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One of the most common questions we get in the customer service center at WaterFilters.NET
concerns inline water filters. What you see here are a variety of inline water filters;
they’re used in a variety of applications. Probably the most common application is as
a polishing filter, that would be the last stage filtration on a reverse osmosis system.
It can also be used as a standalone filter in refrigerator applications, external to
the fridge. The fridge doesn’t have its own internal filter and this is installed
in the water line outside the fridge going into the fridge. It could just be its very
own filter, an inexpensive filter system: one water line coming from the cold water
supply in, one water line going to the faucet; inexpensive and simple. They’re used all
over the place and they’re very common. There are many different brands and many different
types. The bottom line here is if you have a carbon filter, it really doesn’t matter
if you have a granular carbon or a carbon block, there’s not a huge difference. If
you have a very specific application, you may want to talk to someone in technical support
so that you get exactly what you’re looking for but generally you can put just about any
type in your system and its going to do a good job of polishing the water in that last
stage of your RO system or for your fridge or whatever. So you don’t need to worry
a great deal about that. But what you do need to worry about is the type of fittings and
the size of the water lines. Here we have a tape measure obviously, and here is a piece
of 3/8 inch outside diameter polyethylene tubing. Outside diameter refers to the width
across. Technically it’s the circle here if you were to draw a line from one side to
the other across the end, that’s the diameter, same as the width. So take your tape measure
and set it next to your waterline and measure it for width. This is a piece of 3/8, here
is a piece of ¼ inch. Make sure you actually go and measure the water line, and almost
always, the water line size will correspond to the appropriate size fitting. So if you
have 3/8 inch water line, you very likely, 95% of the time, have 3/8 inch fittings. In
this case, here we have a 3/8 inch compression, here’s a 3/8 inch Quick Connect, or if you
have ¼ inch, you have your ¼ inch compression or your ¼ inch Quick Connect fittings. These
inline filters come with those two types of fittings. So for example here, we have an
example of threaded fittings. That’s a threaded fitting and that is a ¼ inch, and so this
¼ inch, oops wrong one, this ¼ inch unit will screw in to here, and then of course
the waterline will be attached to this fitting. Some of these filters come with Quick Connect
fittings. This filter for example, has built-in, integrated, Quick Connect fittings, and you
do not need to put anything in except for a naked water line. This is a 3/8 inch water
line, directly insert it, and that’s it! It’s not going anywhere. Now, these filters
come with end caps or dust caps. In the case of Quick Connect fittings, here is a flexible
yellow tube. This often gets confused, and people try to install their water line inside
of it, and unfortunately it’s a perfect fit for a ¼ inch water line, but it won’t
go anywhere. This has to be removed, and it’s very easy to do that, just grab a pair of
pliers and pull it out of there and throw it away. In the case of threaded, you have
a cap that simply pops out and you have your threads underneath. It’s absolutely necessary
that these are removed before you can use the filters.