by Jordan
If you’ve purchased a refrigerator in the last 20 years, it probably comes with a water filtration system that provides you with, at the minimum, purified ice in your ice maker, but also, most likely fresh drinking water. But if you’re having trouble finding replacement filters or if your water is already filtered, you may want to consider bypassing the system. A refrigerator water filter bypass plug or cartridge can help you skip the headache of dealing with your refrigerator. It’s easy to fix, so you’ll still get clean, unfiltered water from the dispenser, or ice in your ice maker, in no time at all.
Why Use a Refrigerator Water Filter Bypass Plug or Cartridge?
There are a lot of reasons why you may want to opt out of using your refrigerator filtration system and use a refrigerator water filter bypass plug. However, the main reasons really come down to convenience or redundancy. This includes reasons like:
Your Water is Already Filtered
If you live in a city or area that already filters its water, an in-fridge filtration system may seem redundant. Suburban houses usually have pretty heavily filtered water systems. The work required to maintain a filtration system can be extra work that you don’t really have time for. More rural areas that run on well water can have a similar effect. The water from a well isn’t usually contaminated by the pollutants you see in busier areas. These pollutants are far more common in urban or suburban centers. Filtering your water will only strain out some of the healthy minerals that give well water its distinctive sharp taste.
Your Fridge is Older
For older fridges, it can be a hassle to find replacement parts – or which part number you’re looking for – even if you have a model from a well-known brand name such as Whirlpool. This makes finding the correct replacement an extremely difficult part of maintenance that may just not be worth the effort today. If this is the case, then bypassing the water filtration system entirely can be a precious time saver. It’ll also take some of the headaches out of making sure your home is still running smoothly.
The System is Too Complicated
This reasoning builds off the previous entry. You may not be comfortable disassembling and reassembling your refrigerator to clean, maintain, and replace various water filter parts. If this is the case, it may be easier for you to just skip the whole process with a water filter bypass plug. Again, in most situations, the water you drink or the ice you grab from your ice maker without the filter is usually pretty safe. Using a refrigerator water filter bypass plug or system to bypass the water filter system won’t have any health impacts beyond giving you extra time to spend on other tasks.
It’s Not Making Enough of a Difference
The way water filters work today is by absorbing any chemicals that produce an odd odor or color in water. However, heavier contaminants like lead and arsenic are able to pass through most standard water filters. Meanwhile, the same filters strain out relatively harmless compounds like benzene or trace mineral deposits. Because of this discrepancy in their usefulness, some may see filters as mostly unnecessary – but you should review information from additional reliable sources to make your own decision. This leads them to bypass their refrigerator water filter system altogether.
