Then I got a funny email from GE. And I realized that the high-tech nature of my fridge was never meant to benefit me. Here’s the email:
Yep, that’s a little pushy there GE. And oddly menacing? You have 8 days to buy one of our fine filters. It’d be a shame if there were an accident with your old filter. So, I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse. For real, it’s an offer you CAN’T refuse. The offer: buy one of their RWPFE filters for $50 every six months, or they shut off your water.
In situations like these, I planned to do what I did with my old fridge. That is, say to heck with these overpriced name brand filters and get a generic one for half the price. But then I got to googling for a cheap knockoff, and I found something troubling. You see, GE made a recent change to their water filters. GE fridges used to use RPWF filters. But my fridge requires RPWFE. Great question reader. I’m glad you asked! It’s EVIL. The E stands for evil.
RWPF vs. RPWFE GE Water Filters
The difference between RWPF and RPWFE is that the RPWFE has a freaking RFID chip on it. The fridge reads the RFID chip off your filter, and if your filter is either older than 6 months or not a genuine GE RPWFE filter, it’s all “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t dispense any water for you right now.”
Now, to be fair, GE does give you a bypass cartridge that lets you get unfiltered water for free (you didn’t throw that thing away, did you?).
But come on. There has to be a way to hack this thing. Right? Right. You can hack your GE fridge to either let you keep using your old filter (not recommended, they get real glommed up after a while which defeats the entire purpose of a water filter) or use an off-brand filter. Not only can you hack your GE fridge, I think you should. And you should tell your friends. Because GE forcing you to buy a $54 filter is wrong.
How to Use Generic Filters in a GE Cafe Fridge
The secret lies in the RFID chip on your bypass filter. That’s the little white torpedo-looking thing that was installed in your fridge when you first got it. I really hope you didn’t throw it away. You can probably order another one from the Mob GE if you lost it. The filter bypass and the RPWFE filter are very adamant that you orient the filter correctly. They are prominently labeled BACK and FRONT.
Why does it matter so much? Because the “back” is where the RFID chip is hiding. Slip a flathead screwdriver under that sucker on your filter bypass, and it’ll come fluttering off like a rose petal. Now, you can do three things here. If you can tolerate some trial and error, you can try taping the thing directly into your fridge where it would normally meet up when the filter is installed. You have to get in just the right spot, so the fridge picks it up. If you do that, you’re set for life.
Or, you can tape it onto the front of an expired RPWFE GE water filter, install it backward, and then keep using it (again, not recommended for too much longer than six months). This too may take some trial and error. Make sure you orient it correctly. There’s an up and a down to the RFID chip. Take a picture of it before you remove it from the bypass, so you don’t forget how it goes. There was a little clear bump on mine that helped. This too may take some trial and error. Make sure you orient it correctly. There’s an up and a down to the RFID chip. Take a picture of it before you remove it from the bypass, so you don’t forget how it goes. There was a little clear bump on mine that helped.
Or, you can tape it to the corresponding spot on a generic filter and reinstall it. When you do this successfully, your fridge will detect that the bypass is installed and will tell you that you are drinking unfiltered water.
If you get the RFID chip taped to the wrong spot, or you try it without an RFID chip, it’ll say that there’s a possible “leak detected” because the filter may be installed incorrectly. Yeah, I get it, GE. You’re doing it for our own good and totally not holding our water ransom for $54.
Where to Buy Generic GE Fridge Filters
I’m so mad.
Conclusion and Disclaimer
Look, I was just kidding about all this. I don’t think you should try to defeat proprietary technology that GE installed to keep us safe and leak-free and our water tasting clean and fresh. And GE has every right to charge whatever they want for a part that they make. I really don’t think you should alter your filters or try to trick your fridge. That may void the warranty and lead to sub-par water. Even if it saves you tons of money. Tons of money. Really. Thanks Jack for the great blog. The other issue for me is that the directions for changing the filter were from a different model that required twisting the filter 1/4 turn to remove. DO NOT FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS. The manual is wrong, no twist of the filter required. Simply swing the filter about 45 degrees from the wall and pull it straight toward you. Those are the directions on the filter box but my manual was wrong. Thanks again! I’m changing my filter this weekend. I’ll see if there’s water inside of the one i’ve had in the for a month.
- I weighed the generic filter that was previously installed in the fridge and it was twice as heavy, indicating that it was filled with water. 2. I moved the bypass chip over to my new filter and it worked just fine. 3. When I first started flushing the filter, a HUGE burst of water blasted out of the line, getting water everywhere. According to the literature that comes with the filter, some “sputtering” is normal for the first 24 to 36 hours. Understatement of the year. I flushed about 2 gallons of water through and resumed normal water usage. 4. I set a reminder for myself to do this again in 6 months. So far so good! Step 1: Purchase generic RPWF filters Step 2: Take the RFID off of my used filter and exchange it with someone else who also has a used filter Step 3: Place the RFID from someone else’s used filter on my generic RPWF filter and install Step 4: Repeat the process 6 months later with another RFID from a different used filter If I can stick your RFID on my generic filter, my fridge would not reject it since it would not recognize that RFID as being used and vice versa. Let me know if anyone is interested in making an exchange. If you have type-B panel (cheaper, fixed digits LCD), then you are in luck: you can remove the LCD panel and cover the “not filtering” line with black tape, thus fully get rid of GE’s insult while saving money. It’s ok i get insult from an appliance everyday. But GE’s “revenue enhancement” experts wanted to insult my house guests as well, which is totally evil. If you must buy GE, don’t want to pay ransom, and keep your dignity, get a type-B. In an earlier comment, “Mk” “The chips are now modified to sort of break or tear when you try to remove them. Just tried this and now I have no bypass filter either” Thank you! I believed this got some action from consumer-oriented state Attorneys General, and firmware was installed in these printers to allow the use of aftermarket cartridges. GE should expect the same kind of action. This is a straight-up scam. My fridge now just says “Not filtering water” in little letters when it’s dispensing. Bypass filter was $26 and change delivered. I’m money ahead on the first filter change. Like an idiot, I tossed the bypass plug that came with my new GE refrigerator (model GFE26GMKGES) and now that my filter warning light has expired and learning a GE RPFWE is around $50 a pop, I too said no F’n way. GE should spend more engineering time into making sure their ice dipenser actually dispenses ice (mine doesn’t because the ice is always stuck together in the 6-cube chucks)… rather than being creative in the nickle-n-dime servicing costs via these damn RFID filters. We’ve had our chip filtered fridge five months and it’s got 4 days for replacement message…ick! I went to Federal Trade Commission and sent a complaint (takes less than 2 minutes). They pay attention to an issue when many people complain, so I’m asking all of you to do the same and ask your friends/family to also complain. This is wrong! We bought a house with builder (choice), not ours. I would NEVER buy a GE product after all the bad experiences I’ve encountered in my life. We weren’t given an option. Had to have an immediate repair upon moving in – fridge had loose wires hanging out the water dispenser! Also have had a repair service appt. on microwave that was hotter than snot! I had to have a warranty repair on my then-new GE Profile refrigerator. GECARES was very understanding, even sent me a $100 check for my trouble. P.S. Thanks for showing the location of the RFID chip, I have a “chip” of some kind glued on my filters that now I realize that is for theft purposes?? -S When I got this message about expiration I panicked! However, here are a couple of things I found out by using your process. -If you don’t have a bypass, call GE and they’ll send one out for free. -When the countdown gets to zero you can still use it the old filter, it’ll just state past overdue days. -I did taped the bypass chip to the wall so it’s permanent! It states “Not filtering” but nothing stands out (no red words) Note: I have a regular LCD not full LCD. -You’ll know it works because when I flushed the first few gallons there was sputtering, a huge blast and more sputtering, and the water was grey from the carbon it was flushing out (all filters including Pure-One and Brita need to flush this out) so I know now it’s working. -I am using the cheapest (Water drop brand 2 pack) from amazon. -I noticed that the original GE filter listed 170 gallons, and the waterdrop is 300 gallons. I’m not sure if the aftermarket GE filters would be more than 170. This should mean the waterdrop should last to almost twice as long! I don’t use the water dispenser very often. So, when my refrigerator complained that my very slightly used water filter was 6 months old needed to be replaced, I simply pressed the “Filter Reset” button. My refrigerator didn’t complain again for another 6 months. And at that point, I simply pressed the “Filter Reset” button once again. So, I am going to guess that while it reads the RFID chip, it doesn’t store (remember) its unique serial number. It just requires there be an RFID chip to ensure the filter is a genuine (ie over priced) GE branded filter. When it finally comes time to replace the filter (mean like after I actually used it more than a dozen times), I wonder if I can replace the filter with a non-GE generic one, and simply re-use the old, original, GE filter’s RFID chip? Comment deleted due to unethical behavior from the commenter. Note: the GE filter had been in over six months, but there was no warning other than internal timer that we had previously reset. I suppose I didn’t need the “E” filter I previously bought and installed. I’ve always written the install date (via marker) on the filters to verify the age. Thanks for all the info. Now I know I don’t need a “chipped” filter, or to hack a work around. And to watch what I order! The reason why I want to do it this way is that the internal timer for replacement will continue to work and the fridge will issue no bypass filter installed messages. Both of us would be able to use the chips with any generic RPWF filter saving both of us money for no more than the cost of a postage stamp and envelope. Anyone want to exchange information and chips with me for this test? Anyway, thanks Jack! This works fine for me, with a piece of electrical tape now covering the “Not” part of “Not filtering” on the display. So now it says it’s “filtering” :-) I’ve also filed a formal complaint with the FTC with the electronic form above. The FTC responded some days later with generic tips courtesy of Captain Obvious about how to avoid scams. Hopefully if enough of us complain to the FTC they will take GE to task. Does this fall under the right to repair laws that have been enacted in many states? Does this fall under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975? Is this a case of failure to disclose by this manufacturer that there is a significant cost that the consumer must pay each year in order to use the product in the manner originally described that is not included in the description of the product before sale? Or is this just lousy corporate marketing and sales promotion? I guess I need to ask more about long term maintenance costs before I buy anything else. I expect that GE will sale this is necessary to keep the refrigerator running in like new conditions and that third party substitute filters will damage the refrigerator, but we all know they just want sales of their 50 part instead of the competitors 15 parts. Do other companies have the same “features” designed into their products? I would willing to join such a class action suit if it comes to be. I don’t understand how the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act would even apply here. GE isn’t attempting to void your warrantee if you replace the water filter yourself. Clearly they end up a big financial benefit for the lawyers, and little direct financial benefit to the consumer. However I’m not fussed with that because the misbehaving company clearly is hit with a financial hammer for their misconduct. This should have a chilling effect on this kind of bad corporate behavior. I lived for 12 years in Australia. I purchased a 2004 Audi A4 sedan while living there. These Audis had a serious transmission design defect that caused them to slip and ultimately fail in short order. Under the threat of class action, Audi recalled all these bad cars and replaced the transmissions – in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan. . . . pretty much everywhere. But NOT in Australia, where consumer laws and ability to run a class action lawsuit is seriously limited. Several of the printer manufacturers were class actioned into compliance for the same conduct that GE is now exhibiting – putting a 5 cent chip into their printer cartridges in order to shut out competitors. If we had a functioning Consumer Protection system in place at the moment they would have this action stopped. Please also keep in mind that GE is no longer an American-owned company. It is owned by Chinese company Haier. I’m reachable at this email. Drunk3n at protonmail dot com. https://www.geaviation.com/commercial/engines I’m just sayin’ . . . Caveat Emptor https://www.amazon.com/Waterdrop-3-Stage-filtration-system-Lifetime/dp/B07Y9S7L29/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=Inline+Water+Filter+Kit+for+Refrigerators&qid=1614185162&s=appliances&sr=1-6 Steve groovyPost If I hadn’t looked at the manual I would have been fooled and forever thinking I needed this. Thanks for posting this, I will try to avoid buying anything from GE in the future! A newly installed water filter cartridge will cause water to spurt from the dispenser. Run 2 gallons of water through the cold water dispenser (about 5 minutes) to remove air from the system. Until this air is removed from the system through the cold water dispenser, DO NOT use the hot water dispenser as it may result in spurting of hot water and lead to hot water scalding. By the way, I suspect one purpose of “the ‘pin’ configuration” on the RPWFE filter is to ensure the attached chip is facing the reader. After inserting the RPWFE filter so the O-rings are properly seated, if the chip isn’t aligned properly, the pins won’t be aligned as well, so pushing the RPWFE filter into the compartment won’t be possible. My solution was to remove the offending “pins” on the RPWF filter that prevent it from being pushed into the compartment. If I recall correctly, I used a small mini-hacksaw to remove those pins and then smoothed out the rough edges with a fine file. It only took about 5 or 10 minutes to accomplish. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CX5DJR8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=sl1&tag=groovypostcom-20&linkId=3d3b69d2ab17690c53d434b52627a8f8&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl Hope that helps the community here. Comment Name * Email *
Δ Save my name and email and send me emails as new comments are made to this post.
