Have a new o-ring in stock before changing cartridges. Usually you can reuse the old o-ring.
Very lightly lube the old or new o-ring with proper silicone lube. I like Molykote 111. A 5.3 ounce tube is not cheap, but it is a lifetime supply.
Thank you very much Reach! You’ve been a huge help in deciding what to do.
Ultimately I decided to keep things the way they were but just change to the official Pentek big blue housing. I was able to reuse the existing mounting bracket this way too.
I didn’t like the o-rings in the bypass valve/mechanism in the housing with the built-in bypass, and I don’t like the way the mounting for it is designed either.
The filter that came out of the housing that was on there did not look too bad and it was on there for like a year.
But what I wanted to change was the knock off brand-X China housing.
I’m trying to decide what filter to use. I might go with just a real basic one rather than using an expensive carbon block filter for all the water in the house. But this setup should be a lot better than what I had!
And yes believe me I plan to keep extra o-rings in stock, now that I have a specific size to order!