Saving Money and Time - Bypass your Refrigerator Water Filter with a Simple Kitchen Filter System

There were a few problems here that I wanted to solve. We've become addicted to carbonating our own water - and eliminating the trips to the store and the wasted empty bottles from purchasing carbonated water. We bought a name brand carbonator - and really enjoy it except for two things. The cost of the CO2 refills, and the time it took to refill the carbonating bottle from the carbon filtered fridge water outlet (about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes each time). Our only water filter was in the refrigerator, an expensive model that cost about $50 to replace and needed replacement about every 6 months. The refrigerator had a coil of 5/16 plastic tubing to cool the water - and a 1/4" copper feed line running across the kitchen, about 20' of line. By the time the water reached the fridge and crossed the water filter, we had significant pressure drop and slow flow out of the fridge.

Whole House 10" Filter Upgrade - For Kitchen Sink Cold Water, and line to Refrigerator

I looked at ways to upgrade the fridge system - increasing the size of the feed line, increasing the size of the lines in the fridge - and realized this would be just too big of a retrofit, and would take too long. So - I decided to install a 10" whole house water filter housing under our kitchen sink - and filter all the cold water going just to the kitchen sink and refrigerator. I would install the carbon block filter there under the sink, and remove and bypass the carbon block filter in the refrigerator.

Ready to drill the hole in the countertop to run the CO2 line to the carbonator. 

 I've solved the cost of the replacement CO2 cartridges by purchasing a 20lb CO2 bottle and an adapter hose compatible with my carbonator. Works great, now I'm refilling the 20lb tank about every 6 months, instead of small CO2 bottles every 2 or 3 weeks. I wanted to hide the CO2 tank under the sink - so I needed to drill a hole in the Quartz countertop. I purchased a diamond tipped hole saw for this purpose - drilling the hole was real easy and took only about 15 minutes.

The only tool I had to purchase - a small diamond tipped hole saw. Decided to get a good one.

Drilling the hole in the countertop - the red colour is from the paint coming off the hole saw.

After photo - paint removed from the hole saw

Nice clean hole in the quartz countertop

 Now - onto the water filter installation. I purchased a Dupont branded 10" whole house water filter housing online. I purchased threaded brass PEX tubing adapters to screw into the head of the water filter to be able to make the cold water connections. I installed 4 small ball valves to be able to completely bypass the water filter in case of a problem, or while changing filters. Redoing the PEX water piping was the longest part of the job, took me a Saturday morning to do, combined with re-routing my sink drains (that's another story).

Plumbing the new water filter under the kitchen sink. I've removed the double sink drain pipes to give myself some room

 Cold water runs through the single 10" filter - I have nice clean municipal water feeding the house so all I needed is a single carbon block filter. If you're water isn't clean - well water or otherwise - you may need a second particle filter upstream of the carbon filter. The only consumers downstream of my water filter are my kitchen sink, and the refrigerator. So now - to refill water bottles for carbonation, I can refill from the kitchen sink to have carbon filtered water without any Chlorine taste, and it only takes about 10 seconds to refill a bottle. The carbonator is right behind the sink - so very quick and efficient.

The completed water filter installation - complete with a full bypass line in case I need to take the filter out of the circuit

20lb CO2 tank underneath the sink located next to the water filter.

Bypassing the water filter in the refrigerator was very easy. For my refrigerator, all I needed to do was to remove the water filter - there is an automatic bypass valve inside the refrigerator that bypasses the water flow when the filter is removed. Now - filling a glass of water from the refrigerator is about twice as fast with the water filter removed - since the pressure drop across the filter is gone.

All in all - very happy with this upgrade. Great tasting water without waiting around for water to get out of the refrigerator outlet. Let me know if you have any questions.

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2017 Subaru Outback Oil Drain Plug Head Rounded - First Oil Change

This seems to be a common problem - first oil change on a late model Subaru 2.5L engine - and the oil pan drain plug head gets rounded by your socket and you can't remove the drain plug. So - what to do? Trip to the dealer? I've been changing my own oil for many years - first time this has happenned to me. I decided to purchase a set of bolt extractors and sort it out myself. Here's how it went.

14mm Hex Head on the Drain Plug - Just rounded enough to make it impossible to remove

 I purchased a slightly used 2017 Outback with 17,000 km - lease return. At 25,000km I went to do my first oil change. The dealer had informed me that they had changed the oil at the lease return. When I went to remove the drain plug - I didn't lift the car because I thought I'd be able to spin it off with the car sitting on the ground (as I had done many times with my 2006 Outback - it sits high enough off the ground that you can slide the pan underneath and not have to lift the car to change the oil). This time it went differently - with the drain plug at an angle, and recessed slightly below the aerodynamic underbody cover - it's quite awkward to get a socket on the drain plug and apply the torque at an angle. It would be much easier with the drain plug oriented vertically. One bad move and I rounded the head.

Another view - Drain Plug accessible through a small access port, sits on an angle

 So - I put everything away, got online and ordered a set of chinesium bolt extractors. I've never tried these before, so this was an experiment for me. Using a ball pien hammer, I tapped the 14mm extractor onto the drain plug so that it was well seated, then popped on a short extension and used my Dewalt 3/8" impact gun which can generate about 100 ft-lbs of torque - and nothing moved - at all. I was stunned - 100 ft-lb of torque on a drain plug? Clearly not normal.

Dewalt 1/2" Drive Impact, 21mm deep socket, 14mm bolt extractor, and the drain plug in question

So - I pulled out the Dewalt 1/2" impact which can generate 400 ft-lbs of torque - and a 21mm deep impact socket to be able to fit over the extractor (instead of using the 3/8 socket drive square) and leaned on it. After about 15 seconds, the drain plug broke free and loosened, with no damage to the oil pan. The bolt extractor was hot to the touch from the impact force. The drain plug was well grooved from the force of the bolt extractor.

Check out the grooves on this drain plug head. Exctractor worked like a charm.

I installed a new Dorman replacement drain plug - with a larger hex head - and completed the oil change.

Bit of a mess - An angled drain plug will shoot your oil about 2 feet sideways

So - what do I think about this? Drain plug with small head - should be larger - like 19mm for a 16mm bolt size so that you can get a tool on the drain plug. Soft metal and the paint interferes with good contact with your socket. This plug should definitely be re-specified. The plug installed on an angle - shooting oil sideways? Brutal - plug should be installed vertically on the pan. I don't know if the dealer ever actually changed the oil - have sent the oil out for analysis to get an opinion on that. If you're in the same situation - up to you to decide what to do - take it to a dealer or extract the plug yourself. In my case - it worked out okay. Let me know if you have any questions.

In case you're wondering, the new drain plug is a Dorman 65325 - M16-1.50 threads. Nice piece with 17mm hex head - 3mm larger than the stock drain plug.

Dorman 65325 Oil Drain Plug

Update - December 2019:

6 months have gone by, did my second oil change. Drain plug spun off normally, no problem at all, oil change completed in 30 minutes. Definitely a manufacturing defect with the way the drain plug was delivered from the factory. Blackstone Labs oil analysis came back on the first oil change - they did not think that the oil had not been changed as described by the dealer - which was good news. It also meant that they must have sucked the oil oil out of the dipstick tube. FWIW.

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