Brita Water Filter - how do I know if cartridge is used up?

londonman81

I have a Brita Water Filter which uses Maxtra cartridges.

However, I find it difficult to know whether I have used the cartridge up fully. The jug does have a timer at the top, but it only counts down 1 month without looking at how much the cartridge has actually been used. So for example, if I use the filter only once a month, the timer will still indicate 0% after 1 month even though the filter has actually had minimal use.

As I don't want to just throw away a cartridge with some use in it, I'd like to know if there's a better way of knowing whether the filter has been used up.

Many thanks!

McAzrael

Taste the water. If you can't tell then you need to question whether you need to be using the cartridges.

Sponge

I appreciate your situation. I have a water filtering jug and sometimes don't use it for days, but the timer remains constant. I tend to reset the timer after 4 weeks and often get 8 weeks out of a filter before I can taste the difference. And that's what you need to do - use the timer as a guide, but simply replace the filter when the water degrades.

Fred_Bear_2

We use our jug filter only for making tea. When we start getting scum on the top of the cup we know the filter is worn out. It usually lasts 2 weeks. We're big tea drinkers!

walmslei

Just about all filter jug cartridges in hard water areas will struggle to make four weeks..

In Lincolnshire at over 300ppm with a family of four, I'd suspect two weeks would be a fair estimate. Since the vast majority of users rely on the jug to keep their kettle clean, then the tell tale scum on tea is probably your best indicator that the filter has reached the end of it's life.

De-alkerlisation resins can only remove a finite amount of scale - their life is proportional to usage and the hardness of the water. Heavier use, in harder water will cause the cartridge to expire much quicker than light use in a soft water area.

These are small cartridges, since you can only pack a small amount of resin into them, then the cartridge is limited in terms of what it can remove - simply put, it is technically impossible for them to really get more media into the housing.

From a bacteria/contamination perspective as long as the jug is clean and you are happy with the taste then extending a cartridge by a short period of time shouldn't present too many issues. There is a trade off with carbon filters in that over-extending the life can present biological contamination issues - so I'd advise against running too long, however, if you can get an extra week or two, then go for it!