North Star NSROPS

The North Star Reverse Osmosis System is about as basic as they come.  Sure, sure, it's got a shopping list of NSF and ANSI certifications, and is one of the most trusted brands among professional plumbers and has been for almost 100 years. 

But where's the pizazz??  Where's the sparkle??  How's an influencer ever going to be able to con(vince) you into buying one??

It's a damn shame, is what it is. 

But how does it work?

First, it uses an activated carbon pre-filter to handle chlorine and sediment.  This blocks out anything larger than 5 microns (which is smaller than a red blood cell). 

Then, like every other RO system, the water is pressurized and forced through the membrane. Anything that can't get through gets dumped down the drain.  And usually this means some of the incoming water gets dumped too. 

The filtered water then goes through another activated carbon filter and finally ends up in the storage tank until its time for you to drink it.

What about changing the cartridges? How often should I do that?

We could spend hours talking about gallons and average family usage, and all kinds of variables. But, the simplest way to look at it is this: Replace it when the water pressure starts to slow down OR when it’s been more than a year.

You can push it past a year, if you really want to, but once you start getting into the year and a half to two year range, I’d start to get a little skittish about safety.

As far as actually changing it, it’s about as easy as changing a light bulb. Just twist it (lefty loosey) and it’ll automatically shut off the water.  The trick here is to do them in this order:

1. Pre filter
2. RO cartridge
3. Post filter

Then, take the new cartridges and twist them in (righty tighty), but do them in this order:

1. Post filter
2. RO cartridge
3. Pre filter

Now, you'll have to open the drinking faucet and let the whole thing run for about 24 hours to purge the system.

Dimensions:

The storage tank is about 11" in diameter and about 17" in height. 

The rest of the system is about 12.25" wide, 4.75" deep, and about 13" tall