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Maintenance & Prevention

Changing the Water Filter: the Part Behind Three Different Ice Complaints

Change it about every six months, or when the indicator asks, whichever comes first. The cartridge either quarter-turns out of a housing inside the compartment or pulls out of the plinth depending on the model; run a couple of gallons through the dispenser afterwards to flush the carbon dust and clear the air; then reset the indicator, which is usually a press-and-hold on the filter button for a few seconds. What makes this worth its own page is that a filter past its life is implicated in three complaints at once — ice arriving slowly, cubes coming out small or hollow, and water or ice that tastes of something. Those get reported as three different failures and booked as three different visits, and a real share of them are one cartridge. Expect the first batch or two of ice after a change to be small, cloudy or hollow: that is air in the line and it clears once enough water has been drawn through.

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The full guide

Maintenance & Prevention By Appliance Content Team Last checked 3 minute read

Fisher Paykel water filter change: one part, three complaints

Most pages about a water filter explain how to twist a cartridge. That is thirty seconds of the job. The reason it deserves a page is that a filter past its life produces three separate complaints at once, and they get reported as three different failures:

  • ice arriving slowly, or the bin never filling;
  • cubes coming out small, hollow or partly formed;
  • water or ice tasting of something it should not.

People book a service call for each of those in turn. A fair share of them are one cartridge that is six months past due.

The water filter and the air cartridge compared Two separate filters. The water filter treats the water going to the dispenser and the ice maker and is changed about every six months. The air purification cartridge treats the air inside the refrigerator compartment, reducing odors and ethylene gas, and is changed about every twelve months. Each has its own reminder, and each must be reset by hand. TWO FILTERS. NEITHER ONE AFFECTS THE OTHER. WATER FILTER Treats the water going to the dispenser and to the ice maker Change about every 6 months Flush 2–3 gallons through afterward, or the first water looks wrong. AIR PURIFICATION CARTRIDGE Treats the air inside the compartment — odors, and the gas fruit gives off Change about every 12 months You cannot see it working, which is why it is the one people forget.
Both reminders are timers. They count elapsed time, they do not test anything, and neither clears itself when a new filter goes in — which is most of the "I changed it and the light is still on" calls.

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Why flow goes before taste

A filter cartridge works by pushing water through a carbon block. As it loads with what it has taken out, the flow drops first. Taste is the last thing to change, not the first.

That is exactly backwards from how people judge it — "the water tastes fine, so the filter must be fine" — and it is why the interval exists at all. Six months, or when the machine asks, whichever comes first.

Changing it

  1. Find it. On most machines it is inside the compartment, in a housing on a wall or in the ceiling of the fresh-food section; on some it is behind the plinth at the bottom. If you cannot see one, look for a small door or a recessed handle rather than a cartridge.
  2. Turn or pull. Most are a quarter turn to release, some pull straight out. Have a cloth ready — a small amount of water comes with it.
  3. Fit the new one and make sure it seats fully home. A cartridge that is nearly in lets water bypass it, which is the least useful outcome available.
  4. Flush it. Run a couple of gallons through the dispenser and throw it away. This clears carbon dust and, more importantly, air.
  5. Reset the indicator. Usually press and hold the filter button for a few seconds. A quick press does nothing on most models.

What the first two batches of ice will look like

Small. Hollow. Sometimes barely formed at all.

Three things that go wrong after a filter change Air in the line gives small or hollow cubes, or none, and clears once enough water has been drawn off. A cartridge not fully seated lets water bypass the filter and on some designs the interlock does not open at all. The wrong filter is the one that catches people, because plenty of aftermarket cartridges fit the housing without meeting the flow the ice maker needs. IT WAS FINE UNTIL I CHANGED THE FILTER — ALMOST ALWAYS ONE OF THESE. 1 · AIR IN THE LINE Small cubes, hollow cubes, or none. Draw off more water. Time does the rest. 2 · NOT FULLY SEATED Water bypasses it, or nothing comes at all. Take it out and seat it again, deliberately. 3 · THE WRONG FILTER It fits the housing. That is not the test. Flow is, and an ice maker needs all of it. The indicator is a timer, not a measurement — it counts months, not what has gone through.
Two of the three fix themselves within a day. The third fits perfectly and never will, which is why it is worth knowing the part number before the cartridge arrives.

:::

That is air in the line, not a failure. The cartridge and the plumbing around it were full of air, and it reaches the ice maker before the water does. Discard the first two batches, let the machine run a day, and judge it after that.

The other cause of small cubes after a change is a cartridge not fully seated, so water is bypassing it and the pressure at the fill valve is wrong. Worth pushing it home again before assuming anything else.

Generic cartridges, honestly

Plenty of them fit and some are perfectly good. What varies between them is flow rate, and that is the thing that matters for ice.

A cartridge that filters well but restricts flow more than the original produces exactly the small-cube and slow-ice complaints you were trying to solve. If a machine began making poor ice shortly after a cheap filter went in, that is the first thing to swap back — before anybody is called about the ice maker.

Where this fits in the ice diagnosis

If your machine is making no ice, slow ice or small ice, the order is:

  1. Filter — date, and whether it is genuinely seated.
  2. Shut-off valve — behind or under the machine, or beneath the sink. A valve half closed during some other work years ago produces this and nothing else.
  3. Freezer temperature — measured with a thermometer between packages. An ice maker harvests on temperature, so a compartment two degrees warm stretches every cycle.
  4. Fill valve, then the ice maker module. In that order, and only then.
The five conditions an ice maker needs Five links in a chain: the ice maker is switched on and the arm is down, the freezer is at about zero degrees Fahrenheit, water reaches the fill valve, the fill tube is clear, and the mechanism can turn and eject. Breaking any one of them stops ice production with no message on the display. ALL FIVE, EVERY CYCLE. BREAK ONE AND YOU GET NO ICE AND NO MESSAGE. 1 switched on, arm down the most common finding 2 freezer at 0°F above about 5°F it will not harvest 3 water arrives valve open, pressure adequate 4 fill tube clear one interrupted fill can plug it with ice 5 it can turn nothing jamming the ejector or bin any break here = the same symptom
The order in the checks below is not arbitrary: it works down this chain, cheapest and most common first.

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Three of those four are free, and the part people replace first is fourth on the list.

The honest limitation

Ice is the one repair nobody can prove inside an appointment, because a machine takes hours to fill a bin. What can be proved on the day is the fill and the harvest — and after that, you should be told exactly what to expect by the evening rather than being assured it is fixed at the door.

If it turns out to be a repair

Every job on this site is priced the same way: an on-site diagnostic first, the figure agreed in writing before anybody starts.

  • An ice bin pulled out of a freezer drawer and held in two hands, empty except for a scatter of frost in the corners, the open freezer bright behind it.
    Empty bin, or slow, or small

    Ice maker not making ice

    Four complaints that arrive as one: nothing at all, too slowly, cubes too small, or ice that tastes wrong. The first two things to check are the filter and the water pressure reaching the machine, not the ice maker.

    • The bin is empty and stays empty
    • Cubes have got smaller or hollow
    • Production has slowed over weeks
    What it usually means
  • An ice maker bin filled with cubes below the molds, seen from above inside a white freezer
    from $165

    Ice maker repair

    No ice, slow ice, cubes the wrong size, or ice that tastes of the refrigerator. Four complaints, four different repairs, and the first two things to check are the filter and the water pressure reaching the machine rather than the ice maker itself.

    • Filter age and water pressure before the ice maker
    • Fill valve and module tested separately
    • Taste and odor traced to the supply, not deodorized
    What this involves
  • A technician leaning under a gas cooktop to check the cabinet below.
    from $135

    Appliance maintenance visit

    The things this maker's own guides ask an owner to do, done properly and all at once: condensers, filters, seals, descaling, spray arms, ducts. Priced per visit rather than per appliance, which is what makes it worth doing on a kitchen where most of the machines come from one maker.

    • Condenser and seals, which are the local weak points
    • Steam ovens descaled, which nothing else here does
    • One visit, several appliances, one travel charge
    What this involves

Questions people ask about this

Do I really need to change it if the water tastes fine?

Taste is the last thing to go, not the first. A cartridge works by flow through a carbon block, and as it loads up the flow drops before the taste does — which is why slow ice and small cubes usually arrive months before anybody notices the water. The interval exists because you cannot judge it by drinking it.

The light will not reset.

On most models it is a press and hold on the filter button for a few seconds rather than a quick press, and on some it is a combination of two buttons. If it still will not clear, check the cartridge is fully seated — several machines will not accept a reset until the housing reports a filter properly home, which is a sensible design and an annoying one.

The ice has gone small since I changed it.

That is air, and it is expected. A new cartridge and the plumbing around it hold air, which reaches the ice maker before the water does and gives small, hollow or partly formed cubes. Draw a couple of gallons through the dispenser, discard the next two batches of ice, and it settles.

Can I use a generic cartridge?

Physically many of them fit. What varies is the flow rate and the actual filtration, and a cartridge that restricts flow more than the original produces exactly the small-cube and slow-ice complaints you were trying to fix. If a machine started making poor ice shortly after a cheap filter went in, that is the first thing to change back.

What if I run it with no filter at all?

Most machines have a bypass plug for exactly that, and the water is then whatever your supply is. It will make ice perfectly well. What you lose is the filtration, and in a house where the ice picks up taste, that was doing something.

Is there a second filter?

On some machines, yes — an air filter inside the compartment as well as the water cartridge. They do different jobs and have different intervals: the water filter is about the ice and the dispenser, the air filter is about odor inside the cabinet. Neither replaces the other.

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Tell us the model number and what it is doing.

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This article is based on:

  • Official manufacturer documentation
  • Internal repair procedures
  • Technician repair history
  • Company quality standards
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