Why Do Filters Need Remote Monitoring?

In the top left corner of my car’s windshield, there is a little sticker showing when I need my next oil change. On it, there is a date and an odometer reading. You probably have something similar in your car as a helpful reminder put there by whoever last serviced your vehicle.

I don’t know about you, but the recommended date and mileage for my next oil change have almost never coincided. And they’re not meant to— it’s about whichever comes first, since oil breaks down over time and gets contaminated with more miles driven.

A similar principle is true with water filters, particularly carbon- or resin-based filters that have a limited capacity for contaminants. Manufacturers recommend that they be replaced once a certain amount of water has been filtered, or after a certain amount of time has passed. Whichever comes first. But there are several key differences with water filters that make this a more challenging problem for facilities teams than just changing the oil in your car, and why water management is moving toward remote monitoring.

1. No “odometer”

Unlike cars, water filters do no not usually have a simple “odometer” telling you the mileage — or, in this case, how much water has passed through. Facilities teams often have no idea how much water has been treated at their filtered water locations and instead make maintenance decisions based on a standard amount of time. This is like operating a fleet of vehicles all driving different distances each day but only changing the oil on them once per year. Eventually, this is going to result in excess wear, potential breakdowns, and added costs because the maintenance routine is not adapted to the individual needs of each vehicle. In the same way, if water filters are inadequately maintained across a large building, this creates a higher risk of contaminant breakthrough at high traffic locations, long stagnation times, bacterial growth, and clogging at low traffic locations, excess costs, and poor water quality.

2. No “warning lights”

Even with the sticker in the windshield, you might not anticipate that an oil change is coming until the maintenance light appears on the dashboard. Without the light, it is easy to forget. It is human nature to focus on other top-of-mind priorities, and we need prompts to change our behavior or take action. Some water fountains have red/yellow/green lights — known as performance indicator devices — that serve as these warning signs to prompt maintenance teams to take action, just like the light on your dashboard. But many filtered water stations have no means of alerting users or maintenance staff that a filter is due for replacement. They are out of sight, out of mind, leading to filters being forgotten or ignored for years at a time. I’ve seen filters in place in buildings for 7 years past their manufacturer-recommended replacement date, leading to a real deterioration in water quality.

3. No “driver”

Even when water filters do have an “odometer” tracking the volume of water treated or a performance indicator device, there is no daily driver to monitor that measurement. Think of the “Plastic Bottles Saved” counter or the red lights you might see on a water fountain. How does that information get back to whoever is supposed to do the replacement? You drive your car every day, but the people responsible for maintaining dozens or hundreds of drinking water locations in large facilities are not staring at the units every day watching the ticker or waiting for the lights to turn red. They’re off doing other important, mission-critical things to keep their facilities running.

In some facilities, red lights on water fountains will cause a user to notice and alert the maintenance staff that a filter is due for replacement. That works fine, right? Not really. There are two main issues with relying on a building’s patrons to be the facility’s alerting mechanism.

First, delays. Building users usually assume that the red light on a water fountain is someone else’s responsibility, so months or years may go by before someone finally alerts their facilities staff or submits a work order.

Second, it’s a bad look. Building patrons expect clean drinking water. Red lights, clogged filters, or bad water quality reflect poorly not just on the facilities and maintenance teams, but organizational leadership too. In airports, for example, travelers want to feel good about where they refill their water bottles after going through security, but often can only find broken water fountains, glaring red lights, and clogged filters. This can lead to complaints, lack of trust, and a poor overall perception of the environmental cleanliness and quality of a building’s space.

NSF Guidance

NSF International, the non-profit certification agency that sets standards for water filter performance, recognizes theses challenges with water filter maintenance, especially when filters are used for lead reduction in schools or other buildings serving young children. NSF has even developed new guidance for remote filter monitoring (known NSF 53 Informative Annex 9), stating:

Remote monitoring of lead filtration devices will be useful to comply with changing regulatory landscapes at the federal and state levels. In some jurisdictions, school systems are being directed to install and maintain lead reduction devices… the geographic dispersal of sites with installed lead filtration devices may pose a challenge for proper maintenance and monitoring. Remote monitoring can allow the status of the treatment device to be verified by an authorized party more frequently, efficiently, and consistently than if checks were limited to on-site physical inspection. ​

According to NSF, a remote filter monitoring solution should track:

• Unique filter identifier​s

• Filter operational status​

• Device battery status​

• Gallons of water filtered​

• Timestamp​

• Filter replacement alert​s

NSF also stresses the importance of ensuring data retention during unscheduled loss of power or connection​, data security to prevent unauthorized access to facility networks, and interoperability to be able to transmit information from multiple manufacturers and system types​.

Why Aquantix?

Aquantix is the only remote filter monitoring solution available in the U.S. that is compliant with NSF guidance. Our system is fully interoperable, meaning it can be used to retrofit any existing water fountain or filtration system, regardless of brand or manufacturer. And most importantly, it solves the odometer, warning light, and driver challenges simultaneously by providing an accurate measure of the amount of water treated, intelligent alerts to forecast when future replacements will be needed, and visibility for facilities teams to centrally track data in real time.

To date, Aquantix has helped Denver International Airport monitor over 4 million gallons of drinking water through filtered water fountains and achieve a 99.9% compliance rate, eliminating red lights, traveler complaints, and reactive work orders.