How often should the refrigerator water filter be replaced? The manufacturers say 6 months but I know they want to sell replacement filters. What is the "real" filter life span?
How often should refrigerator water filter be replaced?
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I have a Maytag refrig and the "replace filter" light comes on at about 12 months. We are a two person household. That has been consistent since the fridge was new. Cost is around $15, so it is not a big deal for me. I could see 6 mos in a larger household.
I think this will vary wildly depending on where you are. One city's water can be vastly different than another's.
My (stupid) GE fridge mandates a change after a certain amount of time. The filters have an electronic tag on them and the fridge starts counting the days whenever it sees a new tag. At the end of the countdown, it shuts everything down until you replace it.
If your fridge will let you, go until you notice any restriction in the water flow, or if you don't have 'door water', when your ice cubes start to shrink or smell weird.
My (stupid) GE fridge mandates a change after a certain amount of time. The filters have an electronic tag on them and the fridge starts counting the days whenever it sees a new tag. At the end of the countdown, it shuts everything down until you replace it.
If your fridge will let you, go until you notice any restriction in the water flow, or if you don't have 'door water', when your ice cubes start to shrink or smell weird.
Need more info...
Are you on a well or municipal water? Hard water? Chlorine? Can you tell a difference in filtered vs. unfiltered water?
I am on municipal water that tastes great straight out of the tap. I disconnected my fridge water filter after getting tired of spending $15 - $30 per filter every 6-9 months and not being able to tell the difference between the filtered vs. the unfiltered water. YMMV
Are you on a well or municipal water? Hard water? Chlorine? Can you tell a difference in filtered vs. unfiltered water?
I am on municipal water that tastes great straight out of the tap. I disconnected my fridge water filter after getting tired of spending $15 - $30 per filter every 6-9 months and not being able to tell the difference between the filtered vs. the unfiltered water. YMMV
As others have said, it depends on your tap water. You can also have it tested when a new filter is used, then retest after 6 months. Testing the quality of the water at specific intervals is the only way to verify anything. And it'll be the deciding factor to what quality of water you want.
Get yourself one of these water quality testers. If TDS gets near 50 ppm, time to replace the filter, IMO. In general though, when the TDS value starts taking a dive is when filter is no longer doing its job.
On my ZeroWater, I actually replace the filter at 6 ppm, but I could probably go longer.
https://www.amazon.com/Accurate-HoneForest-Temperature-0-9990ppm-Aquariums/dp/B073713G5F?th=1
On my ZeroWater, I actually replace the filter at 6 ppm, but I could probably go longer.
https://www.amazon.com/Accurate-HoneForest-Temperature-0-9990ppm-Aquariums/dp/B073713G5F?th=1
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To me, it also depends if the fridge has water + ice or just ice - our GE French door doesn't have a water dispenser so the filter is just used for the ice maker. We let the filter go longer than when we had a side-by-side that also had a water dispenser. 1 year seems fair to me, as a ballpark. 6 months is pretty short, unless you have really hard/contaminated water.
The light comes on every 6 months on ours. That's with moderate to heavy use. 40-50 year old well that eats a water heater element about every 3 months if that tells you anything. Even with having to change filters periodically I wouldn't go back. I love the convivence of this thing.
I'll second what Quattro Pete said. TDS meters are cheap online. I would get one and compare the TDS of your tap water against the filtered water. When you see the TDS of the filtered water start an upward trend that would be the time to change the filter. That's better than an LED indicator. I use one to test the TDS from my reverse osmosis system. For example, my tap water is currently 180 ppm TDS and the R/O product water is 6 ppm.
My fridge is 18 years old. When we bought it, the filters were good for 12 months and cost like $50 at Home Depot. Then I bought filters off Amazon for $25 that were good for 12 months. Now I buy filters off Amazon for $17 and they say they're good for 6 months but I use them for 12 months.
How do you know if yours has a filter? My Amana is at least 10 and probably 15 years old and I've never replaced a filter in it.
RTFM.
Can you unplug and then plug it back in to reset it? or do they check the code or electronics on the filter?
How can this be remotely legal?
Not illegal, but definitely not good for consumer relations. Think I'll buy another GE when this one dies? That's a no.
Agree! My 8 year old GE came with a plug to install if you don’t want to replace the filter. When my “replace filter” light came on the first time I installed the plug with nary a problem since. The reminder pops up about every 12 months but I just push the button for 3 seconds which clears the reminder and I’m good for another 12 months.
I'd replace when the water flow slows, the water has a different taste or the water appears cloudy. So much depends on the quality of water in your city. Ed
At least once a year or every 3K ice cubes.
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/hack-rwpfe-water-filters-ge-fridge/
You can hack it like all the other nonsense like ink cartridge or coffee pods.
We are on municipal water that comes from wells. Our Samsung fridge has both ice and drinking water. Myself, I would be fine with tap water even though the filtered water from the fridge does taste a little better. My wife is a water filter Nazi and we go around about the filter every time she gets a little tummy ache.
I too like Pete's suggestion of the TDS meter. I'm getting one of those for sure, if only to settle our arguments.
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