APEC Water Systems CB1-CAB20-BB Whole House Carbon Water Filter System - 20" Big Blue Home Water Filtration for Clean Drinking, Shower & Appliance Use

Great product! Very high quality components. Easy to install. Great customer service.My local municipal water has TDS around 330. The filtered water comes out around 10 and tastes great!I am using the system without the tank. You can do this by modify the tubing and connect the filtered output of the ro-membrane to the 5th stage filter directly (bypass/remove the T that feeds the tank and the 5th stage filter, very easy with quick connect used on the APEC system). I use glass pitchers to hold the water. It takes about 5 minutes for the RO-90 to fill up a 2-quart ikea glass pitcher (half gallon).Why would you want to use the system without the tank? To get the best tasting water and not have to worry about whether the tank material is safe or not. For the RO tank to work, the water has to be held inside a bladder in the tank, so that the air pressure around the bladder can push the water out when you need it. For this to work, the bladder has to be a flexible material that can expand and shrink as needed. The type of food grade material that is suitable for this purpose is limited. The material being used is polypropylene and butyl. Now, while this should be a safe material to use, it does add an after taste to the water, especially if the water has been sitting in the tank for a while. That's why there's a 5th stage carbon filter, to filter out the tank taste. But having an after taste that needs to be filtered out does imply that the tank material affects the water. If you don't believe me, just read the Watts RO system reviews on amazon. Many are complaining about plastic water taste. The bladder also ages, and has an expected life of 8-10 years due to all the expansion and contraction.While I am sure the tank material used by APEC is better than the one in the Watts system, why get yourself into this situation at all? Just bypass the tank and store the filtered water in a glass pitcher. Glass is arguably the best material on earth to hold purified drinking water, and will not leach into or affect the water taste in any way.Bypassing the tank also allows you to have explicitly control over when to produce the filtered water. Tap water is generally better quality in the evening when everyone around is also using water. It is less good in the morning when the water has been sitting idle in aging pipes for hours. This is why when your local municipal utility conducts water tests, they usually flush out the water for a few minutes.My TDS test confirms this. Filtered water in late evening has TDS less than 10, while in early morning is around 20-25.I did contact APEC system and was very impressed by their customer support.