So, why exactly am I changing my refrigerator filter?
 

The little red light has gone on for the first time (6 months after move-in) in our Whirlpool fridge. I understand that this is timed, and not a direct measure of water quality and/or filter clogging. So, what does changing the filter really do? Is the ice maker sensitive to small particles (or other) in the water that must be removed for proper operation? Any insight welcome - thanks.

The main thing that the filter does is make your water (and ice cubes) taste better. It's a carbon filter that removes stuff that makes your water taste and smell bad. In time, it loses its ability to hold any more of this "stuff" and needs to be replaced. Unless you use an awful lot of water, the 6 month time is pretty conservative. I change mine after a year of use.

Yes! And I even had a repairman tell me you can reset it at least once before replacing it. It's what we always did and my husband can taste bad water, so one reset in enough. Now, if you get a whole house water system, you can remove the filter totally...just FYI.

A good high end whole house (WHF) filter will eliminate the need for the fridge filter that's correct, but not all will run without it.

But if a WHF is installed the fridge filter should last a very long long time.

For more info see this info on ours

I get the message saying "change filter" in less than six months.

How do you reset?

Why? Because it brings in more income for the appliance company.:pepper2:

(1) How do you reset? and (2) where do you get the filters?

About $40 each from the fridge manufacturer or shop around.

I still wouldn't drink it, the carbon doesn't remove a lot of stuff, it passes thru........to you.

According the the GE website, they claim that their filters remove over 15 contaminants (not specified which) and they recently sent out notice that their MWF Refrigerator filters now remove 5 trace pharmaceuticals including ibuprofen, progesterone, atenolol, trimethoprim and fluoxetine in addition to the other 15+ they claim.

At their website you can also look up the right filter for different GE refrigerators as well as set up an auto delivery plan. (aka Smart Order Delivery)

https://www.geapplianceparts.com/GEA...ter-filtration

That sounds like selling snow to an Eskimo,
I never heard of municipal water sources containing drugs.....strange claim don't you think?

How would those pharmaceuticals get into the water supply. :shrug:

Moreover, none of other cooking, washing or bathing water comes from the tiny fridge filter, agree?

I can tell you what happens if you don't ever change the filter... the ice maker will stop working.

We were using a Britta up north for drinking water, so we disregarded changing the filter in our LG French door fridge. After the filter apparently became clogged to capacity from filtering the water going into the ice maker, it simply stopped letting enough water go through, and we were getting a few cubes every couple of days.

I too wonder if the filter can be disabled in modern fridges if you install a whole house filter. For instance, the Whirlpool Gold French Door fridge (2012). I'm sure Whirlpool wouldn't tell me.

That happened to us and we had just moved into a new house. Whirlpool guy just reset the filter for another six months. The filter clock started when they delivered the refrigerator. We didn't move into the home for five months. The Whirlpool guy said it is just a time of six months, has nothing to do with how much the filter was used.

Jimbo, I was just providing some information that I thought might be useful to some reader(s) of this thread, and as such I'm merely being a messenger of the content and not an author.

I can however tell you that the letter containing the information also included this statement... "The contaminants or other substances removed or reduced by this water filter are not necessarily in all users' water."

There was a bit more to the letter that explained the additional filtration, but it wasn't my intent to type the letter in it's entirety nor would it have been worth it for me to do so.

If you want to get answers to your questions, I can only suggest that you to call GE at the phone number given in the letter... 1-800-626-2046.

Too many people dispose of old medications by flushing them down the toilet. This water ends up being processed and purified, but pharmaceuticals can be difficult to filter out of municipal water systems.

This has become a real problem in many areas, thus the warning.