How often should you replace your fridge water filter?

Why bother

Old filters stop filtering anything. Standard upkeep. Dull and cheap, and a lot less dull than whatever it's quietly preventing.

Why it's a range

Hard water and a thirsty household clog it sooner. Six months is the label's number and a fair one; if the water slows or starts to taste of itself before then, that's your real schedule.

What the job involves

1. Buy the cartridge that fits your fridge, not the one that's cheapest. Filters are model-specific, so match the printed code on the old one or the model number in the manual. The wrong one won't seat.
2. Find it and pull it. It's usually top-right inside, in the grille along the bottom front, or tucked in a back corner. Some twist a quarter-turn, some push to release, some just pull straight out. No tools, and on most models no need to shut the water off.
3. Slot the new one in and lock it home, then run 2 to 4 gallons through the dispenser. The first water carries carbon dust and trapped air, so it'll splutter and run gray. That's the filter clearing its throat, not a fault.
4. Reset the filter light so the fridge stops sulking, usually by holding the dispenser or 'filter' button for a few seconds. Otherwise it'll glow at you for the next six months.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

Yourself, no question. It's a tool-free swap that takes a couple of minutes, which is why no labor guide bothers pricing it. You only ring a pro ($90 to $300 per Angi) once a neglected filter has already clogged and taken the inlet valve or ice maker with it.

What skipping it costs

$100 to $300 is the repair bill a spent filter sets up. Left in past its life, it clogs with sediment and chokes the water flow, and the fridge keeps hauling water through it. That strains the water inlet valve ($90 to $225 to fix) and starves the ice maker ($100 to $300), with a typical fridge repair averaging about $275. A filter you swap on time costs roughly $40. The water also stops being filtered to spec once it's saturated, so you're paying more to drink worse.

Signs it's overdue

• Water dribbles out where it used to pour, and the ice maker turns out little or nothing. That's sediment in a spent filter pinching the flow.
• Water or ice tastes or smells off, or you spot black specks or cloudiness. A saturated filter sheds carbon and lets through what it used to catch.
• The filter light's gone amber or red, or it's simply been more than six months or 200 to 400 gallons since the last change.

When to start thinking about it

A few days' warning does it. Grumpty grumbles 5 days out, then leaves you alone. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 6 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

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