A dedicated drinking water tap for Richmond Hill homes on the municipal supply, without the chlorine taste. We check your water pressure and the pipe under the sink before anything is drilled.
Town water in Richmond Hill is hard, and it is treated with chlorine or chloramine to keep it safe in the pipes under the street. Some people taste that disinfectant in a cold glass, and the hardness leaves scale inside the kettle. Under-sink reverse osmosis adds one tap where a carbon stage takes out the disinfectant and a membrane holds back most dissolved minerals, including the sodium a softener adds.
It has limits. RO treats only that tap and what it feeds, like a fridge dispenser; showers, laundry and the water heater are unchanged. It does not disinfect either, so if a property draws from a private well rather than the town main, that well needs a bacteria test and its own treatment before RO goes in.
A test still matters on town water: hardness decides whether the membrane needs a softener ahead of it, and the reading becomes the yardstick for the finished system.
In a Richmond Hill kitchen, the pressure gauge goes on before the drill comes out.
A membrane depends on pressure, and we would rather measure yours than guess from the address, so a gauge goes on the kitchen cold line. A low reading means slow production and more water sent to drain; a small booster pump fixes that. A high or jumpy reading can mean a tired pressure reducing valve is passing surges that strain housings and tubing, so we check that valve first.
Under the sink, an older Mill Pond house may still have a galvanized cold line whose rust clogs the sediment cartridge early. A house built from the mid-1990s into the 2000s may have Kitec, and one from the 1980s or early 1990s may have grey polybutylene. We never tie into any of these pipes; see our Richmond Hill plumbing page.
Parts are explained on our reverse osmosis drinking water systems page; this is the order of work.
A test and baseline dissolved-solids reading at the kitchen tap, a gauge on the line, and a note of any softener on the main.
You pick the tap location; together we decide where the tank sits and whether a fridge line is worth running.
New shut-off on the cold line, reject line into the tailpiece above the trap, a faucet hole drilled if needed, and cartridges left within easy reach.
Pre-filters flush to waste and the first tank is drained. With every fitting dry, a second reading at the new tap shows the drop.
Drinks from the new tap, and ice from a fridge fed by it, lose the chlorine or chloramine taste of the town supply. Showers keep it.
Filled from the RO tap, it stops collecting crust from Richmond Hill's hard water, and sodium from any softener on the main is held back too.
After a big pot, refill time depends on the pressure we measured. Where a booster pump went in, you may hear it hum until the tank is full.
Where galvanized, Kitec or polybutylene was cut out, you will see new pipe and a shut-off that closes the RO feed while the kitchen faucet keeps working.
Pressure comes first: a booster pump if the gauge reads low, or a failing reducing valve replaced before the unit goes in. Then pipe at the connection, since galvanized, Kitec or polybutylene needs a new section. Then the system: stages, a remineralizing cartridge, tank size and faucet style. Drilling stone, a long run to the fridge, or a softener the test calls for add to the job. You see a written price before we start.
Chlorine and chloramine both damage a thin-film membrane. Plain carbon removes chloramine slowly, so that stage needs catalytic carbon or longer contact, changed on schedule whether or not you taste anything.
Slow flow at the RO tap usually means a full sediment cartridge. Where an older Mill Pond house keeps galvanized pipe upstream, rust fills it sooner; repiping is the lasting fix.
The kitchen-tap reading from before the install is the benchmark. When the RO tap climbs back toward it, the membrane is worn; hard water with no softener ahead wears it sooner.
At a filter change the gauge goes back on, since a reducing valve can let pressure creep up. We also check the booster, if fitted, and the tank's output, then sanitize the housings.
RO is the narrowest and most thorough: one tap for drinking and cooking. A softener reaches every fixture but only removes hardness, keeping scale off the water heater and shower glass; see water softener installation in Richmond Hill. Whole-home water filtration puts sediment and carbon on the main so every shower loses the disinfectant smell, but hardness passes through. On hard town water, a softener protects the house and the membrane; RO finishes the drinking water.
Installed and serviced by AquaTec Plumbing, licensed Ontario plumbers working out of Holland Landing, up Yonge Street from Oak Ridges and the rest of Richmond Hill.
Book a water test and pressure check at the kitchen sink, with a written price before we start.
