Some Samsung smart fridges stopped working on Tuesday due to a firmware update.
Korean outlets were the first to report the problems, which affect Samsung’s Bespoke AI line of fridges. Star News Korea, per a Google-provided translation, said that most of the affected devices were four-door fridges from 2024 or later.
The usefulness of a smart fridge always seemed dubious to me, but why the hell is the refrigeration part managed by the smart part? It’s literally just a pump.
Electrical controls are cheapers
Like not controls as in the “colder” knobs, but what senses and maintains the temp. When/if that turns off, the fridge can’t tell what temp it is. It could be zero or 100, shutting off ruins the food, but not turning off would permanently break the fridge.
One of the few silver linings to data centers is it may change the math and we’ll start to see old school 1950s “dumb” appliances again just because the components for a smart fridge are now more expensive.
Our prices won’t go down, but at least it’ll be a dumb fridge that gets replaced in 40 years instead of the new ones that barely last a decade.
Having a camera to check the inside when you are at the shop to remember something you forgot it’s nice but I wouldn’t trade that for enshitification when it can be achieved with a RPI.
If the fridge operation depends on a simple thermostat and compressor, then it’s more reliable and can be repaired with lamp wire and a soldering iron if it does break. Samsung would rather have a system depending on a control board they build for $3 and sell you for $600 when it breaks.
They change the firmware and connectors every year or two to make sure no one can build a universal replacement
Yup. We used to have a fridge built in the early 80s (possibly late 70s) that lasted until 2015. Ugly ass harvest gold color and everything. Ran it continuously. Had to have it repaired maybe twice in all that time. We moved out and left it behind; for all I know it’s still going (though probably not because it was truly an eyesore).
The point is that a well built refrigerator can last decades, same as other major appliances like washing machines and dryers. No computerization necessary at all. Our fridge was not the most energy efficient by the end, obviously, but apart from that . . . why not build them to last?
Greed. Just overwhelming, all-consuming corporate greed.
Because how else will they enshittify it?
…a smart fridge should be smart enough to still act like a fridge when its confused
It is fun for me… I am a crazy fool developper and most real software professionals tell me I am dumb to think that a mistake should lead to something else than an error that kills the program (and wait for user’s restart).
So, yes, I agree with you, out it won’t happen as long as makers trust deprivating software makers (those who make softwares no one else may modify).
we need to start tearing out the garbage. smart appliances aren’t smart, they’re extractive enshittification.
I mean, don’t put it on the network. Now it is dumb again. Mostly. Probably not, ok fine, so just don’t buy one with that shit in it.
my friend lives in rural vermont without internet access (he can get cell phone access at the base of the hill he lives on, but not much else) - and his samsung tv keeps telling him to agree to the terms and services, and the only way to do so is for it to be online. 2-3 times a day an overlay appears and prompts him to sign in to his samsung account and agree lol. he’s so frustrated he wants to return the tv.
even without the network being present, enshittification is all around us
Yeah this is a matter of making it fail safe. A refrigerator that isn’t operating at food preservation temperatures (and freezing temperatures in the freezer) is dangerous.
Appliances related to safety such as refrigerators and temperature control need to have a safe position they can fail to when their logic is confused.
Samsung should be responsible for reimbursing everyone for the value of their spoiled food.
Oh man, maybe people should stop buying these. I bet they totally won’t though.
Why are people still buying Samsung and LG appliances? After my 1st Samsung stove died just over a year, I learned my lesson. Wake up consumers and quit spending money on garbage!!
Who could have possibly seen this coming
I had a Samsung fridge-freezer from around 2012, and it developed a fault where it would stop trying to be cold after two days. The engineer diagnosed a faulty motherboard and wanted about 1/3rd the cost of a new fridge to fit a new one, so instead I fixed it with a timer plug that switched it off and on again every day at 3:15am
If you are so lazy that you buy a smart fridge, you deserve what you get.
I seriously doubt these fridges need to have any of that firmware added.
That’s exactly how I see it as well. What is the use of a firmware update for a fucking fridge, washing machine or dishwasher, if not to either brick it to meet the planned obsolescence phase or to grab your data in a more effective way for advertising?
Can I ask one fucking question?
What is the advantage of a ‘smart’ fridge? No really. What does it do better? I saw a review of toasters from cheap toasters to crazy expensive toasters (that I believe were from a generation still not Internet connected) that did show that the really really expensive one did have better performance in getting the toast just perfect… But fridges? What do they do better?
The can perfectly design these devices to work even when the “smart” part is bricked.
This is just hostile design to steal your data, just keep this shit out of the house.
Suck. It. Jin-Yang.
Don’t buy a smart fridge, simple as.
This.
An appliance should turn on when I turn it on, turn off when I turn it off, do the task I instruct it to when I instruct it to, and do nothing that I do not instruct it to. Its status should be clearly indicated to the user with a few LEDs, or a numerical display if needed. Its behavior should be entirely predictable at all times, until eventual mechanical failure due to wear.
If an appliance design fails any of these checks, it is a bad design.
If any function of the appliance is dependent on a network connection, it fails the checks because:
- it will do things that I did not instruct it to
- it might fail to do things that I instruct it to
- it might not fully turn off even though I’ve pushed the power button
- it might not fully turn on if it can’t find a network connection
- its status may be shown on a garbage-quality failure-prone LCD, in a UI designed by a CS intern with 3 months of classroom experience in Java (or worse, an LLM)
- it may behave unpredictably due to bad software design by said intern, and will typically be exposed by poorly designed network security, leading to behaviors controlled by malicious third parties
- it will fail early, if not because of the shoddy bottom-of-the-barrel electronics, then because the manufacturer decided they weren’t going to support the companion app anymore (6 months post-purchase) so fuck you, buy our new product that doesn’t actually have a complete companion app yet! (the intern is still working on it)
Don’t buy “smart” appliances. Ever.
At some point it will be impossible to buy one that isn’t.
Oh someone else beat me to it nvm. If everyone buys the basic rectangle then they won’t sell “smart” crap is the only key point.
This is why we shouldn’t buy them now. If they don’t sell well, they will follow a similar fate of 3D TVs.
I think a big difference is that many people (in the US, at least) don’t choose their own fridge. Renters often have the fridge included with the home. There’s far fewer people who could reasonably inflict such a boycott.
Landlords will be the last ones to buy premium appliances. Your average apartments are always gonna have the workhorse basic Frigidaire and Whirlpool type appliances.
Oh, man… That would be such a nightmare, moving into a new apartment and finding it full of smart appliances you’re not allowed to replace…
Sadly I can see a future where the non-smart option will no longer be available. Or very limited in choice for the consumer.
It’s already the case with TVs. The next logical step is to make it so it will refuse to work unless you connect it to the internet to “activate” it or even worse have it connect to the cellular network to be always on-line whether the owner of the device is aware of it or not. The vast majority of the consumers are still completely ignorant about this and buy this crap.
Fortunately appliances seem to still offer plenty of “non smart” options for now. But who knows what it will be in 10 years?
I feel like the difference is that basically everyone who is non-techy wants a smart TV, but practically nobody wants a smart fridge or toaster.
With tvs, The smart part has some use for most people. They want to connect to the internet and see their shows and movies. The data stealing, obsolescence, etc are things that most people fail to notice when buying, because they don’t have much knowledge on it. But smart fridges? They simply offer no benefit at all, and with a higher price. I find it very unlikely that they will become the norm on a global scale.
They should stop mouring the food, and start suing for damages
Spend $10k to recover $700 of ruined food?
