AquaTru Counter Top RO Water Filter

Our client, Ideal Living LLC, had identified a major consumer concern.  Tests of municipal water supplies in many parts of the nation were showing traces of antibiotics and dangerous industrial chemicals.  Consumers were afraid that their water was not safe.

Buying bottled water is an option, but it quickly becomes expensive and wastes a lot of plastic packaging.  Faucet-end filters and pitcher filters only remove taste and odors.  They cannot remove antibiotic residues, industrial chemicals or heavy metals.

Reverse osmosis filtration can remove these contaminants, but RO filter systems require connecting with a consumer’s plumbing, usually under the sink.

Typical RO filters also waste 3 quarts of water for every one quart of filtered water they produce.

Our client had developed a proof of concept model that could produce RO filtered water on a countertop without tapping into plumbing lines.  The unit was still not practical, as it required a half hour to filter two cups of water.

M Industrial Design was retained to do consumer research to better understand attitudes and expectations for such a device and to redesign the AquaTru to fit the needs of the consumer.

One of the first consumer pain points discovered was the time required to filter a quart of water.

M Design up-sized the volume throughput to meet consumer use patterns and expectation discovered through our research.  We also interviewed consumers in their kitchen with volumetric mockups we had created.

They were able to give us input on what footprint and shapes worked in their kitchen and under their cabinets.

We also added the flexibility to allow for filling speeds beyond the natural flow rate of the filter by designing in a removable pitcher that also can live in the refrigerator as a dispenser.  Glasses of water can be filled at the unit, or the pitcher can be removed for filling coffee pots and pet bowls.

The visual design cues express serenity and healthy emotions.

The RO and taste and odor filter elements are easily accessible when they need to be replaced and the spent water collects in a container that can be removed and poured in the sink when a new cycle is started.

The AquaTru system uses much less water than a traditional RO filter system, disposing of less than a tenth of the water used in a traditional RO Filter.

M Design organized and conducted consumer research, did the appearance design and preliminary mechanical design of the AquaTru.