Vitev MAXX vs Home Master Artesian

SUMMARY

Home Master: Unique look, standard RO performance, messy filter changes, low end mineral cartridge that will up pH and TDS levels slightly.

MAXX: Clean hard mount frame to make install and filter change easy. Wide spectrum of minerals to ensure high alkalinity, pH, antioxidants and mineral concentrations.

OVERVIEW

In general, Home Master uses a lot of marketing terms for very basic aspects of a RO system. Their Artesian Full Contact RO is an oddly unique setup with all the filter cartridges clipped to each other and feet tubing wrapped around them.

It’s nice to see a US made system as they are getting harder to find now, but alkaline is not an area they have much knowledge about. They are following the big brand path of just slapping a cheap calcium cartridge on and calling it alkaline.

All ROs are pretty much the same with regard to filtration. As long as you keep the sediment and carbon pre-filters changed regularly and protect the membrane, they all have very similar capabilities.

The difference is in the bells and whistles, add ons, etc that most companies market. Lots of stages, made up terms, different looks, etc to make them stand out. Pretty much all the stuff you see from the outside.

We prefer to focus on what’s inside. So we’ll start there, and then give some comparisons with the outward look and function as well.

MINERALS

Since this is most important, we’ll start here. The Artesian cartridge as they call it says it’s 95% calcium and 5% Magnesium.

What that translates to is either all calcite or a blend of calcite and corosex. Both of those are designed for industrial and commercial plumbing applications, not your internal plumbing. They ensure the pipes used to transport water and any connections, machinery, appliances etc don’t corrode due to low pH.

They are very inexpensive and effective in what they were designed to do, but that design was not for human consumption.

Contrast that with the wide spectrum blend the Vitev MAXX mineral cartridge uses. We don’t give away the recipe, but we rely on 4 main ingredients. You can read more about them here, but as a quick highlight.

  1. The only eco-safe above sea coral calcium available in the world. As the name suggests, it’s harvested from locations where the ocean has receded. Specifically in Caribbean, Central and South American locations.
  2. 99.9% pure Magnesium.
  3. Infrared ceramics to impart far infrared frequencies, help soften the water, balance the flavor and add some low levels of potassium
  4. Tourmaline. Very similar to FIR, it helps with the energy and the feel and taste of the water.

CONSTRUCTION AND FILTER CHANGE:

We wholeheartedly agree that a quick change filter is much better than the old school housings which have to be opened up full of water, the filter fished out and then having potential issues with seals and gaskets.

But the Home Master solution adds other complications.

First, there are so many tubes it reminds us of a wadded up mess of Christmas lights. You better be very careful in how you remove and replace cartridges because reassembling and trying to follow the flow of the water will not be easy.

Second, each time you remove a tube from a filter (both top and bottom), you are going to release water. It will come from the tube and from the filter. So the filter change process isn’t as clean as they make it seem.

Third, the added permeate pump, which you absolutely need to ensure the least amount of waste water, must be mounted in a specific orientation to function correctly. You can’t just lay it down on its side or toss on top as an afterthought. You’ll have to connect this to the cabinet next to the system itself.

And remember, this is going under your sink where you already probably have a bunch of unorganized bottles, cleaning supplies, etc stuffed.

We think it’s better in the long run to have a clean, organized setup that ensures everything works as it should AND that doesn’t result in water running everywhere when it’s time to change filters.

Dimensionally, the Vitev MAXX size is very similar to the Home Master. Ours is a few inches taller. The permeate pump is hard mounted to the MAXX frame in the correct orientation. The filters twist off like a lightbulb and you don’t have to remove the entire system from the cabinet to replace them. There is no connection on the bottom of the filters, so if you keep them upright, you won’t spill water everywhere.

The MAXX allows for a much cleaner installation.

FLOW RATE

Home Master pushes “the fastest flow rate possible” and “twice as fast as others”, but that’s only sort of true and not always a good thing.

They use ⅜” tubing in their system after the membrane, which is no different than a lot of RO companies. The only other option is ¼”, which is where they get their “twice as fast” line. Water doesn’t exactly work that way though so it’s not exactly twice the flow rate with twice the tube volume.

But the bigger issue is they run ⅜” tubing their “artesian” mineral cartridge. That faster flow means less time for the minerals to steep in the water and therefore less potency.

With the MAXX, we place our minerals directly after the membrane, where the flow is the slowest. That way they can maximize their time with the water and make your glass of water as good as it can be.