---
title: "Changing a Thermador Water Filter — and Making the Symbol Stop Flashing"
description: "Where the water filter lives on a Thermador column, how to seat it, and the button combination that stops the filter symbol flashing after a change. Plus the odor filter"
url: "https://thermadormiami.support/blog/thermador-water-filter-and-reset/"
date_modified: "2026-08-18"
Category: "Maintenance & Prevention"
---


# Changing a Thermador Water Filter — and Making the Symbol Stop Flashing

## The three-second answer

If your filter is new and the symbol is still flashing, you are looking for this:

**Hold LIGHT / FILTER — or SUPER COOL on some models — together with ICE, for three seconds.**

The symbol stops and the counter restarts. Nothing is wrong with the appliance or with the filter.

## Why it needs doing at all

The reminder is a **counter**, not a measurement. It tracks time and volume; it does not sense what is in the water and it has no way of knowing you have fitted a new cartridge. So on many models it keeps flashing until it is told — which is why so many people conclude their new filter is faulty and buy another one.

## Where the filters are

**The water filter** sits inside the cabinet on a column, in its own compartment. It comes out with a quarter turn and the new one goes in the same way.

**Seating is the step that gets missed.** Rotate it fully home so the lines on the cap line up with the lines on the compartment. A filter left half-turned restricts flow, and restricted flow looks exactly like a failing dispenser or an ice maker that has given up.

**The odor filter** is a separate carbon cartridge for the air inside the cabinet. It is what stops last night's fish scenting the butter, it is replaced far less often, and most owners have never touched one. If your refrigerator smells despite being clean, that is the part to look at.

## The whole job, in order

- **Turn off the water** at the shut-off valve if you would rather be careful. On most of these you do not need to, but a filter head that has been in place for years can drip.- **Remove the old cartridge** with a quarter turn.- **Fit the new one and rotate it fully home,** lines aligned.- **Reset the reminder** — the three seconds above.- **Purge.** Run several glasses through the dispenser. The first ones may be cloudy with trapped air, which is normal and clears.- **Check the ice.** The first batch after a filter change is worth discarding.

**If the ice maker stops after a filter change,** that sequence is why. A cartridge not fully seated or a reminder never reset are the two commonest causes of "it worked until I changed the filter" — both free to fix, and both mistaken for a repair every week.

## How often, on this water

About every six months. Miami-Dade water is hard, and there is no case for stretching the interval here — the manufacturer's own figure is written for the country as a whole and this end of it is harder than average.

If flow drops noticeably well before six months, the filter is reporting something about the supply: pressure, sediment, or a shut-off valve that is not fully open. That is worth chasing rather than solving with a fresh cartridge every eight weeks.

## When it is not the filter

- **No water at all** — start at the shut-off valve under the sink and the line behind the appliance- **Slow water with a new, correctly seated filter** — house pressure, or a kinked line- **Water fine, ice poor** — [an ice-maker question](/blog/resetting-a-thermador-ice-maker/) rather than a filter one- **Water tasting stale after a period away** — run several liters through before judging it

[The full dispenser and filter symptom page](/symptoms/refrigerator-water-dispenser-not-working/) works down the list in order, cheapest first.

## Worth doing at the same time

Since you are already inside the cabinet with a cloth in your hand: wipe the door seal folds dry, and look at whether the drip channel at the back is clear. Both take two minutes, and both prevent the calls we would otherwise be taking from you in six months.

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**[Read full article: Changing a Thermador Water Filter — and Making the Symbol Stop Flashing](https://thermadormiami.support/blog/thermador-water-filter-and-reset/)**