Most manufacturers comply with the current European guidelines on granular carbon drinking water filters and recommend a six monthly changing cycle. Carbon is an excellent, efficient and low cost filtration material, however, it does degrade from the time it first becomes wet and eventually can harbour bacteria slimes (which in the case of a fridge are particularly troublesome to clean).

Filters DO a very important job in a fridge. Almost everyone believes the function is to provide clean fresh water, however, the more important purpose behind them is to reduce sediment and debris in the water supply, which can get caught up in the solenoid valves inside the fridge eventually leading to them 'sticking' (i.e. the water fails to stop instantly when you remove the glass) or jamming altogether. Repair bills for a solenoid valve usually begin at around £150 for most manufacturers onsite, so it pays to try and prevent such things where you can.

These days nearly every model of fridge has a 'reminder' light to tell you when your cartridge needs changing. These lights are really very simple timer circuits, which when reset count down the seconds until the cartridge is due for replacement. Unfortunately, on some models, these can be erratic at best and we've genuinely had customers changing their cartridge every three months because their light trips early. There is -no- circuitry in any UK fridge which monitors the cartridge or the output water quality - If your light does come on early then it probably indicates a minor problem with that part of the fridges workings (which is typically nothing to worry about).

We send out no obligation reminders to customers at six monthly intervals to let you know your cartridge is approaching the end of its stated life. Most customers choose to replace their filter every six to seven months. As a retailer our recommendation is to go with the manufacturers set cycle, and with cartridges now approaching much more sensible prices to end-users the '£50 shock' every six months is thankfully about done with!