Frequently Asked Questions
Questions and answers to help you choose the best filtration system for you
General
Questions
What is PoE and what is PoU?
PoE is the “point of entry” system, in other words, the filter that is installed ad water entry. It usually filters water in the whole house/condo.
PoU is the “point of use” system. The one that is installed at your sink and outputs clear water.
If I have PoE, do I still need PoU? Why is PoU required?
Yes, absolutely! PoE (unless in very specific cases) cannot give you clean water. Even if it does, that water still needs to travel through all your pipes to reach you, and your pipes are definitely not sparkling clean inside. In fact, you may not need PoE in many cases, but PoU is pretty much a must if you want to have safe water without chlorine taste and smell.
Can I drink water directly from PoU or should I still boil?
It depends on PoU and whether it can remove bacteria or not. If the filter Fresca Disruptor, Fresca Lite and Aquaphor Crystal Eco are filters that allow you to drink direct from the tap. Easy Complete by 3M does not remove bacteria, so it should not be used to drink direct. If you are considering some other brand or model, please check whether it can filter or kill bacteria. For more information, please refer to our PoU guide by clicking here
Is PoE absolutely required?
Actually, the answer is no. PoE is required when water in your area is of very low quality. If you live in a condo with a filter for the whole building or if water in your area is relatively clean, you will not need PoE.
Can PoE also remove chlorine smell?
Yes, but it is not recommended to have PoE which does that if you have a water tank. If chlorine free water is stored in water tank, there is now nothing to prevent bacteria or algae growth inside the tank. In order to install PoE of that type, you must first convert your house to direct water feed, and that could have other disadvantages.
Why are there 2 gauges on your PoE?
Most of the PoE systems in Malaysia use just 1 gauge which measures water pressure after the filter, which does not give much information. Since pressure in the system fluctuates, it is not and indication of clogged filter. We use pressure difference systems, where once you open direct tap (usually kitchen tap), you can read pressure before and after the filter. Once freshly installed, this difference will be about 1-2 psi. As the cartridge gets clogged, it will increase. Once it reaches roughly 10 psi, time to service the cartridge. At 15 psi difference, you will have issues taking the shower.
PoU Questions
Is reverse osmosis (RO) filter good or bad? Is it required?
Reverse osmosis, in general, will have the best filtration quality, no other easily available technology can come close. However, RO has its own disadvantages and weak points, such as reject water, cost, tank contamination and more. In short, since tap water is rather soft in Malaysia, we would consider RO system not absolutely necessary.
Is NSF certification a must?
This is a difficult question. Many filters and components that can be easily NSF certified, will not have NSF certification simply because they are not sold in USA. NSF certification, while being the most transparent and appropriate, is not cheap or easy to obtain. When you hear that something is NSF certified, it could be on system level or component level. Also, various parts of the filter can have different NSF type certification (42, 58, 61). The best way to answer is – if the system (or components of that system) has NSF certification, it is definitely good, but if it doesn’t have NSF, it is not necessarily bad. Just please make sure that NSF certification is legitimate and not manipulated.
Why do you say that Fresca Disruptor is the only US made filter? I see many "made in USA" available
We have to be very careful to properly define what “made in USA” really means. In case of Fresca Disruptor, every single component of the filter that touches water (including the faucet) is manufactured in USA. We are not aware of any other system on the market that could claim the same. It may be designed in USA, sold by US company or even assembled in USA, but not manufactured. This is the key and crucial difference.
I got a TDS meter, why is it reading the same numbers for tap and filtered water from Disruptor/Aquaphor?
This is absolutely normal for any non reverse osmosis filters. TDS is not a measurement of impurities in the water, unlike what most people believe. TDS measures water electrical conductivity only and then translates it to “total dissolved solids” reading. What gives water conductivity property are dissolved salts. Except for RO or distiller, no other PoU system will remove dissolved salts (some people also call them “beneficial minerals”, though one can argue how beneficial they are). So TDS meter cannot be used to measure performance of PoU unless it is RO system. Disruptor, Crystal Eco and Lite are non-RO systems
Is there an option to have alkaline water from your filters?
We are absolutely and 100% against any pseudo-science in water treatment industry. Alkaline water, smaller water clusters, oxygenated water, ionized water etc. etc. are all pseudo-science concepts – snake oil invented to extract more money from customers. If you want to learn more about it please refer to http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ a website created by a real scientist to address this issue. And you don’t even have to take our words for it; ask a seller of “alkaline system” (or any other pseudo-science based system) to present you ANY scientifically proven and peer reviewed studies of positive effects of these “technologies”, which they will never be able to do. Stay away from these systems. At best, it will give you very short lasting placebo effect.
Then why are there so many "alkaline systems" out there?
In short – total lack of regulations. You will not find any pseudo-science systems available in some countries or states where government regulations require scientific proofs before any positive health effects can be made. Unfortunately, it is not the case for Malaysia. Therefore we see endless false claims not supported by anything but marketing. Some go as far as saying that “drinking acidic water will cause cancer” and that their system is therefore able to prevent cancer – a very bold and unsupported claim that can lead to very expensive lawsuit in other countries .
I got milky water / air bubbles after I installed PoU!?
Yes, this is absolutely normal, especially in the few days after PoU is installed. PoU cartridges contain air inside, your tap water also has some air, so it is exiting the system in form of tiny air bubbles. Do not be concerned, they will usually disappear in few days, but sometimes it may take few weeks. However, if your tap water is rich with air, you may observe these bubbles occasionally even after some initial period. They are not in any way harmful or indicate any malfunction.
I connected my newly purchased filter, why there is no flow or flow is very weak?
- Make sure that the filter inlet valve is open.
- Check that the main water valve is open (water is coming from the tap water faucet).
- Open the housings and make sure that the plastic wrapping is removed from all the cartridges (sometimes we ship cartridges wrapped to preserve them during longer shipments).
My water has some taste after not using the filter for a few hours/days. It goes away after flushing some water through.
Water that passes through a filter is pure, it contains no chlorine anymore, unlike tap water. Water without chlorine (or any other preservative) is able to pick up any smell/taste quickly, especially in hot climates. Some water is stored in the tubes and the faucet past the filter is susceptible to it. If you are facing this issue, it is always recommended to flush the filter for about 20-30 seconds after night. It is recommended to do 1-2 minutes flush when filter is not used for longer periods of few days/weeks to get fresh water in and get all stale water out.
For the same reason, we DO NOT recommend storing filtered water in bottles or tanks for a long period of time. If there is any bacteria, it will quickly grow in water without chlorine and therefore give unpleasant taste to your water.
My filter suddenly got weak flow after just a few months of use.
There could be few reasons and we will help you to identify them following the steps below:
- Open housings and remove all cartridges (for Lite system, also disconnect Quantum Disinfection, which is stage 3 and connect stage 2 to the faucet directly). Close the housings and test the flow now. If the flow is still bad, skip to step e). If flow without cartridges is good, proceed to step 5.
- Attempt to wash the cartridges according to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFAye8Kmpko&t=1s and re-test the flow with cartridges.
- If step 2 does not help AND cartridges are near the end of their useful life (~1 year) it is best to replace cartridges.
- If cartridges are relatively new (<6 months) AND your water is not extremely dirty and no known contamination of tap water occurred in the area, it could be a faulty cartridge case. Add cartridges one by one to identify which cartridge failed pre-maturely. Pre-mature failure of the cartridge could be a warranty case. Contact us for the replacement.
- If the issue is not related to cartridges, most probably there is a foreign body blocking inlet of the water filter at the inlet valve. The inlet valve has the size of ¼”, so any particle larger than that could potentially block the inlet. In that case, valve removal is required, which may require some DIY or calling a plumber. Please note that the case of blocked valve is not covered by warranty. One way to quickly test the blockage at the inlet valve is to turn it off, disconnect the filter from the inlet and turn the valve back on; if the flow directly from the valve is weak, that means the valve itself is blocked.
Disruptor
What is better, Disruptor or Aquaphor
We strongly believe that Disruptor is a more balanced system that is able to remove more contaminants and has cheaper cartridges. However, Aquaphor has 1 advantage – simple maintenance. It takes about 1 minute per year to maintain Aquaphor and 15-30 minutes per year for Disruptor. If you are choosing between these 2 systems, we recommend to select Disruptor if you are OK with the maintenance (check this Youtube video). If you find that maintenance will be an issue – choose Aquaphor.
Does Disruptor leave "healthy minerals" in the water?
In short, yes. Disruptor does not remove any so called “healthy minerals”. We are not strong believers that these minerals in water make any significant difference, so we never advertise it as a feature of any of our systems.
What is the micron rating of the Disruptor system?
Stage 1 is 1 micron, stage 3 is 0.5 micron. Stage 2 is nominally 1.2 micron, however, please note that stage 2, core of the system does not rely on pore size to remove contaminants, therefore micron rating is irrelevant in the case of Disruptor. It uses electroadhesion technology, best described by this NASA article https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2009/er_2.html