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Rant: My "smart" fridge dumber than my 1990s icebox | Tech Pet Peeves - Free To Speak

Rant: My "smart" fridge dumber than my 1990s icebox

My fancy new fridge has a touchscreen that shows weather and recipes, but it took me 3 tries just to get the ice maker to work. Meanwhile my mom's old Kenmore from like 1992 just keeps stuff cold forever without any drama. I spent $2,800 on this thing and it literally yelled at me yesterday because I left the door open for 30 seconds. Has anyone else bought a "smart" appliance that just makes your life harder?

3 comments

3 Comments

samflores3mo ago

Wait, did it actually "yell" at you or was it just a beep? Because my buddy's fridge talks to him... like full sentences. "Door is open." Creeps me out every time I'm over there. I think the real issue nobody talks about is how these things collect data about you. Your coffee maker, your fridge, your oven... they are all watching what you do and when. That "weather update" screen is probably sending info back to some server. I grew up with a fridge that had a wire shelf and a lightbulb that sometimes worked. Never once did it argue with me or break down. Now I'm supposed to trust my smart fridge to not randomly shut off my ice maker at 2am for a "software update." Feels like we traded reliability for a touchscreen that needs updates every month. Kinda funny how the old icebox just sat there doing its job for 30 years while my new one needs a firmware patch just to make ice cubes.

jakeb813mo ago

Oh man that reminds me of my buddy Steve. He got one of those fancy Samsung fridges with the big screen on it. First week he had it he texts me at like 3am "fridge just told me to close the door in Spanish." He doesn't even speak Spanish. Turns out someone at the factory must have set the voice to the wrong language or something and it just started yelling at him in Spanish every time he walked by. He couldn't figure out how to change it for like a month because the menu was all in Spanish too. Eventually he just unplugged the whole thing and let it thaw out just to reset it. Meanwhile his old GE from the 90s is still running in his garage making ice cubes perfectly.

alicemurphy3mo ago

One of my friends, Mark, bought a smart fridge last year and it kept telling him to change the water filter every two weeks. He called customer service and they were like "yeah that's a known issue, just ignore it." But the fridge would flash a red light constantly. @jakeb81 that story about your buddy Steve is killing me because Mark literally had to tape a piece of paper over the warning light just to get some peace. He ended up giving the fridge to his brother and buying a regular one with a magnet-covered door.