this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Bought “smart” LG fridge, range and dishwasher a couple of years ago and never connected any of them, they function like they are supposed to, refrigerate, heat food and clean dirty dishes. No need to connect.

Fridge manual explained something like “in case of peak energy consumption your smart energy company can send a signal to your fridge to not use power”. What the heck do I need that for? To find spoiled food and mold growing in the fridge later on?

Why does one need to connect a range to WiFi?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Some people have hourly electric pricing, in their case it's worth scheduling stuff based on predicted pricing. How that should work is that you'd have a home server which controls your IoT stuff (so the gadgets themselves can be firewalled from the internet and controlled only by you) and then your server would fetch pricing data and pause stuff that doesn't need to run when prices are high and run stuff like washing when it's cheap

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

TIL - cool, makes sense.

It would make sense if we had a server that could fetch prices instead of opening up potential weak systems to the internet.

[–] pastaq 7 points 11 months ago

Turning your fridge off for an hour will not cause your food to spoil. You probably won't even notice a difference since they are well insulated. Turning off the compressor during the hour where most of everyone gets home and turns on their AC can have a noticeable effect on grid stability if done widely enough. I do this with a smart switch connected to my HA server instead of using cloud based connections, but the effect is the same and I've never had my food spoil because of it.

[–] time_fo_that 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The only reason I used my range's WiFi is to preheat it from downstairs or the store lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

what the heck is a range? search results are expectedly useless as it's an extremely common word for something else

[–] theangryseal 2 points 11 months ago

It’s an oven with a stove on top. Google “cooking range”.

I’ve never called it that, but that’s the name for it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Because now manufacturers are tying the last year of their warranty to having the devices connected to their stupid information harvesting apps.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ugh! Now that you say that we are probably not far away from WiFi enabled ranges being a feature… that WHEN enabled will allow you to:

  • Cook uninterrupted or at any time of that day
  • Get discounted prices on gas
  • Get discounts on home/renters insurance
  • Receive discounts on range/oven cleaners
  • Enable the back burners
  • Enable broiling capability
  • Allow in oven light to be turned on and off
  • Claim warranties (as you suggested)
[–] books 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As a guy with some tendencies to worry if I turned my stove off Everytime I leave the house, this feature seems right up my list of needs

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks for that pov! I had not considered it and to my surprise I just thought of someone in my family that has the same type of worry you do, and that person would probably benefit from that kind of peace of mind like you suggested.