I dunno, I'm thinking to myself:
http://aquasafecanada.com/products.htm
The middle one (Aquarium 100 GPD system) @ 144.50 USD = 161.67 + shipping.
VS. A comparable SpectraPure unit @ $230 CAD
Of note:
- They use a verticle DI cartridge instead of a horizontal cartridge. That's a huge increase towards efficiency since there's no gravity-induced bypass.
- The canisters are CLEAR.
- Those hoses are all clamped down. I have an Aquasafe unit and the hoses are EVERYWHERE. It's completely unsightly and I've had to spend an additional investment of time (half an hour) and money ($10 + gas) searching for hose clamps to keep everything down.
- SpectraPure uses 75 GPD membranes, Aquasafe units use 100 GPD cartridges. What's the big deal? About 8% rejection rate! That's huge! We're talking about reducing the life of the DI resin by something like 40% here (personal communication via RC).
- SpectraPure uses some kinda proprietary blend of DI resin which is patent pending. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but my Aquasafe DI resin + membrane produced a TDS 35. All the SpectraPure users I know, and I know lots, have a TDS of 0 (zero).
So yeah, you save like $50 after all is said and done, but what's $50 over the lifetime of the unit?