GE Brings Water Filter Manufacturing to Louisville

Increasing capacity, improving quality, combating counterfeits

YSN Staff

GE Appliances powered up its first-ever, in-house water filter manufacturing operation at its Appliance Park headquarters complex in Louisville, Ky., last month.

Part of its ongoing $3 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing over five years, the new operation will strengthen the supply chain, assure water quality and enhance GE’s ability to crack down on counterfeit filters that threaten consumer health and appliance performance, the company said.

“Water quality is a concern for close to two-thirds of U.S. consumers, which is why GE Appliances has invested millions of dollars in our ice, water and filtration research and testing labs here in Kentucky,” said James Downey, the company’s senior director of water filtration. “We now own the entire process, which will give consumers greater confidence they’re getting the genuine, certified filters they expect.”

The state-of-the-art filter line is the first of its kind for GE, and features its most advanced automation for water filter production to date, including fully automated assembly and packaging, robotic pick-and-place systems guided by machine vision, 100% in-line air leak testing of every filter, and new genealogy capabilities with end-to-end traceability, the company said. 

Engineered to produce filters in seconds, and supported by a skilled workforce of control technicians, maintenance specialists and quality professionals, the operation will increase capacity, enable a faster response to customer demand and further improve filter and water quality, GE said.

The new production line also reinforces GE’s efforts to combat counterfeit water filters, which pose risks to performance, appliance longevity and, in some cases, water quality, as counterfeit filters often bypass required testing and certification standards and can contain inferior materials.

See: The Dangers of Counterfeit Water Filters

“Counterfeit and deceptively labeled water filters are sold every day through online channels, often appearing identical to brand-name products, but they don’t meet the safety, performance, and structural standards consumers expect,” said Jill Notini, vice president of communications at the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM). “By bringing water filter manufacturing to Appliance Park, GE Appliances is making authenticity and quality easier to identify and giving families greater confidence in the water they drink.”  

GE said it continues to work with industry partners, retailers and organizations such as AHAM and the Water Quality Association (WQA) to educate consumers on how to identify genuine filters and avoid counterfeits, and has partnered with Amazon to help detect and remove counterfeit listings from online marketplaces.

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