Guides
Thirty-four guides. No fluff.
What a TDS reading means and what it cannot tell you, which membrane your pump can actually drive, which cartridge fits the housing you already own, and when each part is due. Written from the specifications in the full range and the IS 10500:2012 limits, nothing invented.
These guides exist because most wrong orders, and most needless ones, come from the same few confusions: what a TDS number actually means, whether a low reading means safe water, whether a bigger membrane is better, which cartridge fits which housing, and how long each part really lasts. Each guide takes one of those and answers it with the specifications published on the LUXGEN range page — the same GPD, micron, PSI and ppm figures you will find on every product page here — and the limits in the Indian drinking water standard, and nothing that is not.
They are written for the person who owns, or is about to own, a domestic RO purifier in India: municipal or borewell water, a wall-mounted pre-filter bowl, and a purifier that takes standard 1812 membranes and 10-inch cartridges. If that is you, start with the TDS reference, because the number on your meter decides which purifier, which membrane and which pre-treatment make sense. The nine guides that follow it each take one question the reference raises — safe levels, RO output, measuring, low TDS, high TDS, borewells, hardness, UV or RO, and what the meter cannot see — and answer it on its own page. Six more take hard water on its own: how to recognise it, what it does to hair, skin and appliances, how a softener differs from RO, and what one costs to buy and keep running. LUXGEN makes no softener; where one is the answer, those pages say so and point to DraQua, which carries them. Five more take the running of the machine: what each part costs to replace, what a year adds up to, whether a service contract is worth it, which jobs need a technician, and when the membrane is really done, every sum built from the prices listed on this site. Five more are about fit: housing sizes and threads, what a micron rating means, when the pump is the problem, spun against wound sediment media, and what a correct installation looks like. Four are troubleshooting: slow flow, bad taste, a leak, and a tank that will not fill, each worked from the cheapest cause to the dearest. One says how installation and service actually work: no LUXGEN technicians, a pan-India third-party network, and the DraQua route for help.
Every guide ends with a short set of questions and links to the exact LUXGEN part it discusses where one genuinely answers the need, so you can go from the answer to the product page, check what it fits, and from there to DraQua, where orders are placed. None of them will tell you to buy the dearer option when the cheaper one is right, or to buy RO when your water does not need it.
Understanding your water
Start with the TDS reference, then the nine questions it opens up. Each spoke answers one question and sends you back to the reference for the wider picture.
What your TDS reading means
IS 10500:2012 limits, five TDS bands, and which purifier each one calls for.
Read the guide →What is a safe TDS level?
Best, ideal, safe and minimum are one question. The BIS answer, and why the right figure depends on your source.
Read the guide →What TDS should RO water have?
A healthy output is a fraction of the feed. How to check it, and what a creeping reading says about the membrane.
Read the guide →How to measure TDS properly
Using the meter, where to test, calibration, and why readings differ between taps, seasons and meters.
Read the guide →Is low TDS water bad?
What RO strips out, why the taste goes flat, and what a TDS controller and a mineral cartridge each do about it.
Read the guide →High TDS water: causes and effects
What is actually dissolved in it, what it does to taste and appliances, and when RO stops being optional.
Read the guide →Borewell TDS in India
Why groundwater reads higher, why it climbs through summer, what the south sees, and the two lab tests to get once.
Read the guide →TDS vs hardness
Two numbers that rise together and mean different things. Why a softener leaves TDS alone and RO does not target hardness.
Read the guide →UV or RO: which does my reading need?
When UV is enough, when RO is required, what each cannot do, and where the running costs really differ.
Read the guide →What TDS does not tell you
Bacteria, nitrate, fluoride and heavy metals: the four things a low reading can hide, and the one lab test that settles them.
Read the guide →Hard water and softening
How to tell hardness from TDS, what it does to hair, skin and appliances, how a softener differs from RO, and what one costs to buy and run. LUXGEN makes no softener; where one is the answer, these pages say so and point to DraQua.
How to tell you have hard water
Scale, scum, stiff laundry and spotted steel: the seven signs, two kitchen tests, and the three ways to confirm it properly.
Read the guide →Hard water, hair and skin
What the minerals do in the shower, what is proven and what is anecdote, which soap to use, and when a softener is the fix.
Read the guide →Water softener or RO?
One removes hardness, the other removes dissolved solids. When you need one, the other, or both, and which one goes first.
Read the guide →What a softener costs in India
Price ranges by type, then salt, water, resin and installation. Honest ranges, no fake precision, and no LUXGEN price because there is none.
Read the guide →Keeping a softener working
Regeneration, the right salt, resin life, a one-table checklist, and the quiet way a neglected softener stops working.
Read the guide →What scale costs you
Geysers, washing machines, dishwashers, taps and RO membranes: where scale forms, what ignoring it costs, and where a softener pays back.
Read the guide →Maintenance and cost
What each part costs to replace and how often, what a year of running an RO adds up to, whether a service contract beats buying cartridges, which jobs need a technician, when the membrane is really done, and how installation and service actually work. Every price is LUXGEN's own listed price, linked.
Replacement cost, part by part
Every LUXGEN spare with its price, interval and product page, and what they add up to in a municipal or borewell year.
Read the guide →What an RO costs to run per year
Cartridges, membrane, lamp, electricity and reject water added up from listed prices, with the working shown.
Read the guide →Is an RO AMC worth it?
What a contract covers, what plans typically cost, and the cartridge sums at LUXGEN prices, so you can decide for yourself.
Read the guide →Service call, or do it yourself?
Which jobs are a ten-minute swap, which put water next to mains voltage, and what a visit typically costs.
Read the guide →When to replace the RO membrane
The four symptoms, the meter test that confirms them, the five things that shorten its life, and which of the three to buy.
Read the guide →How installation and service work
No LUXGEN technicians and no service centres: products ship from DraQua, installation is arranged through a pan-India third-party network, cartridges are yours. The honest version.
Read the guide →Troubleshooting
Slow flow, bad taste, a leak, and a tank that will not fill: the four things that go wrong with a domestic RO, each diagnosed from the cheapest cause to the dearest, with an honest line between what you can fix and what a technician should.
RO water flow slow?
Five causes in the order the water meets them, cheapest first: sediment, carbon, inlet pressure, pump, membrane. So you do not buy a membrane for a ₹190 fault.
Read the guide →RO water tastes bad?
Chlorine, flat, metallic, salty or stale: five tastes, five causes, and which of them cost nothing to fix.
Read the guide →RO purifier leaking?
The five places an RO leaks, the five-minute fixes for four of them, and the one that needs a technician. Safety first: the adapter shares the cabinet.
Read the guide →RO not filling the tank?
Empty and slow are two different faults. The control chain for an empty tank, the flow list for a slow one, and why you never bridge a switch.
Read the guide →Buying and fitting parts
Which membrane your pump can actually drive, which cartridge fits the housing you already own, and when each part is due.
80 GPD or 100 GPD?
Why the rating is a lab number, and why a 100 GPD membrane needs a pump to match.
Read the guide →Which cartridge fits your housing
Same media, different dimensions — and the 9″ candle in a 10″ housing trap.
Read the guide →When to change each part
Sediment, carbon, membrane, pump: intervals, symptoms, and why the order matters.
Read the guide →Fitting and compatibility
The housing sizes and threads, what a micron rating means, when the pump is the problem, spun against wound sediment media, and what a correct install looks like. Written from the specifications on the product pages.
RO housing sizes explained
10 inch, 20 inch, slim and big blue, the three threads, and why a cartridge that looks right does not seal. The page that stops wrong orders.
Read the guide →What 5 micron actually means
Nominal against absolute, why a finer cartridge is not a better one, and what each stage of the purifier is there to stop.
Read the guide →The booster pump, explained
When you need one, how to tell yours is failing, what 140 PSI and 1.5 LPM mean, and which pump each membrane needs.
Read the guide →Spun or wound sediment filter?
Two ways to make the same 5 micron cartridge: which holds more dirt, which suits which water, and the cost per month of each.
Read the guide →What a correct install looks like
Inlet tap, pre-filter mounting, drain with an air gap, pipe runs, adapter, first flush, and what to check before the technician leaves.
Read the guide →