Better drinking and cooking water from its own faucet, whether your kitchen in Sutton, Jackson's Point or Pefferlaw runs on municipal water or a private well.
The reason depends on the water, so we first ask where yours comes from. If your Sutton or Jackson's Point home is on municipal water, RO is usually about taste or cutting dissolved minerals, so we ask what you notice at the tap. On private wells around Pefferlaw, Udora and Baldwin, it is the final polish once iron, sulphur and hardness are treated.
RO treats one faucet: sediment and carbon cartridges remove grit, taste and odour, and a membrane holds back dissolved minerals, including sodium from softening. Layout matters too: in an older house or a converted cottage the cupboard may be tight or the sink may sit on an exterior wall, so we check both before drilling.
How the equipment works is on our reverse osmosis drinking water service for York Region; other local work is on the Georgina plumbing services page.
Reverse osmosis is the polish, not the scrub. On a Georgina well, iron, sulphur and bacteria are dealt with before water reaches the membrane.
Layout first, plumbing second, a proper test last.
We ask what already treats the supply. On a well with no recent results we sample first, since iron, sulphur and hardness shorten membrane life and RO does not disinfect.
We place the faucet, housings and tank so the cupboard stays usable. Where the sink backs onto an exterior wall, the tank and tubing go to the warm side of the cabinet.
The cold supply gets a dedicated fitting and shut-off, and the waste line meets the sink drain above the trap through an air gap. On a well we add a booster pump only if the tank fills slowly.
We flush the first production to waste, check connections for moisture, test the output and show you the feed valve.
On a private well, RO is the last stage: an iron filter handles iron and sulphur, a softener takes out hardness, UV disinfects where a bacteria sample calls for it, and the membrane refines the drinking water. Shallow and dug wells are most exposed to bacteria after the spring melt and heavy rain, and RO is no substitute for UV. See treating iron, sulphur and bacteria in well water.
Seasonal kitchens need a closing plan, since the tank, housings and membrane hold water. In fall we shut the feed, empty the tank and pull the cartridges. At reopening we sanitize, fit fresh cartridges and flush, and on a well the drinking tap stays unused until a new bacteria sample is back.
Tastes and smells that bother you at the main tap stay out of your glass and ice cubes while cartridges are fresh.
The RO faucet runs thinner than the main tap; after filling a soup pot, give the tank time to recover.
Cottagers who carried in jugs of water can fill at the sink instead, once the well tests clean.
The unit comes first: how many cartridges it uses, whether a remineralizing stage is added for taste, and whether a permeate pump is added to cut waste water. Then the kitchen: drilling stone or quartz for the faucet, fitting the tank into a tight cupboard, and the length of any fridge line. On a well, a booster pump or upstream treatment may be needed, and seasonal homes may want quick-drain fittings. The price is in writing before we start.
The sediment cartridge loads fastest on a well that carries grit, so judge it by its colour and the faucet flow, not only the date.
On wells, membranes wear out faster when upstream equipment slips. If RO water changes taste, check the iron filter and softener first.
Where the sink is on an outside wall, open the cabinet doors in a deep freeze so room heat reaches the tubing.
RO improves drinking water at one faucet and leaves showers, laundry and the water heater untouched. For scale on glass and kettles, water softener installation in Georgina protects every fixture. For sediment, taste or odour at every tap, whole-house sediment and carbon filtration works at the main.
Asked in Sutton, Jackson's Point and Pefferlaw before adding a drinking water system.
More from AquaTec Plumbing, licensed plumbers based in Holland Landing.
Tell us what the house draws from and what treats it now. We will suggest a system and quote it in writing.
