Filters and cartridges
Are aftermarket filters all right?
Sub-Zero's own ice quality guidance asks you to verify that a Sub-Zero water filter is being used, and that is as much about fit as about filtration: the cartridge has to seat in the manifold and hold pressure there. Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts makes no claim about how well another cartridge filters, because nobody here has measured it.
Pattern
What we usually find
- A cartridge that turns in but never quite seats. The fill runs short, the cubes come out hollow, and the newest part in the cabinet is suspected last.
- A slow weep where the cartridge meets the manifold, found weeks later as a damp cabinet floor. A seal that is nearly right is not a seal.
- An indicator that will not acknowledge the change, so the monitor and the real age of the cartridge drift apart.
- A cartridge that fits and behaves perfectly well, in which case we say so and carry on up the water path looking for the actual fault.
Most often first. Order comes from what the visits keep turning up, not from a count.
What a poor seat does
A water filter is a pressure fitting before it is anything else. Let the cartridge sit a fraction proud and one of two things follows: it passes less water than the mould needs, or it lets a little out where the manifold grips it. One shows in the bin as short cubes, the other on the cabinet floor weeks later.
The honest position
Sub-Zero says to use a Sub-Zero filter, and we pass that on as their recommendation. What we will not do is tell you a third party cartridge is unsafe, because that is not something we have tested. What we can tell you is which faults on our own list begin with a cartridge the manifold was not built around.
Before you call
Two minutes, before anyone comes out
- Keep the old cartridge until the new one has run a day without weeping.
- Throw away the first bin of ice after any cartridge change.
- Watch the cabinet floor under the manifold for a day or two.
That is as far as an owner should take it. If what you find does not match this page, call Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts on (720) 903-2603 and the water path gets measured end to end.
When it needs somebody out: Ice Maker Repair in Denver.