This is the reply I got from the eBay seller when I raised my concerns over the difference between the new filters and my old one...
"Hi
all of our items are genuine products either from the manufacturer directly or an official distributor.
we buy directly form an official Samsung distributor for this filter.
we are only a retailer and not a manufacturer.
we have forwarded your photos to the supplier and we are awaiting there response.
all of the products are tested and approved so health and safety has been approved otherwise it would not be able to sell in the uk.
once our supplier responds we will let you know."
Then a day or 2 later they sent this to close it out...
"Dear Customer
Thank you for your email - It raises several issues from the weight of the cartridge to it's construction and in order to fully address each point it's easier to tackle them 'point by point'.
The weight of a new filter will always be substantially less than a filter that has recently been removed from service (regardless of construction). Activated carbon is a highly porous material and even if you drain the excess water from the cartridge at the point of removal the media itself will still retain a very high proportion of moisture. This is expected behaviour and it happens with practically all water filters whether installed under sink, on a refrigerator or in something like a coffee machine. It could potentially many days to fully dry out a cartridge and that is assuming optimum conditions for doing so (warm weather/adequate air flow). Cartridges returned to us in the mail which have been in service are, more often than not, still full of water.
The construction of your previous filter (likely manufactured by Microfilter for Samsung) is a 100% block carbon construction as you can see from your filters. The construction of the filters sent (manufactured by Winix) are of a combined Block Carbon and Polypropylene Sediment Filter. It's not uncommon in block carbon cartridges for their to be a polypropylene stage as this protects the appliance downstream from particulate damage which could be caused either through contamination of the water (you get fine pieces of dirt and grit in most tap water) or through degradation of the carbon block itself (more commonly a problem if it is used beyond its quoted life, but if they take a knock in transit its possible for very small pieces to dislodge). All side by side fridges have small solenoid valves (to control the dispensing of water) and its not uncommon for these to develop 'permanent drips from the dispenser' if small pieces of sediment get caught in the valves. If you Google Polypropylene"
I'm not convinced as the quality of the finish to the internals just did not look right to me. I removed the filter despite their assurances that it was genuine and safe.
