Water filter advice please.

shandypants5

My Admiral American style fridge freezer has a water filter cartrige that filters the water to the icemaker and water dispenser.

The indicator light has just come on that tells me to order a new filter as it should be changed every 6 months.

My question is.... Do I HAVE to change the filter?

I am quite happy with the taste/ purity of my tap water as it is, so is changing the filter to the fridge really necessary ( a new one is £25).

Am I risking any kind of poisoning or bacteria problems?
I can make the warning light go away by just telling the fridge that I have fitted a new filter.

Any advice?

Witsend_2

we dont have a warning light on ours but we should have changed it a while ago there is a 'taste' to the water and ice so we dont really use it that much now as our filters are over £50! will replace it eventually but I have to say we did use it for a while after the filter was due to be replaced and it was fine and nobody was ill. I hope this helps

shandypants5

We use our ice maker LOT, but like I said our water tastes fine anyway.

I am more worried about the filter itself actually adding bad tasts when it gets too old.

I wonder if I could just bypass the filter.?

nickcardwell

shandypants5 wrote: »

We use our ice maker LOT, but like I said our water tastes fine anyway.

I am more worried about the filter itself actually adding bad tasts when it gets too old.

I wonder if I could just bypass the filter.?

if you can remove the filter do it.

We have an amano fridge with no "fridge filter" installed. However the water supplied into the fridge is filtered water (5 stage ro filter which costs £20 a year to replace all the filters.)

walmslei

Sorry to have caught this late - you'll see from my history I catch some of the water questions, but I've been sick the last fortnight.

In terms of fridges you do need to exercise a little caution with the filters. I'll confess I work for a firm which sells such filters, but there are a couple of genuine points you need to take on board, and since there is no link or self-promotion I guess a bit of advice is ok!

Firstly if the filter is external (i.e. fits behind or outside of the fridge) then there is usually a cheaper option than the manufacturers original, often back down to somewhere near the £12 sort of mark - which certainly would save you some money.

If the filter is Internal (i.e. you open the fridge door to fit the cartridge) then I'm afraid you are out of luck - the chances are the filter has a built in auto-shut off valve which means if you remove the cartridge then the water flow to the dispenser and ice machines will automatically cut off. This means you either leave an old filter in (which eventually will suffer from taste/odour issues without a doubt), lose the facility of the water, or (sorry) have to stump up for the cost of a replacement cartridge.

Now internal filters are only available direct from the manufacturer usually - since they have been tooled specifically for them. That means the parts are always 'genuine spares' and as such will always be quite expensive (like car, central heating and cooker parts etc).

Is it important to change the filter?
There are a couple of issues which can arise if you don't. The obvious is water which starts to go off or taste odd. Whilst water is chlorinated the nature of carbon is bacteria can develop in the tiny microscopic fissures and whislt silver will help prevent that over time it will start to degrade. This slime can contaminate tubing and other parts of the water system of the fridge, meaning a very (very) poorly maintained filter might require sterilisation of the fridge in order to get rid of the taste - even when a new filter is added.

Some fridges also rely on the water filter to prevent sediment clogging up solenoid valves etc - again, not a problem in every part of the country, and it can vary season on season, but if you have bits of sediment which get through they might in some cases cause problems. I don't know how the manufacturers would look upon such a thing from a warranty issue BUT if they did query it the call outs for big old american fridges are not cheap!


So, does a filter expire exactly on six months? Well probably not - but a line has to be drawn somewhere to trade off the economics of replacement against the risk of the the cartridge causing a problem. It's widely accepted in the water filter industry that activated carbon be changed at six months. Many people will choose their own schedule, but whatever you do you should be aware of why you are changing the filter and it's implications etc.

Are fridge filters expensive? Interal ones, YES - but honestly not at the fault of retailers. External ones, generally no - since companies like ourselves produce compatibles which can often cost a fifth of the price of the original. You'll see some companies selling Internal filters sell them for crazy prices - and for fear of being flamed for self promotion you'll find a few internet companies via google and the like probably 30 to 50% cheaper than your high street chain stores.

Advice? Well if you have the fridge I'm afraid there is not a lot to be said - you need to judge when you are happy changing the filter and weigh up the pro's and cons. I admit though we hear people -everyday- telling us that no-one mentioned £50 filters when they bought the fridge in a chain store.

I own an American fridge (a Daewoo from Currys) which I am more than happy with - it uses external filters, but equally brands such as Samsung, LG, Hotpoint all offer products which still have external filters to - BUT CHECK when you are in the shop! It is important from a money saving angle to realise that a fridge costing £800 or £1000 could actually set you back another £600 in cartridges over the next 5 years if you are not careful! Unfortunately the more expensive the fridge the more expensive the filters (not a rule of thumb, but pretty accurate).

Final tip! Bear in mind some manufacturers do share tooling - therefore say if you owned a fridge from Beko it is possible to buy a Maytag Internal filter which will directly replace it (same filter basically). Another example is say Smeg, which actually use Whirlpool filters. Don't always take it as read you need to go to the manufacturer to buy a cartridge, because sometimes you can find one from another manufacturer (even for internal cartridges) which is actually the same thing but because of different pricing strategies works out cheaper.

Thats enough for this thread - just a bit of advice I thought might help!

I'm happy to help with questions on this though or anything else related to water treatment/filters.

shandypants5

Thanks for the advice Walmslei.

Its an external one, so I will scour the web some more looking for a copy.

I think we will probably replace it as soon cash flow allows.