"It's for the safety of the consumer." is such a bullshit excuse to strongarm people into a subscription model.
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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Is it GE? I'll bet you it's GE.
Clicks.
Yep, it's GE.
My fridge is a GE and, like Ford, it'll be the last time I even consider the brand. Our water filters require a QR tag in a specific location to work so I just held on to the last legit one we bought and taped it to the inside of the canister area. It constantly says the filter is over 99-days old but I can now get two off-brand filters for less than a single GE filter. Fuck I hate capitalism.
Is it even capitalism at this point and not extortion?
Is there really that much of a difference?
Great short story called Unauthorized Bread about this bullshit.
Can you imagine how ridiculous that story would have sounded 15, maybe even 10 years ago? Went into it thinking it would be way over the top, read along thinking, yeah, I could see that.
Yeah, its really fucking depressing. BUT, the solapunk/diy/foss/fediverse gives me hope that it can be bypassed or fought against. I find myself holding onto older tech and self hosting more and more. I am sure it makes me insufferable but I don't worry about my stuff disappearing or costing me more to use once I have it.
Damn. The fact KitchenAids DNS blocked her results for a workaround is sad and funny.
HP-Newscorp sent chills down my spine. I think the only thing more evil would be adding Nestlé to that.
Excellent story. Thanks for sharing.
I discovered this when I put a reverse osmosis system in and wanted to bypass the filter. I needed a $50 plastic plug with an RFID tag in it or else the fridge refused to dispense.
For anyone with one of these GE fridges. If you read the fine print in the owner's manual, they will send you a bypass plug for free (just once) if you call and ask for one. You will need to provide the serial number of the fridge.
What is the bypass plug? Does it contain an RFID chip or can these be mass produced?
Super late reply, but for anyone else coming across this thread later:
The bypass plug allows you to bypass the normal filter in your fridge and hook it up to an external filter.
It does contain an RFID chip.
Damn. TIL.
I'm moving to a place with well water, how difficult was it to install reverse osmosis and hook it up to the fridge? Does yours just provide for the fridge or the whole house?
I have an RO system that feeds a separate spigot at my kitchen sink and my refrigerator. Installing it is really simple because it just uses sharkbite connectors that just push to connect. Later on, I added a water heater so that I could have on demand hot water at the spigot which is also nice.
I have a separate filter that takes care of my whole house but that is just a carbon filter meant to scrub out the chlorine (I'm on city water) . Installation for that took a lot more effort and planning.
It’s just a small under-counter system that’s only running to the fridge and a separate spigot at the sink to fill pots with, etc. it was simple to install since my existing tap had enough pressure to push through all of the filters. I’ve never heard of whole-house RO, I think that would use a TON of water and you would definitely need a pump (in addition to a large storage tank).
Won't be buying one of those fridges.
In 5 years, all of them will be doing this.
It is just one aspect of the class war being waged against pedons.
There are still plenty of top-freezer refrigerators with no water dispenser, ice maker or filtration available and those fell out of style decades ago - despite being ~20% more energy efficient than bottom freezer refrigerators. They’re not going away anytime soon.
Time will tell, don't give them ideas
On a side note, it's more energy efficient BC it helps cool the bottom when freezer on top?
Most refrigerators have the compressor at the bottom and the heat from the compresser causes more energy loss in the bottom-freezer configuration.
I will learn how to build my own refrigerator before submitting to this IoT bullshit.
I'll just return to tradition and dig a root cellar.
Hey more power to you. Not everyone can do it but this is an example of direct action.
We don't all have to do the same thing, we just need to hurt their profit where and everywhere you can on personal level.
If everyone did it, it would hurt the parasite.
Best recent example is EU and CA "social drinkers" opting out of US poison.
So clearly it works if enough people do a thing.
Surely anyone could just not have a fridge, don't buy things that require it.
That's an edge Lord take. I am all about direct action but I don't think this strategy is valid for gen pop lol
But personally I drew some lines in the sand and sufferthem 🫡
If everyone did a fee, the world would be a better place. But it is very much a personal decision shaped by the material conditions.
I had to a while back in a shared house
Looks like I won't be buying fridges in 5 years then.
Luckily I get my water from the tap.
Can't force you to anything, if you weren't told about it before you bought it. Demand a refund and give them a date they get it out of your place by.
Water dispensing is the main cause of refrigerator breakage. No water dispenser, fridge will work for decades.
Can't you just, I dunno, disconnect it from the ater source and stop using it? My LG is not dependent on it, and water filters are not DRM. It is a new models as well.
EDIT: Looking at other comments, might be because of I am European.
Our house came with brand new appliances and the fridge has a filter. Thankfully ours doesn’t stop you from dispensing ice or water when it wants you to change the filter. It just has a red light telling you to change it.
Cheeky thumbnail 😏
My tap already dispenses water, why would I need a fridge to do that?
It dispenses filtered water, useful if you don't have the possibility to install a water filter faucet and prefer to filter water.
Fun fact the black mirror Blu-ray also has DRM
Yup. My old-ass refrigerator has them.
But the thing is, I already had a Brita pitcher and ice trays. I don't need the fridge to dispense them.
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That's gonna be a no for me. Read reviews. Be willing to milk the life of a twenty year old fridge that won't make ice anymore. I'll buy an antique before I go down that road.
I thought I fooled the fridge makers. I bought a model without filtered water. Sadly, I didn't realize that the ice cubes require a filter. 😔
Weird, I bought a high end GE fridge 2 years ago and it doesn't require drm on the water filter.
European?
I know models are often different because eu is much stricter
No, in California. Like just people here, I would have been very pissed off if they put drm on my filter.
Is this the end of water treatment plants?
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