Refrigerators have DRM on them, To force you to buy $50 water filters or it won't dispense water

a year ago by mesa to c/videos

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potoo22 63 points a year ago

"It's for the safety of the consumer." is such a bullshit excuse to strongarm people into a subscription model.

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dual_sport_dork 53 points a year ago

Is it GE? I'll bet you it's GE.

Clicks.

Yep, it's GE.

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regedit 17 points a year ago

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.

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thermal_shock 4 points a year ago

Is it even capitalism at this point and not extortion?

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RickyRigatoni 5 points a year ago

Is there really that much of a difference?

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Know_not_Scotty_does 48 points a year ago

Great short story called Unauthorized Bread about this bullshit.

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shalafi 17 points a year ago

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.

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Know_not_Scotty_does 12 points a year ago

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.

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thermal_shock 8 points a year ago

Damn. The fact KitchenAids DNS blocked her results for a workaround is sad and funny.

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A7thStone 4 points a year ago

HP-Newscorp sent chills down my spine. I think the only thing more evil would be adding Nestlé to that.

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mesamunefire 8 points a year ago

Excellent story. Thanks for sharing.

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artifex 27 points a year ago

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.

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QuadratureSurfer 22 points a year ago

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.

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favoredponcho 3 points a year ago

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JordanZ 4 points a year ago

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QuadratureSurfer 1 point 9 months ago

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.

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artifex 3 points a year ago

Damn. TIL.

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Pyr_Pressure 2 points a year ago

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?

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SynAcker 3 points a year ago

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.

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artifex 2 points a year ago

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).

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Fredselfish 15 points a year ago

Won't be buying one of those fridges.

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sunzu2 23 points a year ago

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cogitase 7 points a year ago

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.

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sunzu2 5 points a year ago

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cogitase 7 points a year ago

Most refrigerators have the compressor at the bottom and the heat from the compresser causes more energy loss in the bottom-freezer configuration.

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Sir_Kevin 6 points a year ago

I will learn how to build my own refrigerator before submitting to this IoT bullshit.

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Korhaka 3 points a year ago

I'll just return to tradition and dig a root cellar.

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sunzu2 3 points a year ago

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Korhaka 4 points a year ago

Looks like I won't be buying fridges in 5 years then.

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Perspectivist 14 points a year ago

Luckily I get my water from the tap.

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kalkulat 11 points a year ago

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.

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Philote 10 points a year ago

Rossmann and his ilk are who we need in Government. It seems so simple. Understands law, fights for the people.

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deur 5 points a year ago

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InternetCitizen2 8 points a year ago

That's why I subscribe to ideas not people as much as possible

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cy888 8 points a year ago

Water dispensing is the main cause of refrigerator breakage. No water dispenser, fridge will work for decades.

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derpgon 3 points a year ago

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.

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scytale 7 points a year ago

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.

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EvilEdgelord 7 points a year ago

Cheeky thumbnail 😏

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Korhaka 7 points a year ago

My tap already dispenses water, why would I need a fridge to do that?

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jol 2 points a year ago

It dispenses filtered water, useful if you don't have the possibility to install a water filter faucet and prefer to filter water.

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Kolanaki 3 points a year ago

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jol 1 point a year ago

That's my low cost approach too

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Korhaka 1 point a year ago

Didn't realise they made big ones like this, might have to get one. Currently use a small jug in the fridge door

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FlashMobOfOne 7 points a year ago

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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atticus88th 1 point a year ago

New countertop ice makers are the shit these days. Some of them make that small pebble ice that's great for smoothies.

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stupidcasey 6 points a year ago

Fun fact the black mirror Blu-ray also has DRM

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doingthestuff 5 points a year ago

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.

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BigTrout75 4 points a year ago

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. 😔

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blady_blah 3 points a year ago

Weird, I bought a high end GE fridge 2 years ago and it doesn't require drm on the water filter.

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Evotech 4 points a year ago

European?