By Sheila Anthony
A typical undersink filtration system includes a large storage tank, a rack of filters, and a tangle of color-coded connector lines. These often unwieldy units can take time to hook up, then fill up—which usually needs to be done several times—before they’re ready to dispense purified water.
And then there’s the matter of the brine a typical reverse osmosis undersink system produces. The standard ratio is 1:4 pure-to-wastewater. That means for every one cup of RO-purified water dispensed, four cups go down the drain. Yep. Expensive. Not to mention a reckless squandering of a crucial and increasingly scarce natural resource.
Recognizing these pain points and inefficiencies, Brio reimagined how an undersink filtration system should look and work, then set about designing one. The result? The AQUUS.
Minimalist Form
At a lean 5.2” wide, 16.6” high, and 18.2” deep, the tankless AQUUS has a small footprint that leaves plenty of room for storage. And despite its compact size, it houses a multi-stage filter, a reverse osmosis membrane, and an integrated manifold that guards against water pressure drops and internal leaks.
Easy Installation
Requiring only a few tools and minimal time, you can quickly set up the filtration system. Brio designed it with push-connect fittings, so connections are easy to make while ensuring a secure leak-free fit.
Frictionless Hydration
No tank means no waiting for a tank to fill. When the dedicated faucet is turned on, cold water enters the filtration unit where it’s meticulously filtered. Then the purified water immediately travels to the faucet. Once the system is set up, you can start dispensing, and keep dispensing whenever you like.
Minimal Wastewater
The AQUUS 600 has a 1.5:1 pure-to-wastewater ratio. The AQUUS 800 has a 2:1 pure-to-wastewater ratio. For every one-and-a-half or two cups of purified water dispensed, only one cup is discharged as wastewater, offering the lowest pure-to-wastewater ratios in the industry.
And Then There’s the Smart Faucet
The AQUUS delivers water via the smart faucet which is equipped with two levers. One dispenses filtered water, which is great for cooking foods like pasta and rice, watering plants, and rinsing produce. The other lever dispenses RO-purified water, which is perfect for drinking and preparing baby formula.
The faucet’s bright, sharp LED screen lets you see at a glance, as a percentage measurement, the filter life left on the water filters. There’s no need to peer under the sink at the unit itself to see if one or both need to be replaced. The faucet keeps track and alerts you when it’s time.
The screen also features a TDS meter that tracks the level of total dissolved solids in your RO-purified water as it dispenses, allowing you to monitor the reduction of impurities in real time.
The convenient 6-inch reach of the spout positions water so that it dispenses into containers or the sink, not onto counters. This comes in handy when filling larger containers which often require awkward maneuvering when using a traditional swan-neck or gooseneck faucet.
Finally, Filtration
Let’s face it, a water filtration system is only as good as its filters, and in this regard the AQUUS is a standout. It has two premium-quality filters: a PCB filter and a reverse osmosis membrane.
The PCB filter is a 2-in-1 filter that combines a sediment filter and carbon block filter in a single cartridge. This composite filter effectively removes sediment, chlorine, and other contaminants that cause unpleasant tastes, odors, and colors. It also produces the filtered water, which dispenses at a robust flow rate of 2.5 liters per minute.
The reverse osmosis membrane is the second, more refined stage of filtration that produces the purified water. Inlet water first passes through the PCB filter, then goes through the RO membrane. The RO-purified water’s flow rate is 1 liter per minute.
The discrepancy between the two flow rates is deliberate. Purification via reverse osmosis necessitates a slower flow rate due to the structure of the membrane, which consists of dozens of tubes perforated with pores that are 0.0001 microns in diameter. The water moves much more slowly through it than through the PCB filter. Its microscopic pores efficiently trap contaminants like total dissolved solids (salts, nitrates), heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic), and emerging contaminants (PFOAs, pesticides, pharmaceuticals), which are then expelled into the wastewater, not into your drinking water.
The RO membrane needs two things to function optimally: The inlet water pressure should be between 30 and 100 PSI (pound-force per square inch), and the PCB filter should be changed on schedule so that it continues to tackle the larger particulates, letting the RO membrane take on typically more harmful microscopic contaminants.
Last but not least, Brio designed the undersink unit so that the filters can be easily accessed from the front. You won’t need to shift the unit around to change them. And their twist-and-lock design means changing them takes only a few seconds.
Thirsty household or office? The AQUUS 600 delivers up to 600 gallons per day of combined filtered and RO-purified water, and the AQUUS 800 delivers up to 800 gallons. Fresh, clean water is available whenever you want it.
Why settle for purified water hauled in from thousands of miles away, shipped in harmful single-use plastic bottles? With the Brio AQUUS you can enjoy purified water, locally sourced.
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