Don’t know why the downvotes. You are absolutely correct.
My fridge doesn’t even have a screen, but it has wifi. Wifi!! You do one thing. You are a box designed to keep my food cold. I set the temperature, and I forget that exists.
Anyway, we bought it when we bought our house. The previous owner offered to include all the appliances in the contract so it was nice to not have to buy any appliances. But that refrigerator stays OFF my network.
I know the real objective is mining your data and acting as an insecure node for identity thieves to access. But what is its stated objective? I have no idea why anyone would think that is a positive.
I’m OK with it for some things tbh. With a wifi fridge for example I can know if it stops working and the temp starts rising before I have a fridge full of spoiled food. With an oven I can know if I left the house with it still running. With the washer/dryer I can get notified when I need to fold the cloths before they get wrinkled. I think connected appliances have more useful applications than people give them credit for.
With a wifi fridge for example I can know if it stops working and the temp starts rising before I have a fridge full of spoiled food.
You don’t need a wifi fridge for this. My wife and I manage this via Home Assistant and cheap Switchbot sensors. Fully self contained on my network, nothing to phone home anywhere.
The rest of the things you listed are kind of silly. If you left the oven on, that sucks, but you’re already gone. Also, who sets the oven on before leaving the house? That’s just an odd… like, really odd thing to do. Like, senility/dementia level odd, at which point what difference is a notification? And the dryer thing… well, that’s nothing a 15 minute wrinkle cycle doesn’t already solve on a dumb dryer.
“not that iot device, use this one instead and get less function out of it”
Wrinkle cycles don’t work as well as getting the laundry while it’s still hot. It reduces it some but not as much as getting the laundry when it’s still hot. It also wastes a fair bit of energy to run the dryer for another 15 minutes instead of just telling me when it’s done.
And it’s not a dementia thing, it’s an adhd+generalized anxiety thing. Piece of mind is pretty valuable to me and mine.
And it’s not a dementia thing, it’s an adhd+generalized anxiety thing. Piece of mind is pretty valuable to me and mine.
That’s a fair take. I dunno, the potential security vulnerabilities outweigh any possible gains for me with most IOT devices, and I feel smart appliances are just more complicated to fix and more easily break down. Plus, the last thing I need is my washer to brick or my fridge to stop working from a botched firmware update.
I have a small child. It’s not just mechanical failure. Then again, I’ve got a separate network for IoT things. They can’t see anything by each other and their controller. Unfortunately, most of the IoT appliances do NOT like this setup.
K, but if you’re expecting someone to be at your home to immediately inspect your malfunctioning refrigerator, then we’re back to an audible alarm being just as good
You’re making up a hypothetical situation where it might not work. I’ve literally done this and my brother saved hundreds of dollars of food from spoiling while I was on vacation by moving it to his fridge/freezer.
I’m glad it worked out for you in that one instance, but I’m not worried enough about my fridge breaking down to where I need to constantly monitor it remotely. Refrigerators are an incredibly old, well developed, reliable technology. The added hassle of an Internet connection isn’t worth it to me. If it is to you then fine, but your single anecdote is worth about as much as my hypotheticals, unless we’re talking about some novel, untested refrigeration technology.
You can get 4 ZigBee smart plugs with energy monitoring for $35. These are not IOT devices and if you just want to know if the fridge is running, these will do that, with the added benefit of allowing you to leave the fridge’s WiFi disconnected, which is a security gain.
To be fair, making a device wifi connected is stupid cheap nowadays. That being said, you bet your ass they’re harvesting data.
My parents got a fridge with a similar feature and no screen (they didn’t know it had that) but I was curious and hooked it to the IOT network. Literally the only smart feature it exposed was a door open sensor…
not advocating for all IoT products, but some fridges have internal cameras (allows you i remotely access and figure out what you have and dont have), and some also have product expiring tracking so that it can warn you if something is approaching thr best buy date so you can use it up soon or throw it away.
washer and dryer IoT projects to me tend to be pretty terrible.
Don’t know why the downvotes. You are absolutely correct.
My fridge doesn’t even have a screen, but it has wifi. Wifi!! You do one thing. You are a box designed to keep my food cold. I set the temperature, and I forget that exists.
Anyway, we bought it when we bought our house. The previous owner offered to include all the appliances in the contract so it was nice to not have to buy any appliances. But that refrigerator stays OFF my network.
I know the real objective is mining your data and acting as an insecure node for identity thieves to access. But what is its stated objective? I have no idea why anyone would think that is a positive.
Indeed, you’re better off buying a dumb fridge and attaching your own iot device amiright
but think of all the frosty bitcoins you could be mining!
It just sits there, silently plotting revenge…
“The minute I see an unprotected WiFi your personal data is soooo screwed.”
— the fridge, probably
I’m OK with it for some things tbh. With a wifi fridge for example I can know if it stops working and the temp starts rising before I have a fridge full of spoiled food. With an oven I can know if I left the house with it still running. With the washer/dryer I can get notified when I need to fold the cloths before they get wrinkled. I think connected appliances have more useful applications than people give them credit for.
You don’t need a wifi fridge for this. My wife and I manage this via Home Assistant and cheap Switchbot sensors. Fully self contained on my network, nothing to phone home anywhere.
The rest of the things you listed are kind of silly. If you left the oven on, that sucks, but you’re already gone. Also, who sets the oven on before leaving the house? That’s just an odd… like, really odd thing to do. Like, senility/dementia level odd, at which point what difference is a notification? And the dryer thing… well, that’s nothing a 15 minute wrinkle cycle doesn’t already solve on a dumb dryer.
“not that iot device, use this one instead and get less function out of it”
Wrinkle cycles don’t work as well as getting the laundry while it’s still hot. It reduces it some but not as much as getting the laundry when it’s still hot. It also wastes a fair bit of energy to run the dryer for another 15 minutes instead of just telling me when it’s done.
And it’s not a dementia thing, it’s an adhd+generalized anxiety thing. Piece of mind is pretty valuable to me and mine.
That’s a fair take. I dunno, the potential security vulnerabilities outweigh any possible gains for me with most IOT devices, and I feel smart appliances are just more complicated to fix and more easily break down. Plus, the last thing I need is my washer to brick or my fridge to stop working from a botched firmware update.
Something that might happen once in ten years isn’t worth the additional security surface exposure. IMO
I have a small child. It’s not just mechanical failure. Then again, I’ve got a separate network for IoT things. They can’t see anything by each other and their controller. Unfortunately, most of the IoT appliances do NOT like this setup.
What security exposure? Any modern router has a way to isolate iot devices. I’m risking people knowing when I open my fridge?
Most people wouldn’t bother.
And the risk would be more a foothold into your network as a staging point to attack other devices, as I’m sure you know .
A built in alarm sound would achieve the same goal without running the risk of your fridge becoming part of a botnet
Alarm is going to have to be pretty loud for me to hear it many miles away.
The notification on your phone or whatever also isn’t super useful if you’re many miles away.
Sure it is. I have family friends and neighbors.
K, but if you’re expecting someone to be at your home to immediately inspect your malfunctioning refrigerator, then we’re back to an audible alarm being just as good
You’re making up a hypothetical situation where it might not work. I’ve literally done this and my brother saved hundreds of dollars of food from spoiling while I was on vacation by moving it to his fridge/freezer.
I’m glad it worked out for you in that one instance, but I’m not worried enough about my fridge breaking down to where I need to constantly monitor it remotely. Refrigerators are an incredibly old, well developed, reliable technology. The added hassle of an Internet connection isn’t worth it to me. If it is to you then fine, but your single anecdote is worth about as much as my hypotheticals, unless we’re talking about some novel, untested refrigeration technology.
Yeah, honestly I don’t want to have to stress about something that can’t be fixed and might otherwise ruin a day out or vacation.
If my dog dies don’t tell me till I’m back from vacation kinda thing.
Get a bigger speaker
You can also do that with a simple smart plug with energy monitoring. You can get a 4 pack for $35.
“not that iot device, use this one instead and get less function out of it”
You can get 4 ZigBee smart plugs with energy monitoring for $35. These are not IOT devices and if you just want to know if the fridge is running, these will do that, with the added benefit of allowing you to leave the fridge’s WiFi disconnected, which is a security gain.
To be fair, making a device wifi connected is stupid cheap nowadays. That being said, you bet your ass they’re harvesting data.
My parents got a fridge with a similar feature and no screen (they didn’t know it had that) but I was curious and hooked it to the IOT network. Literally the only smart feature it exposed was a door open sensor…
But if you get the app you can unlock the crisper drawer+ for only $11.99/mo and get those extra fresh veggies that you crave!
not advocating for all IoT products, but some fridges have internal cameras (allows you i remotely access and figure out what you have and dont have), and some also have product expiring tracking so that it can warn you if something is approaching thr best buy date so you can use it up soon or throw it away.
washer and dryer IoT projects to me tend to be pretty terrible.