APEC Water Systems CB1-CAB20-BB APEC Whole House Carbon Water Filter with 20" Big Blue Home Filtration System

I live in a lake cottage located in the mountains of northern New England. The water is pumped from the lake into the house. Originally it was completely untreated and was fine for toilets, bathing, and laundry--- but not potable for drinking. This meant purchasing bottled water for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, etc. Which was not a big issue until we decided to live in the house year-round. I've built a system which begins with a spin down, back flushable sediment filter for large sediment. Next is a Big Blue APEC fine sediment filter, followed by this APEC carbon filter, and then finally a Yarma spiral UV filter for sterilization (the Yarma was not yet installed in my pictures). All is attached to a 3/4 HP 240-volt shallow well pump and a pressure tank. The pump and tank are about 8-10 feet above the intake which is about 2 feet underwater. The house is about 30 feet in elevation above and 160 feet in distance from the pump. Proof is in the actual experience. Pressure in the house is great! The water tastes and smells great! And testing for dissolved and other particulates in the water measures at 6 parts per million! My neighbor's (who last year spent $15,000 drilling a well) water measures 50 parts per million (most municipal water systems test at 100-200 ppm). I have spent about $1500 in this project including lumber and building materials to enlarge my pump house.

My only beef is with the description that says "no pressure relief button is needed". Removal of the filter housing to change the filter was quite a challenge. After having no luck with the included wrench, I switched to a rubber strap filter wrench which is usually as far as I need to go for projects like this, but no luck! It was only after I partially unscrewed the outlet fitting that the pressure was able to release and I was able to very easily remove the filter at that point. I was hoping that the job of replacement wouldn't involve needing to re-wrap the outlet fitting with silicon tape, etc. As I said, overall, I'm satisfied, but I may need to replace the upstream shutoff valve with one that has a drain plug since I don't see any other way to release the pressure while keeping the housing installed.

Great carbon filter that is well built with quality parts. DOES NOT COME WITH 1" CONNECTORS TO TIE INTO HOUSEHOLD PLUMBING!!! I knew this before purchasing and looked for the parts at my local big box hardware store (HD). The only things they had that would tie into my CPVC plumbing was a 1" MIP threaded reducer (PVC) and then a 3/4" MIP threaded to 3/4" slip CPVC. I assembled everything with teflon tape and after all assembled I have a slow drip on BOTH sides. I did a bunch of research and ended up ordering 3/4 in. Push-to-Connect x 1 in. MIP Brass Adapter Fitting by Shark Bite. I had to order these online as they are available locally. Not looking forward to the cutting and reassembly but I will have the right parts this time. I hope my advice can help someone else.

We got tired of paying the expensive yearly filter change with the water company that installed our system so we’ve been slowly changing the pieces out so my husband can do it himself. This works perfectly and it’s nice to know it’s made in the USA. No issues with water pressure and was easy to install.

I bought this unit to replace a four foot tall GAC filter that was way over do for a change and was making the city water smell. Install went smoothly, had to buy thread reducers because the filter has 1 inch input/output, but my water line was only 3/4 inch. The over all quality of the product was top notch, thick plastic construction, heavy duty painted metal bracket. Not sure if they've improved the plastic wrench since the other reviewer complained ,but the wrench did not seem cheap at all, thick construction and worked perfectly without fear of breaking. The only thing that confused me was the lack of hardware to connect the bracket to the filter top, I had to buy additional screws because the ones provided were used to connect the bracket to the wall. The overall filtering performance has been great, it removes the chlorine taste from the city water and made the smell disappear that the old filter was producing. There is zero oder to the filtered water.