diff --git a/Docs/source/usage/parameters.rst b/Docs/source/usage/parameters.rst
index 1b5c3e7b186..37b0e1f6656 100644
--- a/Docs/source/usage/parameters.rst
+++ b/Docs/source/usage/parameters.rst
@@ -2186,10 +2186,13 @@ Time step
 Filtering
 ^^^^^^^^^
 
-* ``warpx.use_filter`` (`0` or `1`; default: `1`, except for RZ FDTD)
-    Whether to smooth the charge and currents on the mesh, after depositing them from the macro-particles.
+* ``warpx.use_filter`` (`0` or `1`)
+    Whether to use filtering in the simulation.
+    With the explicit evolve scheme, the filtering is turned on by default, except for RZ FDTD.
+    With the implicit evolve schemes, the filtering is turned off by default.
+    The filtering smoothes the charge and currents on the mesh, after depositing them from the macro-particles.
+    With implicit schemes, the electric field is also filtered (to maintain consistency for energy conservation).
     This uses a bilinear filter (see the :ref:`filtering section <theory-pic-filter>`).
-    The default is `1` in all cases, except for simulations in RZ geometry using the FDTD solver.
     With the RZ PSATD solver, the filtering is done in :math:`k`-space.
 
     .. warning::
diff --git a/Source/WarpX.cpp b/Source/WarpX.cpp
index cb46f3129c8..5c2f16f317d 100644
--- a/Source/WarpX.cpp
+++ b/Source/WarpX.cpp
@@ -488,6 +488,7 @@ WarpX::ReadParameters ()
         if (electromagnetic_solver_id == ElectromagneticSolverAlgo::ECT && !EB::enabled()) {
             throw std::runtime_error("ECP Solver requires to enable embedded boundaries at runtime.");
         }
+        pp_algo.query_enum_sloppy("evolve_scheme", evolve_scheme, "-_");
     }
 
     {
@@ -706,6 +707,11 @@ WarpX::ReadParameters ()
         pp_warpx.queryarr("dt_update_interval", dt_interval_vec);
         dt_update_interval = utils::parser::IntervalsParser(dt_interval_vec);
 
+        // Filter defaults to true for the explicit scheme, and false for the implicit schemes
+        if (evolve_scheme != EvolveScheme::Explicit) {
+            use_filter = false;
+        }
+
         // Filter currently not working with FDTD solver in RZ geometry: turn OFF by default
         // (see https://github.com/ECP-WarpX/WarpX/issues/1943)
 #ifdef WARPX_DIM_RZ
@@ -1113,7 +1119,6 @@ WarpX::ReadParameters ()
         pp_algo.query_enum_sloppy("current_deposition", current_deposition_algo, "-_");
         pp_algo.query_enum_sloppy("charge_deposition", charge_deposition_algo, "-_");
         pp_algo.query_enum_sloppy("particle_pusher", particle_pusher_algo, "-_");
-        pp_algo.query_enum_sloppy("evolve_scheme", evolve_scheme, "-_");
 
         // check for implicit evolve scheme
         if (evolve_scheme == EvolveScheme::SemiImplicitEM) {