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Problem with Watts Reverse Osmosis system

reverse osmosis Under-cabinet drinking water filter system
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Reverse osmosis
6-1-2016
David writes:
Discovering the problem was mostly luck and logical reasoning.

While following waterheatertimer.org steps to find our causes of a hot cold crossover, and using an automotive stethoscope as a listening device, I came upon the kitchen sink single lever control as my last test.
Note: Crossover is when hot gets into cold water pipe or cold gets into hot, often causing a delay getting either hot or cold
Resource:
Read about crossover test

I use the stethoscope so I could listen in at the inlet source of both the hot and cold lines, and because I was under the kitchen sink, I found the RO system was ON and making noise and interfering with my test.  So I disconnect the electrical and discover/remember that the RO system use both a hot and cold water source.  I turned the 2 RO water lines off, no sound of running water anywhere..., leaving off, house water system went back to normal (within a few hours).

Here what I find disturbing, and you should note on your web site - First and foremost, the RO system is a Watts "Zero Waste Reverse Osmosis System" is not a normal RO system that dumps water waste down the drain, but rather pushes the RO waste water up the Hot water line.
Website note: Since people use hot water for making tea, and often use hot water to brush teeth and fill a pot, the non-purified water in hot line does not seem 100% reasonable.

I called Watts tech service yesterday and learn something about the system that we have, I also read a few web blogs last night regarding reviews and problems. 
This is my first experience with a RO system, so seeing a hot water connection seems normal to me until I read up on it.

When speaking to the Watts tech, explaining the crossover problem to him and that the whole house problem was solved by simply disconnecting the entire system - he said that there must be something wrong with our hot water pressure that caused the problem, and suggested that we add 30 feet of cold water line to the RO system, that way the hot has a further distance to travel up the cold water line.

This of course didn't add up because a simply disconnect solved our problem.  I said that it was a RO system failure, like maybe with a check valve.  His response was that the system has 2 check values and it would be "highly unlikely that the system check values would fail and cause hot water to be pumped up the cold water line", again... "it must be something wrong with your water".

Here's what bugs me after giving this some thought.  We had dangerous 130 degree hot water surprising us when we turned on any of the houses cold water, it was everywhere - this would last from 5 to 10 minutes until it's flushed out the hot water.

Furthermore, a blog writer stated and brought to light that any time you add up pressure to the hot water tank, you will see the TP valve show signs of failure, which we did.  We did since the RO system was installed, and thinking our hot water tank was failing (at the TP valve) we replaced it, then the new tank experience the same TP valve releasing water.  So I replaced the house cold water inlet pressure value (to make sure that was not the problem), the expansions tank, and 3 control values... not including any labor, you can see we spent a lot of money fixing a TP leak, and crossover problems.  Just an FYI, the TP problem stopped when the RO pressure switch went out (another $25 bucks) and the system was out of order.  Once we replaced the switch, the TP value seemed to be ok, but that when the crossover started.

Dave's product opinion (this website has no opinion at this point):
My point is this, other then the Watts Zero Waste system is junk, is that with Watts lame answer of running 30ft of line... whether its their check valves or whole system failure, it tells me that they are aware of the "zero waste" system problem and chooses to ignore it.

Maybe I'm the first to say, but I see this as a product that should be pulled off the market.  In the mean time, consumers need to be warned that this RO system from Watts could damaged your entire home water system - and cause serious bodily harm (for family or guest, hot water jumping out of a cold water spigot is scary!)
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