One of our main goals here is to keep our customers informed and constantly answer all of their questions and concerns. One very common question that customer service receives is, do I need to flush my refrigerator water filter?
We have a very informative blog post that covers how to flush your refrigerator water filter, but it doesn’t cover the problems of NOT flushing it. This is what I’ll be addressing today.
Cloudy Water
Are you noticing cloudy water after replacing your filter? Activated carbon blocks are what filter out the contaminants in your water. As you can see in the picture on the right, the water enters an inner chamber of the filter and is then filtered through the carbon and comes out clean on the other side. But sometimes, during shipping, the filter might be jostled around, causing some particles of the carbon to be knocked loose. You’ll probably notice little black or gray bits in the water that are causing it to look cloudy or dirty. The carbon won’t hurt you if you drink it, but most people, including me, don’t prefer drinking it.
Another cause of cloudy water is air in the filter system. It can take several uses for the carbon to become completely saturated and free of air, because it’s full of millions of pores, creating many little pockets for air to hide. Once again, it’s not harmful at all, just an initial side effect of having clean, filtered tap water.
Weird Taste or Smell
If you drink your water without flushing it you might notice a funny taste or smell right away. This is most likely a result of the same two causes above. If there’s a high amount of carbon bits, that could definitely affect the taste. Compressed air that is leaving the system can even change the taste or feeling of the water in your mouth.
As I said earlier, none of these are health concerns. And all of these symptoms should be gone after flushing water out for approximately five minutes. If there’s still something fishy going on with your water after flushing, our friendly customer service representatives are always here to help diagnose the problem. And always remember that we offer free shipping and returns all of the time!
Feel free to leave a question you might have in the comments and we’ll answer it right away!
Good to know. It’s a pain running the water through for five minutes but I’ll continue to do it, even though I now know it would not be harmful if I didn’t do so.
How can I flush a new filter if the refrigerator only has an ice maker, and no water dispenser? How many trays full of ice do I need to make and discard?