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.
One good function is cooling while no-one’s in the room, so that the fridge goes quiet when anyone is in hearing distance. Decibel limits for set times of day works about the same.
It’s not just a pump, it’s a linear compressor driven at any frequency or stroke length accoring to the situation, and there’s a variable speed fan with lots of valves for directing cold air to where warmth is detected. It’s hard to hear when the compressor starts because it slowly sneaks up to full speed and full stroke over a minute.
I still haven’t dared to give my LG fridge-freezer network access, but it may have already found its way out via a neighbour’s LG TV.
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.
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.
Because how else will they enshittify it?