Customer review of the Bluevua RO100ROPOT-LITE countertop reverse osmosis water filter
I am reviewing the Bluevua countertop reverse osmosis 5-step water filter machine after using it every day for over 1 year.
Answering the main question
Should you get the Bluevua countertop reverse osmosis water filter system for your drinking water?
Quick answer, yes.
Before finding and using the Bluevua I was constantly going to water stores to fill up 3 and 5 gallon water jugs or using the Brita water filter pitcher I kept in my fridge. Needless to say the constant trips and carrying large water jugs became a hassle I just could not continue and I was always a little unsure about the efficacy of the water pitcher to thoroughly purify contaminants in my water. So I knew an upgrade was necessary, but I live in an apartment so I did not want to install a full under-the-sink reverse osmosis system that filters all water coming through the sink.
So I started doing research, countertop reverse osmosis (RO) seemed to be the obvious choice of system, but once I narrowed down the machine type, there were dozens of brands to choose from and all claimed to be the best RO system for making purified drinking water from tap-water. I spent probably a month looking at reviews, lab-testing results and various other resources before finally committing to and buying the Bluevua RO100ROPOT-LITE water filter. This was the best decision I could have possibly made. The machine has been life-changing. So I wanted to share some of my findings over having the machine for now over a year that will hopefully help you when you are making your decision to buy the Bluevua or another water filter.
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Typical TDS readings during regular use of the Bluevua filter
The total dissolved solids (TDS) measurement is displayed in blue numbers on the main digital display for the lite machine. The TDS will fluctuate with use and depending on the last time you cleaned the water tank in the back, flushed the filter and the standard of your tap-water to start with.
I live in Los Angeles, California (tap water is not great here) and the average TDS reading on my machine stays between 10-40 generally, and if I have not cleaned the water tank in a little too long (2 weeks or so) the reading will start going up to around 70-100 TDS. So if you consistently clean the water tank and get an average TDS around 10-20 you are drinking extremely clean water.
This has been consistently true throughout the life of the 5-in-1 RO filter that came with the unit (yes, I still have 1 bar out of 3 bars of filter life at a year in). I live in a house of 2 and we both use the machine and make multiple refills to the carafe on a daily basis. The filter has lasted a very long time. And granted there was probably a marginally better filtration result when the filter was brand new which allowed me to go longer between cleaning the water tank, but I am beyond pleased with the filter durability and continued performance.
You can purchase replacement 5-stage filters on Amazon and will only need to once every year. Compared to many of the other machines the $79.90 price for a replacement filter was and still is very reasonable, especially considering that the durability of 1 year that they claim for each filter is true in my experience. And since I did not get the 7-stage lite model that also has UV and remineralization in the filter itself I got and added an attachment to my carafe that remineralizes the water as it flow through the pitcher.
How does the filtered water taste?
The water tastes normal, it tastes like normal purified water, nothing special here. If you like purified bottled water or RO water from a proper water store it will taste just like that. I have never had a funky taste or smell from the filtered water and the taste has always stayed very consistent. Once I installed the remineralizer the taste changed slightly to more of a purified mineral water but it is good in the way that everyone will like the taste of the water coming out of the machine. Just tastes like purified water.
How do you clean the Bluevua Lite water tank?
This took some figuring out how to best clean the water tank and quite frankly that I had to clean the water tank ever so often. I suggest getting a bristled cleaning wand so that you can scrub the bottom of the tank and while cleaning it with dish soap. One of my favorite aspects of this machine is actually in relation to the ease of cleaning the machine. I have various home and kitchen machines that have dozens of small parts that you have to remove and painstakingly clean because they are sitting in still water for extended periods of time or something along those lines. Well good news for anyone looking at the Bluevua Lite machine, there are only 3 removable pieces inside the water tank and 2-3 in the carafe depending on if you use the remineralizer or diffuser parts in the carafe (the carafe also needs far less cleaning I have found).
To clean the water tank thoroughly you can remove the screen that covers where the water flows into the body of the machine from, you can remove the cap that covers a circular puck that you can also remove. You can then scrub these parts by hand with soap and water out the full water tank. I also sometimes fill the tank with hot water and soap to let it sit before washing it out and cleaning it further. You can also purchase a replacement water tank directly from Bluevua.
These help keep the machine clean and do so without tricky or hard to reach little parts and difficult to reconfigure designs. This makes maintaining the machine and daily use so much easier and would've been a deal breaker for me if it was not easy.
Time it takes to fill up the full carafe (40oz / 1200ml)
The machine comes with 2 refill options, you can either have it fill halfway or a full fill. The full fill will fill the carafe with 40oz of purified water in 4 minutes and 53 seconds. This is not the absolutely fastest on the market but it is far from the slowest machine. This is also due to the more compact size of the Lite version, you trade off the size of the carafe and filling speed for a smaller footprint that takes up less counterspace.
The 2 fill-up methods actually lends itself to one of my main complaints with the machine. If there is water left in the carafe and you click for it to make more water you can overflow the carafe and the machine will not stop or sense that the carafe is full. For example, let's say the glass carafe/pitcher still has over 16oz of water in it or so and you click the full fill cycle that will fill the full 40oz pitcher, you will most likely overflow the pitcher, especially if you have a diffuser or remineralizer inside the pitcher because that will take up more space inside the container. I wish that the Bluevua machine came with a weight sensor at the base of the carafe that would stop the fill-up cycle at a certain max-weight to avoid ever overflowing the carafe and leading to water spilling everywhere until that cycle is done. Now, I will say you get used to this and I rarely forget to change between full or half-cycles based on if the pitcher has water in it or not, but it would be a nice feature to have.
Setup and use
Setup is negligible. Granted this is from my memory and the machine does come with setup instructions to follow but it goes something like this: Pick a spot on the counter near an outlet, plug the machine in, make sure you twist the filter into place under the cap on the top of the machine near the display, fill up the water tank, click flush a few times, dispose of the water in the tank and refill, then click for your first water-cycle and you are good to go. All said and done the setup takes maybe 5-10 minutes.
Use is easy as well, click the fill up button ever so often, pour your water, occasionally flush and replace the water tank water and clean the tank maybe every 1-2 weeks and you are good to go.
Size and noise
The machine is about the size of a standard coffee machine. And the noise is a small motor hum while it is filling up and there is a beep when you click the buttons on the display.
Design and look
The Bluevua Lite machine looks nice, it is very sleek and simple, no loud or annoying branding and it blends right in to the kitchen environment without standing out or taking up too much space.
Build quality of the Bluevua
The machine is very sturdy and the glass carafe is solid. I have dropped the glass on wood floors and it has been fine. It is not super heavy when empty so you could move the machine anywhere where there is an outlet for power. The detachable water tank allows you to easily empty water and refill water from the sink. There are not very many moving parts and the machine is mostly enclosed so it looks nice and the build is very solid and feels like quality materials were used.
