Jul 01, 2012 11:06 AM
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I've been using Aquaguard Total Reviva (8 liters) for the last two years. You can go through its features and specifications on its official page: eurekaforbes.com/water-purifiers/aquaguard-total-reviva.aspx
Review: Does RO really work? How effective is it? These two are the most important questions that one has in mind before buying an RO (short for Reverse Osmosis) water purifier. One thing that you should know is that RO system is good to use if TDS (short for Total Dissolved Salts) in your water is high (above 1000). If it is lower than 1000, then you should go for water UV filter.
Reviva unit comes with four filter cartridges: Clarity cartridge, Organic remover cartridge, RO membrane, and Taste Enhancer cartridge. Now coming back to questions. Yes, RO system makes water tastes better. Reviva dropped the TDS level at my place from 1100 to 85, so yeah it works. :)
Cost: Total Reviva cost me Rs 11, 500 two years back. In the deal, I also got an external carbon filter (see image) free with it. Yearly maintenance of the system (replacement of filters) costs around Rs 3000-3500.
More feedback:
Aquaguard recommends to replace filters after 6000 liters of water purification (check page 11 of the manual). That means you'd have to spend Rs 3000 after 6000 liters of water consumption. If you are a family of four, you consume 24 liters of water in a day (6 liter/person), then you must get the filters changed in approx 8 months.
If you are good in maths, you can see that one liter of water costs Rs 0.50. If one person consumes 6 liters of water in a day, that makes Rs 3/day. For a family of four, it comes to approx Rs 12/day. For one month: Rs 360. Yearly: Rs 4320.
The Reviva unit consumes 25 watts of power (as per the specs). That means if you keep the machine ON 24 hrs, the unit consumes 6 units of power in a day. If the power costs rs 3 per unit, it makes Rs 18/day. Say, the unit consumes less power on standby and full power when purifying water, lets say it comes to Rs 10/day. Yearly, approx Rs 3000.
The Reviva unit "wastes" 12 liters of water while purifying 8 liters of water. So, in a family of four that consumes roughly 24 liters of water, 36 liters of water has gone waste. You can, and you should, make use of this waste water for washing utensils, floor, or watering your garden, but many don't do that. The "waste" water goes down the drain. This waste is nothing but water with high TDS, that's it. Yearly wastage: 36 * 365 = 13, 140 liters :-(
Water costs are low, approx Rs 15/kiloliter. Yearly costs if your consumption is 20, 000 liters would cost you approx Rs 300.
For any physical damage to the system (like some leakage from the filter or pipe, or the unit, ), you'll have to pay extra charges.
Total yearly charges (approx, but it could be more): 4000 (water purifying ) + 3000 (electricity) + 300 (yearly water charges) = Rs 7, 300. Physical damage to the unit costs extra.
Another question that comes to mind, do the filters really stop working after purifying 6000 liters of water? Well, I am not sure. If a company makes money from services, I can't trust their figures. After a year of using the Reviva unit, I asked the Aquaguard to send someone and test the TDS of water from the unit. Surprisingly, the TDS value did not change, it was close to 90 (it was 85 when I got the unit installed).
So, the filters are working, but somehow the water doesn't tastes that good. Why? Well, another surprise. One of the filter cartridges installed in the unit is "Taste Enhancer". So, perhaps that cartridge has exhausted its capacity, and water does not taste that good, but other filtration process work fine and keep the TDS value low. If I'd removed this taste enhancing filter when I got the unit installed, I'd never noticed and kept on using the same set of filters for more than 6000 liters of water. Nice trick Aquagard to fool the consumers that after 8-12 months of usage, water stops "tasting" good and the consumer would think that filters have stopped working.
