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CHF Replacement Filters / NAC Media Refill
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NAC Scale-Prevention Media Refill

PW-M-NAC-875 · Refills your existing CHF 15-inch housing
$220 Free delivery Australia-wide
Compatible aftermarket product by ProperWater, not manufactured by or affiliated with Complete Home Filtration.

Salt-free scale prevention, supplied loose in a bag to refill the cartridge your resin sits in now, which then runs last in the row, after the carbon. Instead of stripping the minerals out, it conditions them so they are far less likely to form limescale, and it lasts years rather than months.

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Free delivery
Australia-wide
Lasts years
Not months
Dispatched in 1 to 2 days
In 1 to 2 business days
No salt, no power
Nothing to plumb in
Not a softener, and that's the point. NAC leaves the minerals in your water and conditions them so they're far less likely to bind as scale. Your hardness reading won't change, and you won't get the slippery soft-water feel. If that feel is what you're after, the resin refill is the one you want.

Refill your housing, change the chemistry

Your CHF housing doesn't care what's inside it. If you're tired of resin that exhausts every year, this swaps the media rather than the hardware: empty the spent resin, rinse the housing, pour in the NAC media, refit. No new housing, no plumbing, no salt.

How NAC works

NAC stands for nucleation-assisted crystallisation. Rather than softening water by reducing the minerals in it, the media gives dissolved calcium somewhere to crystallise, converting it into stable microcrystals that stay suspended and travel through your pipes, elements and glassware without bonding to them. The minerals remain in the water; what changes is their ability to build up as limescale.

It's the same technology class as the template-assisted crystallisation media assessed in Arizona State University's evaluation for the WateReuse Research Foundation, which recorded more than 88% reduction in scale formation against roughly 50% for electromagnetic and electrical alternatives. That study tested a different manufacturer's media, so treat it as evidence for the approach rather than a performance claim about this product.

Close-up of NAC scale-prevention media beads
The media itself, small spherical beads. Water passes through the bed and the hardness minerals crystallise on the bead surfaces instead of on your pipework.

Resin or NAC, the honest comparison

Ion exchange resin

Genuinely softens, reduces the calcium and magnesium, so you get the soft-water feel on skin, hair and glassware. Hardness reading drops. Strongest when freshly refilled, tapering as the resin is used up; refilled every 6 to 12 months, and it adds a small amount of sodium.

Resin refill from $85 →
NAC scale prevention

Doesn't soften, conditions the minerals so they're far less likely to form scale on elements, tapware and glass. Hardness reading is unchanged and no sodium is added. Replaced roughly every 2 years.

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Specifications

Taken from the label supplied on every bag.

Part codePW-M-NAC-875
Size15-inch × 4.5-inch housing · 875 mL of media
Nominal flow15 L/min
Operating temperature1 to 40 °C
Maximum pressure750 kPa
ReplaceApproximately every 2 years, depending on your water hardness
Flush timeAbout 40 seconds
First useFlush 10 litres through the system before use
Before you order. For use with mains water only, not for water that is microbiologically unsafe or of unknown quality. NAC media conditions scale rather than reducing minerals: it is not a water softener, and it is not a substitute for disinfection.

Certification

The NAC media we supply is certified to NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 and NSF/ANSI/CAN 372 by the Water Quality Association (WQA) and IAPMO for use in potable water systems. These are material-safety certifications, they confirm the media is safe in contact with drinking water. They are not a performance certification, and we make no certified performance claim.

Common questions

Will NAC media fit my existing CHF housing?

Yes, it pours into the same 15-inch cartridge your resin sits in now. Empty the spent resin, rinse, pour in the NAC media, then the refilled cartridge moves to the last position and the carbon block moves to the middle. The carbon runs first to protect the media: it takes out the chlorine, so nothing disrupts the crystal formation the NAC relies on. Empty, rinse, pour and refit. No new housing and no plumbing changes.

How often does NAC media need replacing?

Approximately every 2 years, depending on your water hardness, harder water works the media harder. That's considerably longer than resin, which is typically refilled every 6 to 12 months, and there's a difference in kind, not just length: resin is consumed by the softening it does, so its effect is strongest in the early weeks of a refill and tapers as capacity is used up. NAC isn't consumed by the crystallisation it drives, so it works the same in month twenty as on day one.

Will my water feel soft like it does with resin?

No, and that's by design. Resin gives you the slippery soft-water feel because it reduces the calcium and magnesium. NAC leaves those minerals in and conditions them instead. If the soft-water feel matters most to you, stay with the resin refill.

Does NAC media reduce water hardness?

No. Your hardness reading won't change. NAC conditions the hardness minerals so they're far less likely to bind as limescale on elements, tapware and glassware, but the minerals stay in the water. It's a scale-prevention media, not a softener.

Please note: ProperWater Pty Ltd and our products are in no way endorsed by, affiliated with, or associated with Complete Home Filtration or Environmental Water Solutions Pty Ltd. References to CHF and Complete Home Filtration, including model references such as CHF-6000 and CHF-6200, are for product-compatibility purposes only; PW Series replacement filters are independently designed for compatibility with the 15" × 4.5" and original 10" × 4.5" flat-cap filter housings used in CHF systems. All comparative pricing is based on renewal quotes reported to us by CHF customers, not on figures published by Complete Home Filtration.

build r11.53 · 10 Oct 2026