A while back we had the old water softener replaced. The guys from City Water Filter also looked at our reverse-osmosis setup under the kitchen sink and recommended we add a mineral filter. Then a few days later we found that getting a filter for the stock Lowes/Home Despot setup the POs installed is actually a pain in the butt–it must be special ordered since most stores don’t carry any of the bits and some of them have been discontinued.
Then in just the last few days, while AS’s dad was visiting, the contraption started to make some rather interesting noises. What started as just a slight wheezy sound eventually turned into a dying duck. We were already pricing out the cost of all-new filters for the existing system versus a new and better setup, and decided a new setup was worth the extra cost, so I made a call to the guys at City Water Filter and scheduled the install.
The install went smoothly and now we have proper shutoff valves (the blue things in the pic below) on everything. The old system was hooked up to the same line as the dishwasher and certain bits that the manual said should be installed in certain ways weren’t installed in those certain ways. The new system, while taking up a tad more room under the sink, not only produces much tastier water, also has much better water pressure coming out of the tap. (We had a similar experience with increased water pressure when we put in the new softener too.)
Not only do we now have a happier drinking water setup, I’m also happy to report we finally have a dishrack solution that works. Since we now use our dishwasher for almost all dirty dishes, the number of dishes going in the dishrack has dropped significantly. When we lived in SF I washed things by hand and used a Dish Gent, a truly marvelous contraption that allows for lots of things to dry without making a mess on the sink. The sink space here, though, doesn’t really make it a viable solution–it takes up too much room to the left of the sink and the space on the right is far too small.
Right after we took possession I purchased a simple collapsible drainer at Bed Bath and Beyond, and it sort of worked, as you can pop out the sides to suspend it across a sink or just leave it on the counter. But it also takes up too much room if just left on the right side.
(Sidenote about the dishwasher: since we have VERY HARD WATER, everything came out with spots the first few washings. I then started trying different rinse aids and have finally found ones that work–a combination of Rinse-Aid in the rinse receptacle, and Lemi Shine plus Cascade Complete All-in-1 in the detergent dingus, means we no longer have white film on all the clean dishes. The three combined products seem to be the magic potion.)
Back to the dish-drying woes: I then tried using just a silicone mat to the left of the sink and that also kind of worked. The problem then became that the big kettle we have (Zojirushi CV-DSC40) sits just to the left of the sink and so we use that area for a lot of food and tea prep. The mat, while not a bad solution, ended up leaving water on the counter and taking up valuable counter real estate.
So a few weeks ago I started scouring Amazon for better options and in the end I found the Better Chef DR-16 2-Tier Dish Rack and had it delivered. It’s been a smashing success. Below is a picture of it in place. (We aren’t using the sponge or utensil caddies that came with it.) As you can see, it fits the space to the right of the sink perfectly and since we compost most things, reaching the disposal switch is only slightly annoying.
Lastly, a small note (the About section now also includes this info): I’ve started posting a few links to some of the stuff we buy from Amazon.com, but if you click the link to see the item and then purchase it, we don’t get any money/credit. I use AmazonSmile*, and a small portion of all purchases made by me, and I think possibly for people who use any links I post, go to my non-profit of choice, which is the Alex Foundation.
*Editor’s note 8/28/24: AmazonSmile has been discontinued.