Oreka Technologies

Oreka Technologies designs a filtering spray head that screws on in place of the spray head of a pull-down kitchen faucet. Filtration uses activated carbon fibre, certified NSF/ANSI 42 and 53 for chlorine, lead and PFAS. The company serves households that want to filter the water they drink without a plastic pitcher or an under-sink system. It was founded by Andy Turcotte, a chemical engineer from drinking and industrial water treatment.

Filtering a home's water today means a plastic pitcher or a reverse osmosis system under the sink. The pitcher has to be filled and waited for, and its cartridge replacement is tracked with a timer that ignores actual use. Reverse osmosis takes up the space under the sink, has several cartridges and does not show their wear either. Upstream, water can get recontaminated in ageing pipes, and chlorination leaves by-products, trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids.

The product

The team is designing an anodized aluminium spray head that installs in three steps, with no tools and no plumber, with nine adapters to fit most pull-down faucets. Three modes sit side by side: normal spray, directed stream and filtration, so that unfiltered water serves the uses that do not need filtering and the cartridge lasts longer. An electronic reading of the volume used lights an indicator when the cartridge reaches the end of its life, around 500 L or four months. The household keeps its faucet and its water supply; only the cartridge gets replaced.

What it changes in practice

• Cartridge replacement follows actual use, because the indicator is triggered by the volume of filtered water and not by a set time.
• The home no longer piles up pitchers or multi-cartridge systems, because filtration fits in the spray head and only the cartridge gets replaced.
• Filtered water comes without waiting, because the treatment happens at the point of use, while the faucet runs.

Comprehensive expertise in water quality