Water filter cartridges: When to change?

TheMsTeal

Hi All, just your thoughts on how often a water filter should be changed? They all say after a month in instructions but could I get away with doing it less often to save a few pennies or does the filtering qualities really decline after a month?

molerat

I have a jug and a coffee make both using Brita Maxtra filters. The jug has a 4 week timer on it, the coffee make an 8 week timer so go figure. The water quality deteriorates due to throughput rather than time. We found that with the reduction in the hours of grandchildren we have here the filter lasts longer,

Marcon

If you can see/taste a difference (usually the former - scum starts to appear on the surface of tea, in particular), then definitely time to change the filter.

There's also a hygiene issue if you are talking about the filter in a cold water jug, especially in summer and if the jug is not kept in the fridge. Not really an issue with kettles/coffee makers, where the filter content is regularly subjected to 'steam cleaning'.