Have you ever wondered what was inside a refrigerator filter?
Posted By RichC on January 1, 2017
January 1st is "replace the refrigerator filter" day in our house … and because they are so heavy (and expensive), curiosity had me wondering what exactly was inside of this solid plastic housing? (click images for larger)
Buying the 3 pack of filters from Amazon ($30) was about the least expensive 
way to purchase EcoAqua branded replacements that fits our Samsung Refrigerator. According to the manual, the reset is not based on volume of water, but a six month time interval. Personally I go by how much water we use and how the water taste … which normally is 6 months.
After making a few cuts ringing the bottom of the filter with a bandsaw, I was able to pry apart the housing with a screwdriver. I expected a second housing and fill material but instead found that the carbon was a casted chunk and somewhat brittle.
The porous casting easily allows water to pass under relatively low pressure and is designed to "designed to protect the internal operations of the fridge from sediment, dirt and scale build up." For the users, taste is a primary objective and the carbon filtration eliminates most chemical treatment taste and is comparable to most bottle waters or filtered water pitchers. Likely once drinking filtered water, you’ll not return to tap water or even drinking from "plastic" … besides, who really wants to add so much plastic to the landfills and environment?
Considering that carbon is black, one would be hard pressed to know how much sediment had been trapped … probably best to trust the advice to change every 300 gallons or 6 months. At least we now know what is inside these chunky filters.
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