The hack is to cut the RFID tag off a blank that bypasses the filter and tape it to a cheaper 3rd party filter.
The amusing thing is that its actually cheaper to replace the RFID sensor board in the fridge & use a generic filter than to use an official GE filter (re-using the cutout RFID tag from a genuine GE filter). The RFID sensor in mine died, and prevented it from dispensing water/ice. And no, I didn't choose this fridge. It came with the house when I bought it.
I thought there would also be electricity usage benefits but after looking at people online who have crunched the #s that might be negligible.
That said it makes such a small difference that it's really not worth worrying about, in fact you might lose more energy keeping the door open longer to find the thing you want in your packed fridge.
Air is a particularly poor conductor of heat, your hands touching the product to move it around is doing more damage than anything else. Your fridge thermometer only measures air temperature, not product temperature, which is what you actually should care about.
Your parents' generation probably think a number of things that you use every day are "impossibly silly".
Either that or it's Thursday, I could never get the hang of Thursdays.
The refrigerator camera sounds like the same kind of thing. Modestly useful feature that may well become standard-issue someday because the underlying components can be made very cheaply at scale.
Still not worth 1000usd to me, but more practical than "just seeing what's inside".
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_...
I'm just referring to the picture on that site of the segway.
The worst example might be windows in the doors, so you can look into them. Except you put stuff on the door shelf and block the view or you can't really see inside all too well. Plus now you have introduce thermal issues.
How long are these manufacturers promising to support the hardware? If the fridge is internet-connected and support ends, at what point is that a security risk? This generally applies to most purchases these days...
I was looking in my garage and I found a cassette player my grandad gave me that still works. When I look around shops and at many things I own I see planned obsolescence everywhere. Personally, I find it really demoralizing.
Only works for a neatly organized fridge. The way my kids cram everything into the fridge makes this feature worthless.
Don't have the link, but I once read a study analyzing the Asian market regarding electronics. The focus was on washing machines, fridges, etc. They discovered that more features, even if useless, improves sales.
So you'll have a washing machine with 50 buttons, 20 lights, 2 LED screens. People will buy that over any simpler one.
As long as we consumers behave like this, the other companies go out of business.
I imagine a scenario in the future when all fridges have it, like all TVs now have smart features. Of course it will sold as "check fridge while you are at the grocery store" feature.
A small number of us might offset it a tiny bit, but it's inevitable that we turn this place into an uninhabitable mess. I do not believe at all that things will change in the future.
Do you know how else you can do that? by opening the door. We need to stop "innovating" features that absolutely no one needs, because clearly the result isn't a better product, just a messier, more complex one that is frequently over-engineered and under-supported.