When you are looking to provide your family with the cleanest, safest and most delicious water possible in all the faucets of your home only a Whole House Water Filter will do. But just like your car’s air filter or the filter in your home’s A/C unit, the filters and tanks in a Whole House Water Filter do have finite lifespans.

Let’s take a look at some common questions associated with how long Whole House Water Filters last as well as the reasons why you need to maintain them.

What if I don’t change the filters within the system?

A car’s air filter prevents contaminants from entering into your engine. Similarly, the filters in the Whole House Water Filter by Filter Butler work to catch things like rust, silt and sediment from passing through to your water supply.

You are probably thinking, “What about contaminants and impurities like lead and chlorine?” These systems do remove and diminish these types of undesirables but it is important to recognize that advanced filtration systems – like Filter Butler’s – have multiple filtration components and for the sake of this topic specifically, we are going to concern our answer with the first filtration component, the sediment pre-filter.

If you don’t change the sediment pre-filter you will increase the likelihood that particulates like rust, sediment and silt will enter the water line. If these items pass through your pipes, shower heads, appliances and faucets, you could be decreasing the lifespan of these items as these particulates often increase the wear and tear of the water-using appliances within your home.

Additional risks of not changing the sediment pre-filter are awkward tastes and smells and water that will have increasingly less clarity the longer you wait. At the most extreme end, drinking turbid water carries the risk of consuming disease-causing organisms that cause health problems (read more: Health Concerns of Sediments in Water).

How many replaceable filters does my Whole House System have?

The number of replaceable filters your Whole House Water Filter has depends on how many optional parts you purchase(d). As you can see on the graphic below, there are many filtration options (as indicated by an asterisk (*)).

However, the only filters that are replaceable are the aforementioned (and standard) sediment pre-filter and the optional sub-micron post filter. The rest of the filters on the Whole House Water Filter – activated carbon filter, copper-zinc and mineral stone filter, salt-free water softener and descaler, and UV filter – don’t have replaceable filters as do the sediment pre-filter and sub-micron post filter.

Here is the standard replacement schedule for these replaceable items:

  • Sediment Pre-Filter: replace every three to six months
  • Sub-Micron- Post-Filter: replace every nine to 12 months

Replacing the tanks

You now know that you should replace the sediment pre-filter every three to six months and the sub-micron post-filter every nine to 12 months (if you have one). However, it is also important to recognize that the tank itself needs to be replaced depending on the capacity:

Standard Whole House Water Filter

  • Rated Capacity (FB300): 300,000 gallons or three years
  • Rated Capacity (FB1,000): 1,000,000 gallons or 10 years

Salt-Free Water Softener

  • Rated Capacity: six years

Review of replacing filters within a Whole House Water Filter

Making the investment in a Whole House Water Filter from Filter Butler is an investment in the health of your family. Each time you drink water you’ll enjoy the peace of mind that you have the safest, best-tasting water possible. However, maintaining the equipment that provides this piece of mind is integral to allowing the components to work as intended.

If you have the most basic system, you’ll just need to replace the sediment pre-filter every three to six months as well as the tank every 300,000 gallons or three years or 1,000,000 gallons or 10 years, depending on which system you have.


If you have additional components like a sub-micron post filter, you’ll need to replace that every nine to 12 months. Finally, if you added a Salt-Free Water Softener to your system, you’ll want to replace the tank on that every six years. Create a calendar of when you replaced your filters and when they are due for replacement so you always know when your components have met their lifespan.