installed for 9 months without any issues. I will update the review if something changes.

I finally got around to having this installed by a plumber in my water softener loop. I had one that was 8 years old (another MFR) that I recently removed and decided that I NEEDED a chlorine filter. My old one was about 4 feet high and I wasn't sure if I needed to replace it or not, but I felt after 8 years, it must be due. I flushed this with the garden hose and the water was running clear in less than 10 minutes, so that was easy. What took me so long to install this was actually the plumber I was using. He had been to my home for a water softener and then again to remove the old chlorine filter. After BOTH visits, my water tasted and smelled like acetone for about 3 days even after flushing for over an hour. Well, I will tell you WHY this happened. The original plumber was in a rush and did not let the pvc primers/glue cure and completely dry enough before turning the water back on! I got a new plumber who waited about 45 minutes for it to cure and dry.....no smell or taste in the water! If you are doing this yourself or hiring someone, make sure you/they wait more than enough time for it to cure and dry COMPLETELY. If your water smells or tastes like acetone, there was not enough time given to dry/cure. And in my case 15-20 minutes was not enough time but 45 minutes worked well. If you get the smell/taste of acetone after turning the water on, the only thing you can do is wait it out, about 2-3 full days. The thing I noticed about this filter is that it is made by the same manufacturer that makes Aquasana filters. How do I know this? It was on the shipping label from the MFR to Amazon, then Amazon to me (there were 2 labels on the box) These exact filters are sold in lowes too for the same price here, but you don't have to lug it around and you may save on sales tax ordering online. I thought they were much heavier than they actually are which is why I ordered here. It works well, I smell no chlorine on any tap in the house. I also installed a pre-filter, (AO smith as well) that I picked up locally and installed that BEFORE this charcoal filter to get any sediment and rust particles from the city water. Yes, city water does have it and after one day, you can see the prefilter is no longer pristine white. After 3 days the prefilter is a light orange and I NEVER had a visible rust problem in my home. Now I know why my salt softener filter was slightly orange after a month! rust in the water. AFTER the charcoal filter is my salt water softener. I will absolutely buy this filter again in 6 years when it comes time to replace it. Great filter, great price, Amazon convenience and customer service if you need it.

I have bought and installed many of these. Metal threads make it nice for using brass PEX fittings. Clear, glass/plastic housing great for inspection of installed filter. This is great because it takes the guess work out of knowing when to replace the filter inside!

Nice, heavy plastic, I painted it black to keep the UV from destroying the plastic quite so soon as the filter is outside in the sun.

installation instructions are easy to follow allowing for a fast and easy install

Installed this in January 2022 and it does reduce scaling. The problem is that after 9 months, it started leaking badly at the junction of the tank and the connection fitting and had to be bypassed. It has a 6 year warranty, but getting warranty service is a nightmare. I first looked at Amazon online. The "get product support" link takes you to a page that says "Sorry, product support for this item isn't available" and "If you're having trouble with this item, please contact Customer Service.". I Google searched for the Amazon customer service phone number since I've never been able to find a phone number on Amazon.com. I called and spoke with a pleasant woman who explained that I was past the "return window" and would have to contact the manufacturer. She did provide me with a toll free number to call. The first young lady I spoke to at AO Smith took my information, said she was starting a warranty ticket and then transferred me to tech support. Again, I spoke with a nice older woman who agreed that she had no idea how to help since the product was defective that is not user repairable. I asked to speak to a supervisor and ended up being transferred to their factory where the woman I spoke with couldn't understand why I transferred because they don't have a dept to deal with customer service. I again called the original AO Smith number and spoke to a young man. He acknowledged that my first call was logged, but no, no warranty ticket was created. He assured me he would take care of creating a warranty claim, which he did. He then transferred me to tech support where I was informed that the warranty claim would be forwarded to Amazon and they would contact me to process my claim. That was yesterday and I have no idea how soon or if at all I will be contacted by Amazon. Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper. I'll give Amazon 48 hours before I call again and raise he double hockey sticks.

We are a week into this system, we installed the larger prefilter, this filter, and the descaler unit. The instructions were somewhat limited in scope. The most important thing is all the strange chemical smell was gone from our water from the very first glass! We also did a (Zero Water) instant test and it cut the raw water reading of over 480 to just less than 200. That may improve a bit over time as our old copper lines descale a bit. The water tastes fantastic and feels great in the shower. It is not slimy like a salt-based system. We expect the prefilter/sediment filter will be a once-a-month thing and have already put it on our subscribe and save service. The only con I have is they don't have a flow direction arrow on the big filters, yet the instructions (although) vaguely tell you by the location of the brand sticker on the front of the main filter housing. If they had a direction of flow arrow I would not have needed any instructions at all! They have a massive sticker reminding you to flush before using the filter so why not a simple sticker telling you the flow direction? It is on the sediment filter housing, molded into the plastic even! Saved hundreds on the system and thousands by installing it ourselves!

+ Has metal female thread connectors vs solid plastic threading. Has shut off, bypass and thru filter selection on handle. - reduces water flow thru less than 1/2 inch ports. & the bracket is weak so I used oversized washers to bolster it. fyi:I added a water regulator (on 3/4 inch copper lines) so psi is less but workable. Used 1807 astm pipe and parts (the most common size). Shark uses its own pex size for crimping. I avoided it. Their product is good, but I chose a more universal size-1807 astm. I set up a manual bypass of filter system in case of a quicha event. The Lower connection w the 1/2 inch white pex is for flushing filter when new or when the water company sends excess debris when working on street lines. Not necessary if you flush out to connected exterior faucet. Using pex w crimps was a joy. (vs soldering) You can still rotate pipe after crimping. I'll let you know how the filter works in a few months...maybe. The sediment filter dropped the hard water count by about 10%. Less junk for my kidneys. (the carbon filter on the fridge also reduced the hard water count)

Ce filtre est installé pour toute la maison. Réellement efficace.

I had to wrap the threads and unheard of 10 wraps to seal and bottomed out the nipple and still not really snug in the tank, likely not the nipple size and a drop still appears,I'm hoping mineral deposits will seal in time. They tell you not to use dope or sealant on the tank.

System works very well, bought the pre filter as well and I would recommend to do this for sure as a life extender to the main charcoal filter. Water is perfectly clean and no detectable chlorine what so ever.