Product review (5 stars): No more Slime
My obsession with our refrigerator water filter started several years ago with my son's science project for analyzing water quality.  The water from our refrigerator had the highest bacteria count when even compared against the toilet the dog sometimes drinks from.  We now own a Kenmore refrigerator and I was having the issue with the drinking water flow reducing after a couple months of installing one of the expensive Kenmore filters.  I did some water analysis and saw a high bacteria count.  I cut apart the filter to see what was going on.  The core charcoal filter was wrapped with a thin cotton fiber like filter. This fiber filter was covered with a clear slime.  I believe the slime was reducing the water flow.  I tried one more time with the Kenmore filter and again had the same slime issue.  I considered a conspiracy theory that they put something in the filter to cause the slime to grow after a few months which would force the consumer to replace their filter but I actually think it is just a bad design.  I tried contacting Kenmore about the issue but no response.  After reading reviews for all the generic filters I settled on this Refresh brand.  After 6 months this Refresh filter still had no water flow issue.  I just purchased additional filters and replaced our filter.  I cut the old one open and found instead of a cotton type wrap, they have a very thin perforated plastic wrapping the carbon.  Best of all, no slime.  I had no leaks with this filter.  After discussing with others I had a concern that the pressure difference going through a generic filter compared to the Kenmore could cause issues with the dispensing mechanism but I have not experienced any.  Only warning would be that you may have a warentee issue if a problem arises using this product.