POU RO drinking water appliances were first introduced into the market in the early 1970’s. Early RO designs were referred to as “air-on-water” because the water is processed by the RO membrane and stored in a tank that includes a separate compartment for air. As the processed water enters the tank, it compresses the processed water against the air cell for redelivery. This action alone causes a reduction in net driving pressure to the membrane, reducing production and increasing salt passage, thus resulting in an undesirable efficiency and a poorer quality of water produced.

To overcome the inherent limitations of the “air-on-water” design, many inventors developed the “water-on-water” design, which uses the existing water pressure to dispense the water to the user. Even the most successful system was complicated and filled with numerous idiosyncrasies but for some dealers, the positives outweighed the negatives.

One early adopter, Tim Beall, gained extensive knowledge and experience of “water-on-water” design and established him as an authority on the subject. Tim also explored innovative system assembly concepts and strategic marketing alliances, which could lead to a low cost, high performance product. In his pursuits, Tim discovered a “water-on-water” control valve so magically simple that it almost defies explanation. It consists of four parts and only one of them moves – a true breakthrough (previous designs were intricate and complex, having as many as 50 parts). Everything finally came together when Tim was reunited with Jack and Robert Slovak along with Michael T. Baird, fusing together their combined 100 years of experience in the POU water industry with Beall’s “water-on-water” tank design and system concept with the novel “water-on-water” control valve… the result is simply “Topper Water Systems”.