Frigidaire Water Filter Replacement: How-To Guide

The Filter Light Is Not a Suggestion

Your Frigidaire has a little light that tells you when to change the water filter. Some models its blue that turns red. Some models its just a word that says REPLACE. Either way, most people ignore it for weeks. Months sometimes.

Dont be that person.

Frigidaire water filter replacement is one of those tasks that takes maybe two minutes but people put it off like its a weekend project. Its not. I’m going to walk you through it but first I want to talk about why this actually matters because I think most people treat it like a suggestion and it isnt.

Why I Care About This More Than I Should

My dad Curtis used to say the fridge is the heart of the house. Everything flows through it. Every meal, every drink, every late night snack when youre watching basketball and pretending you dont hear your wife say something about the ice cream. The fridge is where the family meets.

He also used to say, about machinery at the factory where he worked, he used to say fix it before it breaks or pay double to fix it after. He was talking about industrial equipment but it applies to everything and it definitely applies to your water filter.

Heres the thing about water filters that most people dont think about. The filter isnt just making your water taste better. Its actually removing stuff. Chlorine, sediment, whatever particulates are floating around in your municipal water supply, and depending on where you live that list can get long.

I moved to Palm Beach a few years back and the water here is different than what I grew up with in Atlanta or what we had in Texas. Theres more mineral content, more stuff that builds up, and the humidity down here means everything works harder including your refrigerator. The compressor runs more, the ice maker runs more, and if your filter is clogged then your water dispenser is pushing water through a filter that cant do its job anymore and youre basically drinking whatever the filter was supposed to catch. The filter media gets saturated. Thats the technical term. Saturated. It cant absorb any more contaminants because its full. So the contaminants just pass through. And the water flow slows down because the filter is clogged and your ice cubes come out smaller and your water dispenser takes forever and you stand there pressing the lever wondering whats wrong with your fridge when the answer is right there. The light is on. It told you.

Finding Your Filter

Frigidaire puts their water filters in different places depending on the model. Some are in the upper right corner inside the fridge. Some are in the base grille at the bottom. A few older models have them in the back.

Whatever model you have, the process is basically the same. Moving on.

If its in the upper right corner, which is most common, youll see a round filter housing or a rectangular one. The round ones twist out. The rectangular ones usually have a push-release button.

If its in the base grille, youll need to pop off the grille cover first. Usually just pulls off, no tools. The filter is horizontal down there. Push it in slightly and it releases, then pull it straight out.

The Actual Frigidaire Water Filter Replacement Process

Get the right filter first. Look at your current filter or check your manual. Frigidaire uses different filter types and they have numbers. EPTWFU01. WF3CB. ULTRAWF. These arent interchangeable. The wrong filter either wont fit or will fit poorly and leak.

One thing about aftermarket filters. People ask me about them all the time because theyre cheaper. Some are fine. Some are garbage. I’ve seen third-party filters that dont seat properly and cause leaks inside the fridge that people dont notice for months until theres mold growing behind the crisper drawer. If you go aftermarket, read reviews carefully and make sure it actually fits your model. Or just buy the real one. Its usually $40-50 depending on the model and you replace it twice a year. Thats less than a dollar a week for water that isnt full of whatever your city is putting in it.

For the upper corner filters:

Turn the old filter counterclockwise about a quarter turn. Some have a cap that comes with it, some dont. Pull it straight out toward you. Have a towel ready because theres going to be a little water in there.

Take your new filter out of the packaging. Theres usually a cap on the end, remove it but keep it because youll put it on the old filter before you throw it away. Some people throw the old filter in a ziplock bag. Whatever.

Push the new filter into the housing and turn clockwise until it clicks or stops. Dont force it. If its not going in smooth then its not lined up right.

Run about three gallons of water through the dispenser before you drink any. The water will be gray or cloudy at first. Thats normal. Thats carbon dust from the filter media. Its not dangerous but it tastes terrible and looks weird. Just keep running water until it runs clear.

Reset the filter indicator. Usually you hold a button for three seconds. Check your manual because every model is different. Some its the water button. Some its a dedicated reset button. Some its a combination like pressing two buttons at once.

Done.

For The Base Grille Filters

Same basic idea. Pull off the grille cover. Push the filter in slightly, youll feel a click, then pull it straight out toward you. Horizontal not down.

Slide the new filter in until it clicks. Grille cover back on. Run three gallons. Reset the light.

Thats it.

When To Replace

The light comes on. You replace it. Thats it.

The general recommendation is every six months but that depends on usage. If you have four kids like I do and everyone is constantly at the water dispenser and the ice maker is running all day, you might need to replace it more often. If you live alone and barely use the water dispenser, maybe you can stretch it. But six months is the safe number and I’d rather replace it early than late.

I think about Richard when he was younger, maybe fifteen, and he would leave the fridge door open constantly. Just stand there staring into it like the answers to life were behind the orange juice. I’d come into the kitchen and feel the cold air pouring out and the compressor running overtime and I’d say the same thing every time. Close the door. Youre not heating the neighborhood youre just wasting energy. He never listened. Kids dont think about maintenance. They dont think about the systems running in the background keeping everything working. Thats your job. Anyway.

What Happens If You Dont Replace It

The first thing you notice is slow water flow. Dispenser takes longer. Ice cubes are smaller or the ice maker stops working altogether.

Then the water starts tasting off. Chlorine taste comes back. Sometimes a musty taste depending on what your filter has been collecting.

Worst case, contaminants get through. The filter cant do its job. Youre drinking unfiltered tap water that passed through a saturated filter full of six months of trapped particles. I dont know exactly whats in there but I dont want to find out.

Also the water dispenser motor works harder to push water through a clogged filter. Over time that can burn out the motor. New dispenser motor is $150 plus labor. New filter is $50. Math is pretty simple.

One More Thing

When we bought our first house, me and Raquel, there was this old Frigidaire that came with it. Previous owners left it. Harvest gold color, probably from the eighties, and it still ran but the water dispenser had never worked according to them. Just assumed it was broken. I opened it up and the filter was so clogged it had basically turned into a solid mass. Gray and brown and hardened. I dont know how long it had been in there. Years probably. Replaced it with a new filter and the dispenser worked fine.

I think about that sometimes. All those years they just accepted that the water dispenser was broken. Never occurred to them that it might just need a filter. But yeah.

Keep Track Of It

The problem with Frigidaire water filter replacement is remembering to do it. The light helps but some people ignore the light until it becomes background noise. I know people who have had the light on for over a year. At that point its not even a reminder anymore its just decoration.

Write it on your calendar. Put a reminder in your phone. Or just use something like Homevisory to track it automatically and tell you when its time. Thats what we do here at Homevisory. We remind you about the stuff that keeps your house running so you dont have to remember it yourself. The Homevisory home task manager is free and it sends you a notification when your filter needs changing based on when you installed the last one. You can set it up for everything, filters, smoke detectors, HVAC maintenance, all of it. Because the filter light is easy to ignore but a notification on your phone is harder to ignore.

Your fridge is the heart of the house. Treat it that way.