The refrigerator water filter rip off.

[jeepman3071]

What is the complaint, exactly

Probably a couple things:

1. That it has a water filter that requires replacement every 6 months regardless of if the filter is actually clogged.
2. The appliance has the ability to disable certain features based on the filter replacement interval not being met.

My parents have a Samsung fridge with one of these replaceable water filters. It shares the same problem, where after a period of time of the filter not being replaced it disables the ice maker and outside water filler. The fun part is the fridge is a few years old now, so the filters are no longer available. If they want to use those features they need to buy a new fridge.

 

[alarmguy]

LG says to replace every 6 months. I replace every 4 months, I have now used 9 of these filters on our new LG refrigerator.
Perfect fit. I buy them on Amazon. I pay the extra few dollars for their "Plus" series filters that carry the NSF rating.
Cost is $10 each. I buy in 3 packs $30 if I buy the LG brand you cant even buy one filter for that price.
Hey, folks, it's just a carbon filter with massive mark ups. It would be like going to a car dealer to buy spark plugs.

Highly recommend this company Water Drop Plus (they also have a non "plus" filter for even less) They make filters for all different brand refrigerators.

Ok, so ask me why I change every 4 months instead of 6 (besides the inexpensive cost). I dare you! *LOL*

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Everything made these days has this convenient arm built in and reaching for your wallet!

 

[GON]

Sadly, it would not be surprising in the very near future if the water filer is not replaced in the refrigerator, the entire refrigerator shuts down until a new OEM filter is installed.

For our safety of course.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

Can those little filters effectively do much filtering to 300 gallons? What do they filter out? Wonder if they've ever been tested.

I think so. Wife likes the water taste better and I think the carbon filtered water tastes better in my coffee, so we are generally happy. 300 gallon reference is approximate per the company that sold the filter.

 

[Kestas]

I'm glad I don't have water going to my refrigerator. It makes things simple (except I have to manually make ice cubes). No filters, no ice maker to fix. I've had too many friends deal with a serious leak of the supply line. I have a whole house filter for my well water and reverse osmosis for my drinking water and ice cubes. That's complicated enough for me.

 

[alarmguy]

Can those little filters effectively do much filtering to 300 gallons? What do they filter out? Wonder if they've ever been tested.

I think so. Wife likes the water taste better and I think the carbon filtered water tastes better in my coffee, so we are generally happy. 300 gallon reference is approximate per the company that sold the filter.

You are correct. I actually test the filtered water with my aquarium test kit.
They are carbon filters (activated carbon) and remove and or reduce many pollutants. If like I posted above it is NSF rated it lists some of the chemicals/pesticides that it will reduce. Activated carbon is also used by some public water supplies to remove pollutants.

Best of all your taste buds are correct as far as public water supplies is they remove (or at least the ones I post) 100% of the chlorine, confirmed by my own test strips. Pretty much any of these filters will reduce pollutants and 100% of chlorine. Buy some aquarium test kit strips if you are into this kind of thing and it will confirm what I am typing.

Water from my faucet even though our public water supply is reverse osmosis, 2nd largest reverse osmosis system in the USA they still add chlorine to the supply which is 100% prudent to do. If I test my tap water, it clearly shows up as 0.8PPM of chlorine on a good day like today other times higher and you can smell it faintly, when I test my refrigerator water like right now posting this message it is 0 - PPM of chlorine.

____
However lets take this a step further can get much into it now but it bothers me that when these filters sit in the refrigerator for a long periods of time. Like right now I am one week away from changing it at the 4 month mark. There is some kind of activity taking place is ALL THESE FILTERS when coming into contact with chlorine... Im surprised there is no attention being paid to it and it's NOT just refrigerator filters, it's any filter using carbon and other materials.

SO I just tested my tap water, and has the indicated 0.8 of chlorine and zero nitrates and nitrites.
Well, over time the process I talk about above starts an activity in the carbon filter and Nitrates and worse, nitrites start forming, yet so little written about it. Right now, the filtered refrigerator water has 0.0 of chlorine which makes the water taste good plus whatever other odors and stuff that gets filtered out. HOWEVER the filter now getting older is converting chlorine (or whatever) into nitrates and worse, nitrites. SO my tap water has 0.0 nitrites but my filtered water has 1.0 PPM of nitrite and 10 to 25 PPM of nitrates. EPA limit is 1.0 PPM of nitrite and 10 PPM of nitrate. So these filters are adding in dangerous NITRITE after a period of time as they age.

I mean. I cant be the only one trying to expose this? This is scary stuff and I can testify the post below is also accurate and for them it's under the sink carbon filter.
I found one post on Reddit from 4 years ago on the subject as below;

EPA link- https://archive.cdc.gov/www_atsdr_cdc_gov/csem/nitrate-nitrite/standards.html

 

[Hall]

Highly recommend this company Water Drop Plus

Those look like the same ones I buy - they're certainly the same spec, LT1000PC. I did find out that the fridge will simply bypass the filter attachment if no filter is installed. I have a whole house filter so I decided to do this anyway. I also ran into more than once where the internal filter would get something like a vapor lock or restriction. Noticed that the water output was pretty slow and thought the filter may need replaced. When I removed it, it popped out along with a puff of air (at least the sound of a puff of air). When I heard that, I figured that was the issue so I put the same filter back in - problem solved.