How you know it is due
You do not need to go and look at anything. You will notice it at the tap.
The flow drops off
This is the usual first sign. Filling a jug at the filtered tap starts taking noticeably longer than it used to, because the cartridge is loaded and the water is working harder to get through it.
The taste comes back
Whatever you fitted the filter to get rid of quietly returns. People often put this down to the water rather than the filter, especially in Perth where the supply genuinely does change through the year.
It has just been a long time
Manufacturers give an interval — often six or twelve months on a kitchen cartridge — and that interval is a starting point, not a rule. A household of five gets through a cartridge faster than a household of one, and a café gets through one faster again.
If any of that sounds familiar, ring us. We will work out what is in your housing and bring the right one.
What happens if it is left too long
Nothing dramatic, and that is part of the problem — there is no alarm.
A loaded cartridge stops being effective well before it stops passing water, so for a while you have a filter that is really just an expensive piece of pipe. Flow keeps falling until the filtered tap becomes annoying to use, which is usually the point people ring.
There is a second issue worth knowing about. Housings, seals and O-rings age whether the cartridge is changed or not. A system that has gone several years without a service often needs the seal replaced at the same time, because the old one has taken a set and will weep once it is disturbed. We would rather bring one than discover it under your sink.
That weep is the other way people find out their cartridge was overdue — water in the bottom of the cupboard, and a swollen chipboard base. Leak detection
Getting the right cartridge for the housing you already have
This is genuinely the hard part, and it is the reason people put the job off.
Cartridge sizes look standard and are not quite. Housings from different eras use different thread arrangements and different seal profiles. A cartridge that is the right length and diameter can still be the wrong one. And the labelling on a unit that has been under a sink for eight years is usually unreadable or gone.
We work it out on site from the housing itself rather than from what the label says it used to be. If the system is old enough that cartridges for it are no longer sensibly available, we tell you that plainly and price the alternatives, rather than fitting something approximate and hoping.
That applies whoever installed it. We are not precious about only servicing our own work — a lot of the systems we look after in Gosnells were fitted by somebody who did not come back.
Different systems, different cartridges
Under-sink units
usually run one or two cartridges in a compact housing. Quick job once the right part is in hand. Under-sink installation
Whole-house units at the mains
use physically larger cartridges and hold a lot more water, so the change involves isolating and draining rather than just swapping. Whole house filtration
Reverse osmosis systems
have several stages — pre-filters, the membrane, often a post-filter — and they do not all run on the same interval. The membrane outlasts the pre-filters by a long way, and replacing it when only the pre-filters are loaded is money wasted. Reverse osmosis
Bore water systems
are a different world again, because what is loading the cartridge is untreated groundwater rather than treated scheme water. Bore water filtration
Why it matters more in Gosnells than you might think
Perth's Integrated Water Supply Scheme is a blend — roughly 44.6% groundwater, 36% desalinated seawater and 18.7% surface water, and the mix shifts through the year. That is the real reason your water can taste different in one season to another with a perfectly good cartridge in place.
It also means a cartridge does not load at a constant rate. Some periods are harder on it than others. Which is another way of saying that the number printed on the box is an average, and what is actually happening at your tap is the better guide.
Getting it done
Ring or send the form and tell us roughly what you have got and how long it has been. A licensed plumber comes out at no charge, identifies the housing, fits the right cartridge, replaces the seal if it needs it, and checks it under pressure before leaving.
$0 call-out fee. Free quote. Transparent pricing, no hidden costs. Plumbing Licence 8396, Gas Licence 13098. Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.
If the system turns out to be past sensible servicing, we will tell you that and price the replacement — and we will say which of the two we would do if it were ours. Systems we install · Water filters in Gosnells