What you get out of it
Filtered water at the tap you drink and cook from. Tea and coffee that taste of tea and coffee. Ice that does not carry the flavour of the mains into a glass.
What you do not get is filtered water anywhere else. The shower, the laundry and the bathroom basins carry on as they were. If those are the ones bothering you, this is the wrong system and the honest answer is the bigger one. Whole house filtration
What actually fits in a Kardinya kitchen cupboard
This is the part that decides the job, and it is worth being plain about it.
A single cartridge housing is not large. What it needs is not just its own width but clearance underneath it, because the bowl has to come down past the cartridge to change it. Mount it too low and it works perfectly until the first service, at which point somebody discovers they cannot get the bowl off without pulling the whole thing out.
The rest of the cupboard matters too. Most kitchen sink cupboards are already carrying a waste trap, a dishwasher hose, a bin and whatever else has accumulated. In a house built between 1967 and the 1980s — which is most of Kardinya, gazetted in 1961 and built out in quadrants from October 1967 through the eighties — the kitchen has usually been renovated at least once since, and what is under there now is a mix of eras.
None of that is a problem. It is simply why a plumber looks in the cupboard before quoting instead of after. If the space genuinely will not take a unit, we would rather tell you that at the free visit than halfway through.
The cold feed
An under-sink filter runs off the cold line, and the connection needs a way to isolate it. On a newer installation there is usually a serviceable isolation valve sitting right there and the job is quick.
On an older one there may not be, or there may be one that has not been turned in twenty years and does not want to start now. That is a routine step, not a drama, but it is the difference between a two-hour job and a slightly longer one, and it should be on the written price rather than a surprise.
Which tap does the filtered water come out of
Two ways to do it, and people have strong preferences once they see the difference.
Through your existing mixer. The filtered water comes out of the tap you already use. Nothing new appears on the benchtop and nothing gets drilled. The trade-off is that everything through that tap runs through the cartridge, including the water you use to rinse a plate, so the cartridge works harder for the same drinking water.
Through a dedicated filtered tap. A separate small tap beside the mixer. Filtered water has its own spout, the main tap carries on doing everything else, and the cartridge only works when you actually want filtered water. The trade-off is a hole in the benchtop — which is routine on laminate and a slower, more careful job on stone. More on filtered tap installation
Most people who want filtered drinking water end up wanting the second one. We will quote either.
Under sink or reverse osmosis?
A standard under-sink cartridge strains the water through sediment and carbon stages. It is aimed squarely at taste, odour, chlorine and particles, and for the great majority of households that is the entire problem.
Reverse osmosis pushes water through a membrane instead, which is a higher level of purification, and it needs more room, a storage tank and a drain connection. It is a bigger install for a household that wants to go further. Reverse osmosis in Kardinya
If you are not sure which you want, say so when you ring. The plumber will lay out both on site and you can decide then.
How the job runs
You ring or send the form
Tell us whether there is anything under there already.
A licensed plumber comes out at no charge
He looks at the cupboard, the cold feed, and the benchtop if you want a separate tap.
You get a written price on site
, before anything is touched. Transparent pricing, no hidden costs.
We fit it
Housing mounted with clearance to service it, isolation sorted, connections made, and — if you are having one — the dedicated tap fitted.
Flushed and tested
A new carbon cartridge needs running through before the water is worth drinking, and the connections are checked under pressure before we leave.
Paperwork
The manufacturer's documents, and a straight answer about when the cartridge is next due.
Later on
Cartridges are consumable. Manufacturers generally nominate a period, commonly around twelve months, and household use moves it. When the flow drops off or the taste creeps back, it is a cartridge change and not a new system. Cartridge replacement in Kardinya