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My $200 espresso machine died because it needed a firmware update | Gadgets That Annoy You - Free To Speak

My $200 espresso machine died because it needed a firmware update

Got up early last Saturday craving a decent coffee. Machine starts up fine, heats the water, then freezes with a QR code on the screen. Scan the code and it says 'critical update required, contact support.' Called them, waited 45 minutes, they said the motherboard bricked during an auto-update at 3am. No way to fix it without shipping the whole thing back. Ended up using my $15 french press from Target that literally can't break. Has anyone else had a "smart" kitchen gadget die from an update?

3 comments

3 Comments

willowg882mo ago

critical update required" yeah that's the thing right there. We've all just accepted that our appliances need software patches now like they're phones. It's funny because the whole point of a coffee maker was to be a simple machine that just heats water and pushes it through grounds. Now they've turned them into computers with water damage risk. I notice this everywhere now, like my parents' washing machine has an app and they can't even use half the cycles without logging in. Meanwhile my neighbor has a 1980s fridge that outlasted three smart fridges. We traded reliability for convenience and somehow got neither.

jasonf352mo ago

Wait did your neighbor actually watch a smart fridge die three times while the old one kept going? I had a friend who bought a top of the line "smart" oven and it bricked itself after an update. He had to wait three days for a technician just to cook a frozen pizza.

thomas_sanchez2mo ago

And here I am stuck with a coffee maker that needs a firmware update before I can get my morning caffeine. What's next, my toaster asking for my social security number before it'll brown my bread?