The RKIN machine will make clean water and is certified to some relevant standards, but the user interface needs some work.
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Check Price & Buy on AmazonThe RKIN machine is a bit lesser known than some of the other machines, but uses the exact same operating principles of any other countertop RO system. The arrangement of the tanks is different than most you will see in the market, as it uses a front-loading tank configuration rather than a tank that is lifted out of the rear of the machine.
Feed water is pumped from the feed tank into the filters and membrane, with the membrane reject water returning to the feed tank. This feed tank has a separator inside of it to attempt to keep the reject water from mixing with the feed water. This is a good idea but it lowers the capacity of the feed tank to smaller than its full volume.
Since the feed tank is front-loading, there is no gravity holding the input from the tank in place, which wasn’t a problem in my testing, but if the tank isn’t seated properly the push-button tank position switch will not allow the pump to start.
The fresh water tank sits above the feed tank on the front of the machine and uses gravity to fill bottles. The gravity dispensing function is nice because it is faster than delivery pumps, but since it is low on the machine, you need to tilt even a normal sized water bottle to fill it up.
During testing, the machine revealed that it does not know when the feed water tank is empty, nor when the clean water tank is full. Neither of these issues will cause overflows, as the clean water tank simply overflows into the feed tank, but if the feed tank is empty, the pump will just run until the computer shuts it off, sucking air for 20 mins. This could be solve with float sensors that other brands use, but it’s a small gripe to listen to the machine run for a long time while not producing water.
The filters in use are proprietary to RKIN, and are only available from the manufacturer. They are larger than most filters you see in countertop machines, and will likely last longer than others because of this. They are not as easy to change as other machines, as you will need to work with ¼” quick-connect fittings. It’s not hard, it’s just not as easy as other offerings.
While this filter will make clean water that is safe for drinking, the user interface and product layout need some more research and design work before it will be ready for heavy use, especially for a large family or use by people who are harder on their machines.
The machine has been tested by IAPMO to NSF 58-2021 standards, as well as by QFT Laboratory to NSF 58 standards.
