Is it essential to change the water filter?

depends what sort of filter it is (i.e. what it's supposed to be filtering)

if just a sediment filter - it wouldn't bother me if it weren't changed too often - as it will filter out more the more bunged up it gets..

if "activated charcoal" filter or similar (for taste purposes removing chlorine for e.g) then it may start tasting less good the longer the filter is in place (as the filter is "used up")

Cheers JimK

You need to switch it off or cap it off if it's not being maintained anymore, so it can't be used. The bactericide (normally silver for drinking water) has a limited life. The filter slowly builds up materials to support bacteria growth during use, and relies on the bactericide to keep it safe.

The person responsible for changing the cartridge has been given a H&S related responsibility for which he isn't competent, which is a management failure.

It doesn't, as I can't quickly find what the filter claims to do, although it probably wouldn't make any difference if I could.

Agreed.

I have also seen the suggestion that once 'full', the filter can release some of what it has filtered out periodically. No idea of the truth of this...

They are only £6.75 from the first place I looked FFS!

As Andrew said, I would not use it, plus send a formal email to his manager, explaining the situation, and the small cost of the new filters.

I think the whole unit needs to be cleaned out every so often too, if it is also a cooler that has a storage tank inside.

We have water coolers in our ofices with a bottle on the top, and they are fully sanitised every three months, but these are coolers that store water, if yours is just a filter tap, not a cooler, then I don't think you need to do this.

There are water test kits you can get for fish tanks that test the nitrate level - might be worth testing the water from the old filter with that, and then do the same with water that has not been "filtered" (but make sure you test a mains water supply (at the same site), not water from a tank!)

Toby...

The woman who was supposed to get air conditioning maintained but didn't bother because it still worked got prosecuted for causing seven deaths by legionaires disease a while ago...

In addition to this, what's the score with those screw-on types that sit under the kitchen sinks, which look a bit like a car's oil filter? I stopped changing ours ages ago. I could never really be sure that it was actually doing anything - when I first replaced it, it didn't seem very 'wet' anyway - and I figured that as it protects everything apart from the kitchen sink (and washing machine for that), that if it was contaminating anything, it would only be the bathroom, boiler and toilet.

JW

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Colin Wilson saying something like:

Only if you have goldfish crapping in the pipes.

(Or you're in East Anglia)

I've worked in many offices with plumbed filters. Don't think I've ever seen one changed

Sounds like your changing the sink's trap,which is there to stop smell of d rain water rising out of the plug. You don't change these "car oil filters" you neep. they're a permanent feature of all sinks and you're throwing the se out for no reason other than the;re dirty looking?

Ho ho. "Neep". The irony...

Tim

He is talking about a water filter that is common under sinks not a trap you NEEP, whatever that is, these filters have a use life and after that they can breed bugs and should be changed.

Where did this 2010 post suddenly spring from? Brian

Gargle ...