The easiest thing in the world is not to connect your fridge to the internet.
Also don't buy Samsung refrigerators they are truly truly horrific.
I'm an appliance repairman.
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
892 points (99.2% liked)
Technology
75489 readers
2590 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
What is their issue? Their warranty often out competes other manufacturers here.
Two primary issues with Samsung refrigerators:
-
On the French door models, the drainage system for the ice maker is poorly designed. Instead of water draining down into the pan underneath the refrigerator to evaporate, it backs up into the ice maker compartment. This causes a heavy buildup of ice. Eventually, the ice can get so bad inside the compartment that it prevents the refrigerator section from cooling properly.
-
On almost all Samsung refrigerators, the drain holes for the freezer evaporator coil are too narrow. This leads to water and ice backing up into the freezer, creating widespread issues across the unit.
As a result, these refrigerators break down frequently. More than 50% of our work orders are Samsung ice maker problems. The root cause of these service calls is simply poor engineering and design deficiencies by the manufacturer.
load more comments
(1 replies)
If you have gone out of your way and intentionally purchased a fridge with an internet connection and a screen frankly you deserve this. What did you expect? Screens have advertisements on them, why else would they put a screen on there.
There was a time when WiFi was actually useful in smart appliances, I have an LG washer/dryer about 7-8 years old, no touchscreens, but by WiFi you can get cycle done alerts, time checks, even remote start it. My matching fridge gives me energy conservation information, and allows me to choose a lower duty winter cycle
I like these features. IDK why the fuck I would want a fridge with a touchscreen. All the smart appliances I've seen in the last 5 years are just there to serve you ads and steal your data.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Given how many times Samsung’s been caught spying on customer mics, and throwing ads into everything with an internet connection, I don’t understand why anyone is still putting wifi credentials into a Samsung device.
I don't understand why people even buy their products. Shouldn't trust them farther than you can throw your fridge.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I hate the enshittification going on everywhere but I'd say the whole smart fridge thing was pretty shitty to begin with...
Next model will come with a latch that won’t unlock the fridge door until you’ve watched a 30 second ad or are subscribed to SnackPass+ for 29.99$ a month.
Drink verification can to continue.
I need my fridge to maintain a cold temperature on the inside. That’s it. That’s 100% of what I need from a fridge. The last one I bought was $300 and there’s no place to put an ad. I have no idea why y’all were hooking your appliances up to the internet in the first place, but I’m sorry you’re having a bad time.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'd still take a dumb fridge and magnets at any time of the day.
Magnets is science...too liberal.
load more comments
(3 replies)
if people are buying 1800$ fridges, its on them if they get ads from samsung.
load more comments
(4 replies)
I see a bright future for "low tech" tech companies soon.
"Here's our new fridge.
- What does it does?
- It cools your food.
- And?
- That's it."
The low-tech appliances in my cheap apartment work pretty great. Just modern enough not to waste a ton of water, but still have knobs and rattle the floors.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
The other crime here is Bixby.
is this punishment for expelling hyundai workers?
They should just push a ton of anti-Trump graphics.
if you bought a smart fridge, you get what you deserve
Lmao, agree. My friend was trying to talk me into smart wifi locks when I bought my home. I was like "dude, if I ever have a single issue with a LOCK on a DOOR because my wifi is out or a battery dies I might fully lose my mind. I'm good." I don't even get the desire for some of this stuff. What genuine problem is being solved? What new problems are you introducing? Idk if people are really thinking this through.
What genuine problem is being solved?
In theory, your phone becomes a perfect multi-tool for every task. Unlock your door, start your car, swipe a credit card, shop for groceries, talk to your mom, book a vacation, apply for a job, show tickets for a concert, yadda yadda yadda.
In practice, it's a bunch of patch-jobs cobbled together on a grid that's over-extended and under-maintained. So, rather than a single universal digital gatekey, you get a digital janitor's keyring with 100 different apps competing for battery life and bandwidth on a platform that goes obsolete every 18 months.
load more comments
(11 replies)
the only thing I could think of with a smart fridge is being able to check the contents from your phone while you are at the store to see if you need milk or whatever...but that's not really a problem that justifies ads and the absolute invasion of privacy and the fact that the thing is likely about as secure as a wooden fence on a bank vault
I've fantasized a few times about having a fridge that knows its contents and adds items to a shopping list as they get low. maybe it could check prices at local stores or help combat waste by suggesting recipes based on what we already have at home.
Would I trust any company currently making smart-fridges to deliver on all that, and then willingly invite that product with its attendant surveillance apparatus into my home? Absolutely not.
If we ever have a fridge like that, I will have built it myself.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Enhance the product by making it shittier
I'd love a fridge with network connectivity and 'smart' features, but I'd need control over the firmware it runs
why. It's a fridge.
As someone who's into home automation:
- Some of the features are cool, like seeing what's in your fridge remotely. That'd be nice to have while I'm out shopping
- I currently have an old NUC hooked up to a little interface and some speakers in my kitchen. It's a bit janky, and it would be nice to run that through some hardware that's actually intended for kitchen use
Admittedly I'm not sure I could justify the price for "would be nice" features like that
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Let me guess! If you try to use PiHole or some other network Adblocking mechanism, the Fridge will either brick itself OR will fail to start the compressor. Right? It's not like that didn't happen before, when Google Calendar went down. We all know this is going to happen, and Samsung is going to push this wide scale. The extra revenue from ad space is too irresistible to avoid doing the sensible thing.
The smartest any of my Fridges ever became was having a small computer on the front panel to record voice messages, which also doubled as the Water/Ice dispenser function selector, and to have a timer on the dispenser light so it could turn on and off automatically. That was an Amana fridge I had back in 2002, which lasted until 2019. My current fridge has a basic computer inside of it to monitor and control the interior climate, to save energy by recirculating cold air from the freezer into the Fridge, and to beep loudly if there's a problem.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Meanwhile my fridge made in communist Yugoslavia is still going strong.
Love my dumb fridge. No screens, no water dispenser. I own a pitcher and a facuet. Don't need to change filters every six months or check the weather on my fridge. I never want a screen on my fridge.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Don't ever buy any fridge with internet connectivity. This also extends other home appliances. Just buy those classic white boxes or, if you fancy yourself the Gordon Ramsey type and have money/credit score to buy one, get a Viking fridge.
If consumers stopped being stupid we would not have issues like this.
load more comments
(6 replies)
In my very limited knowledge of the household appliance market, Samsung has been a no-go for a long time. Like, the most expensive but also the most disposable.
And that's before we even get to the enshittification and ad invasion.
It's incredible to think about trying to explain the problem to my younger self 30 years ago...
"Yeah, computer hardware continued to scale pretty well so now even this refrigerator here has a computer inside it, a high resolution flat panel monitor, and even multiple ways to connect to the internet for remote control and feature updates."
"wow, that's amazing!"
"Yeah but nobody uses it. At least, nobody who understands tech and reads the news. You don't even connect it to the internet in the first place. "
"What!? That seems totally backwards. What's the problem for educated users? Are there hackers everywhere just waiting to connect to this iffy computer embedded in your home?"
"Oh no, it is much worse. The company that made the fridge could connect to it like they designed it to do!!! And to make it even more frightening, they usually have the infrastructure to be able to connect to EVERYBODY'S fridge at the same time!"
(begins playing spooky halloween music)
load more comments
(1 replies)
News widget on the fridge! So now you have to have your mandatory propaganda slop whenever you get hungry.
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›