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Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day
(www.newsweek.com)
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this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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Why the fuck does my appliance need wifi? It's not ordering refills for consumables when low at a great discount nor is it going to schedule it's own maintenance as it passes lifetime milestones or detects errors.
I don't want my fucking washer/dryer to text me when the load is done and I definitely don't want my fridge to alert me I'm low on milk or bread, or the door is open. That's such a huge backdoor for anyone looking to maliciously gather data and peer into my life, definitely without my consent.
If, just for fucking once, they could use fully open source software to send that information directly to my mobile phone instead of using black box software to send all my info their corporate overlords, we might talk.
In principle these things aren't directly a bad idea. The fact that these asshats inserted themselves in the process is.
I mean this one's kind of pointless, but I do get what youre saying.
My fucking washer has NFC and I cant even figure out why I would ever need that, let alone WiFi?
Features for features sake, I guess? Another bullet point on the features list.
It's not very useful. But, I can start a program from an app which is a lot easier than understanding all the little logos on the unit. Plus I have more flexibility to tweak it, like be faster or gentler or schedule it to cheaper electricity hours all much more easily and intuitively than in the panel.
Also timer, remote start, and letting me know when it's done are something I might use once in a blue moon.
Can I live without it, hell yes, but is it a totally useless gimmick... Well 50/50.
I don't get the remote start, you should never start them if you're away from your home. Gonna flood or burn your house down.
At least in my case, its electric
Electric dryer can still catch fire on heat mode by lint accumulation that blocks air flow.
Rather safe on no heat mode, though.
Funnily enough static discharge is common in dryer house fires regardless of the type of dryer you have. It's usually the lint that gets set on fire.
I have my washer and dryer on an isolated network. It’s actually useful to be able to tell if they’re done without walking to the other end of the house to check.
Mr. moneybags over here with his house...
Exactly my thought hahaha my house is normal size and I can hear that sucker beeping anywhere
Now, all joking aside, what's the big advanta of knowing exactly when the cycle finishes? I get that it may vary because of the new sensor driven cycles but still.... Unless you are running a laundromat and every second of machine use counts, I can ballpark it just fine
ADHD, OCD and other neuro atypicals often need reminders or an action item that needs to be cleared. The features can be used by an infinite set of one offs, starting a load remotely before driving home from work, sometimes you are just under a time crunch. The burden of responsibility here is product enshitification not making us fear features, not someone wanting to utilize a feature rich product.
Thank for the reply.... I do get that accessibility part for anyone with any disability...however, any device that requires manual interaction, benefits little from remote starting .. why would you put in a load but start it 8 hours later?
In any case, 100% in agreement that the fault lies with the vendors enshitification and not the product or feature .... Same with the home assistant, AI, gene mapping (23&me stuff), etc
I hate laundry so try not to do it before I have to. However, especially with a family, that means I need to get through too many loads in one day. It wastes less of my time if I can feed them all through sequentially. Then when my minions are home from school I can make them cry at all the baskets of laundry to fold
Wife? What are you doing here?
Lol this is exactly my wife's style.... When we divided the chores long ago she picked laundry and seems to have learned to hate it ... Always seems to make it worst by leaving it all for last minute
Kids are teens now so they do their own... There is a future ;-)
Haha, no …
Similar boat here. When we picked chores long ago, wife picked laundry.
… Later on she complained about carrying baskets up and down the stairs, so I did that for her.
… Still later she complained about how she could never get them all done, so I started running them through the machines for her: I know how to use a timer.
… then she complained about how long it took to fold, so the minions fold their own and I fold sheets and towels as well as my own
… then when we got divorced, she was still complaining about how much of a hassle laundry was
Now the minions are teens and I made sure they knew how to run the machines, but it more efficient for me to run everything through, and we split the folding
You can make them quieter or even silent these days with the "signal cycle" or similar setting, a legitimate thing I want to do but mine don't tell me when they're done so I leave them loud.
Even when on my Adderall I forget I set it all the time and wind up with smelly wet clothes too often. Also would be nice to get an alert if my wife set it without telling me, then I can easily swap it out if I'm not doing anything and she is.
I want a washer/dryer with these features now goddamnit
Yes we could make them quieter... But she who rules the laundry room won't allow it
Seems entirely unnecessary. My units have buzzers that go off when they complete a cycle. I also have a phone with a timer setting, I know a load of laundry will take approx 60min to accomplish per machine. I don't see the need to spend my time and money to create a more complex system.
My laundry machines are in the basement, and my current machines play a pleasant jingle when they’re done, instead of a loud buzzer. I can’t hear them. I wish there was a setting to go back to buzzer mode
Of course they also have reliable timers so I usually set my watch timer when I start the machines. Done
How freaking big is your house? I'm in a rather large 3500+ sqft across 3 levels and I really never struggle to hear if the laundry is running and it's isolated in its own room on one corner of the house.... behind a solid wood door too.
My washer dryer are old fashioned and I live in a 1100sq ft home and can hear when the machine is running. And my dryer has a buzzer. So I think I will just not buy one with wifi.
The laundry is next to the garage and I work from the exact opposite end of the house.
Is also a front loader that’s pretty quiet even when spinning.
I'm in less than half your size and am two floors away from my washer. Not everyone has a nicely designed home.
That said, I generally buy the simplest appliances I can.
Yeah, Im starting to think I need to set up a vlan for my iot devices, but its also a bit out of my league in terms of complicatedness.
You know looking at a clock and realizing an hour passed and its done is free, and easy to accomplish with the features already built into your phone and most houses.
I have a front loader that takes anything from 1.5 - 3 hours depending on water temperature, load size etc.
It may tell me 2 hours when I start it, and still be going 2 hours 20 minutes later.
The dryer next to it is even worse when it comes to guessing duration, so having a notification pop up next to me is helpful.
My machine shows how long the program takes when I start it. Why it needs a message when it is finished? I know the time.
Mine does too but can run up to 45 minutes over time depending on how it adjusts the load, water temp etc.
The dryer is a sensor heat pump dryer so I have zero idea whether it’s going to take 30 minutes or 2 hours.
It’s a feature I find useful, I can isolate it on my network and I didn’t pay extra for it.
Seems weird to be defending it.