Samsung? My new home has all Samsung appliances and I was shocked to see that a new fridge water filter was $50. Not a chance I’m paying that. Found a 2 pack of a compatible brand for $20, seems to work fine!

If the price were reasonable I would have just bought the Samsung replacements and called it a day. But instead they got $0 of my money.

Manufacturers have started adding RFID tags to those with unique IDs, so not only can they verify they're "genuine" water filters, but also stop you reusing the same RFID tag sticker for multiple filters.

GE started this trend, but aren't alone.

GE will send you a bypass insert if you ask for one. I think they are intended for people who have a whole-home filter. Once you have that, you can peel off the RFID tag and stick it in the filter compartment and go back to buying non-RFID filters.

On my fridge it lights up the "not-filtering" light, but that's okay by me. I replace the filter every 3 months.

I'm waiting for the day they shut off your fridge because you bought "unapproved" food.

"Incompatible yogurt was detected! To ensure your refrigerator maintains an optimum temperature be sure to buy only GE compatible Chobani™ yogurt and foods from our other "GE Chill Eats®" partners."

Just wait until they do this to alcoholic beverages. Good way to bring down an entire industry.

I expect insurance companies would love to buy that kind of data. They could raise the rates of customers based on the contents of their fridge. Drink too much? Buy food that's too unhealthy? Expect to see your bills go up.

I've read they already do things like charge people more based on aggregated data like their zip code or an areas rate of fast food consumption (Perversely, health and life insurance companies also invest billions of dollars in stocks for fast food companies), but also based on individual data like social media posts, how much money a person makes, or how much TV a person watches. Whatever it takes to justify taking more out of your pocket.

I didn't change it for a decade with no issues. Our water is pretty soft though.

from the article:

For its part, LG saw an incremental increase in water-filter sales when it tracked water volumes on connected fridges versus non-connected fridges, the company told the Journal.