How one company is revolutionizing the way we use everyday water

Fast Company

20-05-2025

Mike Sale has two great gigs: Not only is he a ' certified water sommelier,' he also is the director of home water systems in the innovation lab at the Delta Faucet Company. There, he and his team spend their days solving problems for consumers by listening to them, visiting their homes, and then acting on what they see and hear. 'We go very deep to intimately understand our [customers],' Sale says. 'And that comes through in the authenticity of our products and the story behind them.' It's why Sale sought out more advanced training on water quality and taste, leading him to become a water sommelier. By better understanding the complexity of water and how certain inputs can contribute to its taste, he can identify what to add or remove to improve it.
These days, water quality is increasingly front of mind for consumers, as evolving science pinpoints newly recognized contaminants giving rise to myriad safety concerns. That's why this year, Delta Faucet debuted its Clarifi Tankless Reverse Osmosis System, a reliable and easy-to-use, high-capacity, under-sink water-filtration system that removes more than 90 contaminants and has been certified to meet National Sanitation Foundation standards. Here, Sale explains how innovation at Delta Faucet led to Clarifi and why that certification matters. (The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.)
Delta Faucet has more than 70 years of experience in transforming the way people connect to water. How does that play out in your customers' lives?
Water can be viewed as a simple utility or an input; we see it as a source of comfort, convenience—even inspiration—and want to transform the way people connect to it through innovative solutions. Our Touch 2 O faucets, for instance, evolved from ethnographic research, watching people in their homes struggle with tasks. Touch 2 O faucets can turn on and off with a tap or even a wave [of the hand] and employ an illuminated color-coded gauge to provide a clear indication of the temperature.
Why is innovation such a key focus at Delta?
Our focus has always been on meeting the evolving needs of our consumers' daily lives with water. We look at solving problems, enhancing convenience, and helping them [complete] the jobs they want to do. But we're also thinking of that within the broader ecosystem of sustainability, efficiency, and safety. That's been paramount to our strategy for years now.
Describe what you and your team do in the innovation lab.
I love our work because it fits around our core ethos of truly understanding our consumers, understanding their needs. And those needs aren't always articulated—sometimes they're spotted through observation. Our role is to identify gaps, and then, through development and testing, find ways to surprise and delight.
I think of product development as a relay race where multiple parties touch projects at different times. We try lots of interesting and unexpected things—some that never see the light of day because they did not solve the problem or they created added complexity. We have a very heavy testing and looping process before the brand puts them into market at scale.
What are some of the more exciting developments to come out of the lab?
I think the Touch 2 O features we mentioned fit there. And most recently, we've spent a lot of time with consumers getting to understand their needs around water quality and water treatment. That is extremely meaningful to me because of how deeply it impacts not just your use and your experience, but frankly your health, your family's health. The excited [response from] consumers after they've tested these products motivates my whole team and brings meaning to our work.
Reverse osmosis sounds daunting. Explain it in layman's terms.
Water is great at absorbing things on its journey from rain to groundwater to rivers, to wherever your local municipality or well sources the water. That process is osmosis. That's where it gets its minerals from rocks, as well as man-made things like chemicals or fertilizer runoff. Reverse osmosis is just reversing that process, with some type of carbon filtration and then, specifically, a reverse-osmosis membrane. I describe it like a big roll of wrapping paper. The water goes through this paper that has extremely small holes, clean water comes out the other side, and impurities get trapped in between the layers and flushed down the drain.
What are the benefits of having a tankless reverse osmosis system?
Historically, reverse osmosis has been a tank-based system. It uses line pressure, and it fills a large tank that sits under your sink. Once it's drained, it stops and has to refill. We've eliminated that tank and moved it to a packaged system that has a pump to push the water through more efficiently. It uses significantly less water to flush contaminants down the drain. It's a very efficient system. It takes up a lot less space. And systems can be rated at 600 or 800 gallons per day versus a two-gallon tank that, when it's empty, is gone. But not every manufacturer has been able to design their tankless system to hit the same level of third-party certifications. Ours is the only system certified to reduce more than 90 contaminants. You can find that full listing on our website as well as through third-party certification labs for important standards like NSF/ANSI 45, 53 and 401, and NSF/ANSI 58. So, we encourage consumers to do their homework on ensuring the system is as robust as they need.
Do consumers really need to go that distance?
Reverse osmosis is generally considered the gold standard of residential filtration. It is one of the most effective ways that you can create a baseline of your water and remove man-made inputs. It is a good solution for people who either know they have things in their water that they're concerned about that lower-tier filtration will not remove—like where we see breaks in water quality, like areas known for higher nitrates from fertilizer runoff, or something has spilled in their area—or they have concerns with emerging contaminants such as PFAS or microplastics. The system is relatively agnostic and removes most everything.