Best Refrigerator Water Filters of 2026

Filters can carry a number of different certifications that tell you what engineering standards they conform to. You may not need to pay for a filter with every imaginable certification. It depends on the quality of your water coming into your home.

If you use municipal water, your town or city should have published water quality reports (often available on its website) that show which contaminants may be present.

If you have your own well or another private water supply, you can conduct a water quality test. One option is to buy a do-it-yourself test kit, but it’s unclear how accurate they are. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends using a certified test lab instead. Warning: These tests can cost hundreds of dollars. (CR has tested mail-in kits from several certified labs.)

Once you have the results, you can consider filters that conform to the standards that matter to you. There are five sets of criteria that can apply to refrigerator water filters, set by NSF International (which is accredited by the American National Standards Institute, or ANSI): NSF/ANSI 42, 53, 372, 401, and P473.

• 42 covers the removal of chlorine, tastes, and odors. It also includes material safety, which ensures the filter’s physical components won’t leach contaminants such as arsenic into your water and ice.
• 53 covers a hodgepodge of health-related contaminants, including everything from lead to parasites to asbestos.
• 372 ensures that the filters themselves are essentially lead-free, containing a maximum weighted lead content of 0.25 percent.
• 401 covers trace pharmaceuticals and chemicals, from ibuprofen to BPA to deet, as well as microplastics.
• P473 covers two of the most prevalent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever," chemicals: PFOS and PFOA. Notably, only GE filters are certified to remove PFOS and PFOA.

One confusing aspect of refrigerator water filters is that they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Each manufacturer makes multiple filter models that fit several—but not all—of its refrigerators. If you have a Bosch refrigerator, you can’t just buy any Bosch filter. And you definitely can’t use one brand’s filter in another brand’s refrigerator.

Or consider GE Appliances. The company makes six filter models (AFPWF, GSWF, MSWF, MWF, RPWFE, and XWFE) that each work with only certain refrigerators from its four fridge brands: GE, GE Profile, Café, and Monogram. None of those filters will work with fridges made by LG, Samsung, Whirlpool, etc.

Below, you can click your current filter model to see results for all the products that will work in your refrigerator.

Each entry shows the manufacturer’s claimed lifespan in gallons and the useful lifespan we measured in the lab. Claimed lifespan refers to a filter’s ability to remove contaminants for a set number of gallons. The useful lifespan is the number of gallons the filter can dispense while maintaining a flow rate of at least 16 ounces (or 2 cups) per minute. Once the water slows beyond that point, we think the dispenser becomes inconvenient and annoying to use.

For each filter, we also provide: the filter’s price; the price per gallon of water filtered (which is the retail price divided by the useful lifespan we observed); a list of contaminants that should be removed, based on the filter’s certifications; and information on where you can purchase these filters.

Unfortunately, shoppers sometimes see counterfeit name-brand filters that display manufacturer logos and even fake certification badges. Every few years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection discloses that it has seized thousands of these fake filters, and in some cases they can actually contaminate the water that passes through them. We suggest buying filters directly from the manufacturers or from reputable retailers. (It’s fine to shop for filters at big retail sites such as Amazon or walmart.com, but it’s probably best to avoid those sites’ third-party sellers.)

Continue down below the results for more details on how we test refrigerator water filters.

We tested two filters in this group, which fit Bosch and Thermador fridges. The Bosch-branded filter is one of only a few filters we evaluated that is certified to the NSF/ANSI 372 standard for lead-free construction.

Everydrop is Whirlpool’s in-house filter brand. These filters go into Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, and JennAir fridges. The Marriotto is significantly cheaper per gallon, but it lacks certifications for certain contaminants, trace chemicals, and microplastics.

These filters are made for select Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, and JennAir fridges. These filters are similarly priced, but the Everydrop has additional certifications for contaminants, trace chemicals, and microplastics.

We tested three Everydrop Filter 4-compatible filters, which fit Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, and JennAir fridges. The Waterdrop filter has a useful lifespan equal to its claimed lifespan. It lacks the Everydrop’s certifications for contaminants, trace chemicals, and microplastics, but it costs about a third as much.

We tested two filters in this group. The Frigidaire PurePour PWF-1 has a useful lifespan that matches its claimed lifespan for removing a variety of contaminants. We could not find any certifications for the third-party Bvdess filter, so you may want to consider purchasing a different filter.

The Frigidaire PureSource Ultra II has a useful lifespan equal to its claimed lifespan, but the third-party Icepure filter does not.

These filters will fit select GE, GE Profile, Café, and Monogram refrigerators. The third-party Maxblue filter offers the best useful lifespan, double that of the GE filter. However, the GE filter carries more certifications, and GE filters are the only filters we tested that are certified to remove the "forever chemicals" PFOA and PFOS.

We tested three filters in this group, which fit select GE, GE Profile, Café, and Monogram refrigerators. The third-party filters have a longer claimed lifespan, but they lack the certifications that the GE filter carries, including its certification for PFOA and PFOS.

We tested three filters in this group, which fit select LG and SKS (formerly Signature Kitchen Suite) refrigerators. The LG filter carries more certifications than the third-party options and is one of the few filters we evaluated that is certified to NSF/ANSI 372 for lead-free construction.

We tested two filters in this group, and in this case, the third-party filter is about the same price as the Samsung-branded filter. Both filters have identical claimed lifespans, so you’re better off purchasing the Samsung filter, which carries additional certifications for removing trace chemicals and contaminants.

We tested five filters in this group, and all but one filter have a useful lifespan that matches its claimed lifespan. Two third-party filters, from Amazon Basics and Waterspecialist, have a slightly longer claimed lifespan than the first-party Samsung filter, but the Samsung filter has additional certifications for removing trace chemicals and contaminants. Another third-party filter, made by Pureplus, is certified for lead-free construction.

All water filters gradually get clogged, with the flow of water slowing to a trickle.

To find out which filters take the longest to clog, our lab technicians hooked up each filter to a water line and used flow meters to measure the rate at which water flowed through it. We stopped testing when a filter reached the manufacturer’s claimed lifespan, or when the filter’s flow rate dropped below an eighth of a gallon (16 ounces) per minute. Below that rate, we think the water is flowing too slowly to be useful.

We tested multiple samples of each filter and averaged the results to calculate the useful lifespan. In almost all cases, at least one sample had a useful lifespan equal to its claimed lifespan.

Our testing didn’t evaluate the same characteristics as the manufacturers’ claimed lifespans. Those figures reflect how many gallons the filter can handle while continuing to remove the contaminants specified by the filter’s certifications.

We verified manufacturers’ statements about the water safety standards their filters meet, checking their certifications with the big three testing organizations: the Water Quality Association (WQA), the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), and NSF International.

We found only one filter that lacked any certification.