How to Find the Right Water Filter for Your Refrigerator

There are three ways to identify a refrigerator water filter, and they work best in this order: read the filter you have, look up the refrigerator's full model number, and confirm with the maker. Most people only need the first step. The other two are for when the old filter is gone, the printing has worn off, or the fridge came with the house.

Step 1: read the old filter

Pull the filter and look at the body and the label. The number printed there is the answer, even if it is not the name on any box in the store. LG prints one of six numbers on the LT700P, and any of them identifies it. Type the number into the search box on this site and you land on the filter's page, which lists every other number it is sold under.

Where the filter lives varies by model. Samsung's support site says as much and points you to the user manual for the location. GE says the RPWFE sits “inside the cartridge holder in the upper left corner of the fresh food compartment.” If you cannot find the filter at all, the manual shows it.

Step 2: look up the full model number

The model number is on a rating label, usually inside the fresh food compartment; the exact spot depends on the brand, and the manual shows that too. Read the whole thing. LG's LFX28968 takes the LT700P and LG's LFXS28968 takes the LT1000P, and the only difference is one letter in the middle. The letters at the very end are usually the finish: LG lists the LFXS30766S and LFXS30766D on one spec sheet as the stainless and black stainless versions of the same fridge.

Search the model number here. Each refrigerator model page lists the filter the maker names for it and every model number the maker's document covers, so you can match yours in full rather than by prefix.

Step 3: confirm with the maker

If your model is not on this site yet, go to the source. LG publishes a spec sheet for each refrigerator model, and the sheet names the water filter in its features table; every LG fitment here was read from one. LG, GE and Samsung each also run a filter finder on their support sites that takes a model number. Those tools are the maker's own answer, and they are what FilterHound checks against before a model page goes up.

The filter styles you will meet

Twist-in

Most current filters install with a quarter turn or so and no tools. LG describes its LT700P, LT800P and LT1000P as replaceable “with a simple twist.” Samsung's support site says the HAF-CIN and HAF-QIN rotate counterclockwise to remove and clockwise to install, while the HAFCU1 twists left to remove and right to install. Same motion, different filters: installing the same way does not make two filters the same part.

RFID filters

GE's XWFE and RPWFE carry an RFID tag the refrigerator reads. GE's support articles say the tag is part of a leak-detection system: if the filter becomes wet, the refrigerator shuts off the water valve and flashes the filter status light. The same system rejects filters without the tag. GE says a non-GE filter in an XWFE fridge shows “ERR” on the control, deactivates the water valve, and dispenses no water or ice. For the RPWFE, GE says filters without the tag will not shut off the water in a leak the way the genuine one does. Either way, a fridge that reads a tag is a fridge to buy the genuine filter for.

How often to change it

Samsung recommends replacing the filter every six months. LG rates each of its filters at six months, most of them at 200 gallons and the LT600P at 300. The filter indicator counts down toward a change and needs a reset afterward; the reset steps are in your manual, and they differ by model. If the dispenser slows well before the indicator says so, change the filter early.

Genuine or not

For a fridge that reads an RFID tag, the answer is settled above. For the rest, the honest position is that a certification is a claim by whoever makes it. Every filter page on this site records which NSF/ANSI standards the maker lists and who listed them, and a third-party listing appears only when that brand publishes a certification of its own. FilterHound has not tested any filter against those standards and does not pretend to have.

Start from your brand on the refrigerator filters page, or read Refrigerator Water Filter Numbers, Explained for why one filter carries six numbers.