Stefani Undercounter Triple Stage Filter

Good product for the price, improves water taste – I had seen the numerous negative reviews about Stefani's twin under sink filter system, however, I decided to give this triple filter system a go because it offered the best 'bang for buck' and there were no reviews on it available at the time. And so far I am glad I did. In 2017 I moved into a newly built home and found I was unable to drink the… Read more

water due it having a nasty plastic taste. For two years I lived off bottled water until I got sick of the added expense and decided to see whether a water filter would address my plastic tasting water issue. I purchased this unit from Bunnings in Dec 2019 and have been using it up until now (April 2020).

The installation was straightforward and the instructions were easy to follow. I didn't have a great deal of height under my sink due to mid-shelf so I cut a groove into the side of the mid-shelf so that the metal mounting bracket could be mounted as high as possible under the mid-shelf (see pics, and remember to mount it high enough so that the filter cup can be removed after unscrewing downward!).

After reading the reviews of the twin system I was paranoid that the triple system would leak and flood my kitchen, so I took extra care to make sure every plastic line was cut perfectly square (flat) in order to ensure nice water tight seals. This was more tricky than you'd expect, even with an extremely sharp surgical scalpel, so it would be great to have a proper tool on hand for ensuring the plastic lines are all cut square/perpendicular. So far I have not had a single sign of leakage. Nonetheless, if I'm heading away for a weekend (or more), I turn the Stefani filter off at the T-tap (which comes in the kit) so as to eliminate any chance of a burst line flooding my kitchen while I'm away. The supplied T-tap feels a little flimsy/light, however, it's doing the job and not leaking so no grounds for complaints there.

Now to the filter itself. I have been extremely pleased with how well the filter improved the taste of my water. Myself and my partner are both now able to drink the tap water without noticing an unpleasant plastic taste. She drinks her filtered water at room temp (what a savage) whereas I always chill mine, and the taste is now great for both of us. We ran some blinded taste tests on each other to see whether we could distinguish filtered tap water from non-filtered tap water. I set up 8 identical glasses then filled 4 with filtered and 4 with non-filtered water. My partner then tasted each and attempted to sort the filtered from unfiltered, knowing that there were 4 filtered and 4 non-filtered. She then ran the same blinded experiment on me. We both correctly identified the filtered water 3 out of 4 times. So, I'm pleased that the taste has improved even with just using the 3 standard filters that came with the unit. I've considered purchasing different types of filters that are apparently more directed at removing taste, but that's something I might explore when the existing filters are due to be replaced in Dec 2020.

One aspect of this filter kit that I'm not entirely pleased with is the supplied tap. While it does the job, it's pretty cheap and doesn't look great (just has a black lever and the tap actual moves up when the lever is depressed), and when the water is running at full flow it sprays out all over the place. As such, I swapped it out for a 1-way tap I purchased from Bunnings (an Aquaport I think, for about $68). It looks much better (all chrome with a proper tap) and most importantly, the water remains smooth and laminar even when the tap is fully open (no wild splashing). If the Stefani triple kit included a better tap I would have given it a 5-star rating, but I've docked 1-star due to the disappointing tap.

In summary, it significantly improved the taste of my water, was easy to install, hasn't given me any problems so far, and I've probably already recouped the purchase cost by no longer having to purchase bottled water.

EDIT: It's now 10-months since I installed this unit and everyone in the household is still loving it. There haven't been any issues with leakage whatsoever. I will be changing all 3 filters in Dec, at which point I'll be interested to see what the filter cartridges look like.