It’s typical for a refrigerator’s water filter to last six months before needing to be replaced. But filter replacement isn’t exactly something you schedule into your personal planner. It can be hard to remember the filter is even there, let alone that it needs to be replaced periodically.
Here’s a lesson I recently learned: Filters used well beyond their expiration date will inevitably enter into a downward spiral, with the victims being anyone who tries to drink the contaminated water. Allow me to explain.
Signs of a Faulty Water Filter
It’s not like a check-engine light comes on when the filter becomes ineffective, but let’s think about this: What does a filter do? It filters water. What would you expect to happen when the filter is used beyond its life expectancy? If you guessed “it stops filtering,” you’re exactly right.
But it could get much worse than that. In extreme cases, the bits of porous filtering material that once cleaned your water may end up breaking off and entering into your water itself. That’s what I suspect happened to me: One day, black sediment started appearing in the bottom of my drinking glass, and other contaminants started clouding the water. After months of drinking pure, unadulterated drinking water, this was an unpleasant sight.
After pouring the water down the drain and running the faucet – just for good measure – I started to troubleshoot the possible reasons for this malfunction. Clearly, what once was filtering water was no longer doing so. When I did a little research, I realized it wasn’t a breakdown so much as a lack of maintenance on my part: My water filter had been pushed far beyond its limits and was breaking down as a result.
Addressing the Problem
The good news was that, once I identified the problem, addressing it was fairly simple. I was able to look at my refrigerator’s user manual to find where the water filter was stored, and it was obvious from the meter on the filter that it needed to be replaced.
The bigger challenge was finding a replacement water filter – or, more specifically, the right one for my fridge. But I was able to refer to resources available online to make sure I had the right water filter for my Maytag refrigerator. Then I ordered a new filter online and waited for it to arrive on my doorstep – and in the meantime, I found other ways to enjoy pure drinking water.
Now I’ve learned my lesson: Always replace your fridge’s water filter every six months. And it’s important to remember that even though it took a long time for sediments to start appearing in my water, there was probably a long period of time in which my family was drinking water that hadn’t been effectively purified by the old filter. Even though it’s easy to forget about its presence when I can’t see it from the outside, I’ve learned my lesson and won’t be so negligent in the future.
Sign up for auto ship w/Amazon for your water filters, you’ll get a discount and not have to remember to place the order. Amazon will you send you a notice in advance in case your want to cancel or extend the ship date. Oh and I don’t work for them or have any affiliation 🙂
I didn’t know you could set Amazon to autoship a purchase out in advance like that…good idea!
I don’t change my filter every 6 months–more like once a year. The reason is that it is a weekend home situation and I figure that we are running only about a third as much water as would be expected if we were there every day. Do you think that is an error? Hope not.
I can’t imagine that you’d need to change it as often if it’s only a part-time residence.
I recently read about the rising popularity of services that automatically ship things to you- everything from men’s razors to feminine hygiene products… and now water filters! It makes sense for products that are replaced regularly, as it’s one less thing you have to think or worry about- just like automatic bill pay and prescription deliveries to your doorstep.
Great post and one that people need to be aware of. Actually, if you leave your filter unchanged for some time it can cause a large build up of bad chemicals that can cause more harm than good! One of my customers, an elderly gentleman, was experiencing bad stomach cramps and pains and until we did a routine (once in 5 years) change of the water filters in his home, he was getting worse and worse! Poor old devil!
A filter (in this case a water filter) has very small “holes” in it that will stop anything too big to pass through those small “holes”. As the “holes” get clogged up from stopping anything too big to pass through them, less and less water can pass through them. So…a filter that is left unchanged for too long will let less pass through it instead of letting the stuff it wouldn’t let pass now somehow pass through. The main purpose of changing your filter every six months is so that people who make a living selling filters can eat. Of course that is just my own opinion based on based on an acquired knowledge of the filtration process.