We have LG washing machine, fridge, and dishwasher. All of our original appliances crapped out within 2 years of each other, and were all around the same age and original to the house. LG was the least shitty, review-wise, in the price range with the features we wanted; they all of them came with WiFi modules. It appears modern appliances are now like cars - if you want certain features, you’re forced to also get features you don’t want.
In any case, the marketting justification for each was:
dishwasher: download additional washing modes, like rinse-hold. Alerts when the machine is done. Remote start.
washing machine: alerts when the machine is done. Remote start.
fridge: I don’t recall (it was the first to go)
None of ours has been given access to the WiFi, so I just count it as a tax.
We also replaced our garage doors recently; the contractor literally didn’t carry any opener models without WiFi. I had to source those myself.
The most frustrating thing about all this wasn’t the WiFi, though; it was that the cost to repair each of them was 80% the cost of a new appliance, and most of that was parts. I’d do it again the same way. For comparison, the one appliance I’m trying to not replace is the oven, and we’ve had to have someone come out twice in as many years to fix it. In retrospect, it would have been cheaper to just replace that, too.
I get furious just thinking about the waste. Sure, the new appliances are better - the dishwasher is far quieter, is larger inside, and has better drawer geometry, for instance. But we would have been happy in our ignorance if it would have been cost effective to fix rather than replace.
None of the originals were LG, BTW. I don’t know how robust these will be. The old appliances lasted 20, but I’m not naive enough to think modern appliances will last that long. If I get anywhere near close to 10 years without a major repair, I’ll be thrilled.
In what world would someone want to remote start laundry or dishwashing‽ Ovens would actually benefit from that, but if the dishwasher wasn’t ready to run last time I was touching it it’s not ready now!
I could see remotely starting a washing machine being useful in some cases. For example, if I need to get laundry done today but have to work, I can put the clothes in the washer in the morning and then start it in the afternoon so that my wet clothes aren’t sitting in the washer for 6 hours while I’m at work.
Even my super basic washer has a delayed start timer that solves that issue without wifi modules or whatever. Then again insurance doesn’t cover a water leak or oven fire if I run stuff when I’m away so I never do that.
Eh it would be useful for me… I live a very… dynamic life, and I don’t always know when I’ll be home, so it would be useful, once I know that, to be able to start a wash and find it ready when I come back, with no bad odors.
Dishwashers I can see. Load it up after dinner, then have it run at some point overnight. Could just start it before you go to bed though, so it’s a wash for me really
There’s energy use, then there’s water use. The water I use per dish goes down the more I load up the dishwasher. The less water I use per dish, the less wastewater I create.
I’d rather load it up fully than run it when it’s convenient. At that point, I might as well just wash by hand but
My spouse worked a bit in the appliance repair sector. A lot of the upper tier appliances share a lot of their internals with the lower tier cheaper models. You can easily see this for yourself by looking up maintenance manuals for expensive and cheaper models, many of the PCBs and spare parts are identical as it makes their supply chain easier.
Sure, one may have a fancy LCD screen and a GUI, but why pay a premium for it when it washes your clothes with the same motor model as the cheap one?
The entire WiFi feature set seems like something that appliance makers thought that consumers would appreciate, but I personally don’t see the use. If I’m standing in front of a dishwasher, I have to manually unload and load it so it’s pointless for me to start it with my phone when I’m literally standing in front of it.
Yea the remote start on all of these seem weird to me. The only use case I can think of is if you’re leaving for an hour and want the dryer stuff to be done and warm exactly when you get home. But even then you shouldn’t run those appliances when the house is empty and leaving wet cloth In a confined area isn’t great either since it can stink them up.
If these appliances didn’t phone home, I’d probably use the wireless. I do have most things in the house hooked up to Home Assistant (all z-wave, all local), and it’d be nice (if not adding much practical value) to have appliances represented. For example, when the washing machine is done, it “sings us the song of its people,” a small operetta of which we’re both sick. Turn that off, and we can’t tell when its done and time to swap it out. It’d be a little nice to be able to hook that into HA and fully control notifications.
The irony is that, even if I did enable the wireless, it’s only through a shitty bespoke LG app, and I’d still not be able to connect it to HA.
But, yeah… the only thing I care about remote starting is the slow cooker, but not enough to give LG that telemetry.
100% same. Honestly if someone figured out a way to cost effectively make a retrofit kit you could wire into cheaper/simpler/older machines and then tie it all together in something like HomeKit, I would jump on it.
You might think you’re being edgy and cool, but this is a nice feature unless you want 10000000 buttons on your machine for every conceivable use case.
It really only needs 2 modes: intense and quick. So here goes 2 buttons. A timer to use cheaper power at night can be of some benefit if you have a tariff supporting it. The rest is… unnecessary.
And yes, this is my strong opinion of a man with wifi in his dishwasher that will never get connected.
My washer and dryer both support internet-connected “smart” features, which I find pretty silly.
However, some water got into the dryer’s interface (touch screen buttons), and we were unable to start it. Connecting it to the internet and using the app to start it was a workaround. Fortunately, the water dried and now the button works again.
So that’s one niche use-case I can think of. I’d just prefer physical buttons that are more reliable, though.
A better question is why would you connect a washing machine to the Internet. Also curious what model it is.
We have LG washing machine, fridge, and dishwasher. All of our original appliances crapped out within 2 years of each other, and were all around the same age and original to the house. LG was the least shitty, review-wise, in the price range with the features we wanted; they all of them came with WiFi modules. It appears modern appliances are now like cars - if you want certain features, you’re forced to also get features you don’t want.
In any case, the marketting justification for each was:
None of ours has been given access to the WiFi, so I just count it as a tax.
We also replaced our garage doors recently; the contractor literally didn’t carry any opener models without WiFi. I had to source those myself.
The most frustrating thing about all this wasn’t the WiFi, though; it was that the cost to repair each of them was 80% the cost of a new appliance, and most of that was parts. I’d do it again the same way. For comparison, the one appliance I’m trying to not replace is the oven, and we’ve had to have someone come out twice in as many years to fix it. In retrospect, it would have been cheaper to just replace that, too.
I get furious just thinking about the waste. Sure, the new appliances are better - the dishwasher is far quieter, is larger inside, and has better drawer geometry, for instance. But we would have been happy in our ignorance if it would have been cost effective to fix rather than replace.
None of the originals were LG, BTW. I don’t know how robust these will be. The old appliances lasted 20, but I’m not naive enough to think modern appliances will last that long. If I get anywhere near close to 10 years without a major repair, I’ll be thrilled.
In what world would someone want to remote start laundry or dishwashing‽ Ovens would actually benefit from that, but if the dishwasher wasn’t ready to run last time I was touching it it’s not ready now!
I could see remotely starting a washing machine being useful in some cases. For example, if I need to get laundry done today but have to work, I can put the clothes in the washer in the morning and then start it in the afternoon so that my wet clothes aren’t sitting in the washer for 6 hours while I’m at work.
Even my super basic washer has a delayed start timer that solves that issue without wifi modules or whatever. Then again insurance doesn’t cover a water leak or oven fire if I run stuff when I’m away so I never do that.
I want to let you know that I appreciate the interrobang. Best punctuation mark ever
How do you access this on a phone keyboard?
‽ Nevermind I found it!
Not at all on ThumbKey, sadly. It’s in most other keyboards, though.
Eh it would be useful for me… I live a very… dynamic life, and I don’t always know when I’ll be home, so it would be useful, once I know that, to be able to start a wash and find it ready when I come back, with no bad odors.
Ok fair, I usually have a day of recovery somewhere in the week lol. Dishwasher though baffles me.
Day of recovery is for recovering, not chores!
Solar power.
Leave for work when it’s darker, start the appliance when it’s maximum sun to take advantage of free electricity.
Dishwashers I can see. Load it up after dinner, then have it run at some point overnight. Could just start it before you go to bed though, so it’s a wash for me really
Yeah but you can just run it then, it dries them automatically
There’s energy use, then there’s water use. The water I use per dish goes down the more I load up the dishwasher. The less water I use per dish, the less wastewater I create.
I’d rather load it up fully than run it when it’s convenient. At that point, I might as well just wash by hand but
I fully respect that. I just run it when I finish filling it up I just run it. No need to remote start, I’m already there.
My spouse worked a bit in the appliance repair sector. A lot of the upper tier appliances share a lot of their internals with the lower tier cheaper models. You can easily see this for yourself by looking up maintenance manuals for expensive and cheaper models, many of the PCBs and spare parts are identical as it makes their supply chain easier.
Sure, one may have a fancy LCD screen and a GUI, but why pay a premium for it when it washes your clothes with the same motor model as the cheap one?
The entire WiFi feature set seems like something that appliance makers thought that consumers would appreciate, but I personally don’t see the use. If I’m standing in front of a dishwasher, I have to manually unload and load it so it’s pointless for me to start it with my phone when I’m literally standing in front of it.
Yea the remote start on all of these seem weird to me. The only use case I can think of is if you’re leaving for an hour and want the dryer stuff to be done and warm exactly when you get home. But even then you shouldn’t run those appliances when the house is empty and leaving wet cloth In a confined area isn’t great either since it can stink them up.
If these appliances didn’t phone home, I’d probably use the wireless. I do have most things in the house hooked up to Home Assistant (all z-wave, all local), and it’d be nice (if not adding much practical value) to have appliances represented. For example, when the washing machine is done, it “sings us the song of its people,” a small operetta of which we’re both sick. Turn that off, and we can’t tell when its done and time to swap it out. It’d be a little nice to be able to hook that into HA and fully control notifications.
The irony is that, even if I did enable the wireless, it’s only through a shitty bespoke LG app, and I’d still not be able to connect it to HA.
But, yeah… the only thing I care about remote starting is the slow cooker, but not enough to give LG that telemetry.
100% same. Honestly if someone figured out a way to cost effectively make a retrofit kit you could wire into cheaper/simpler/older machines and then tie it all together in something like HomeKit, I would jump on it.
I just had a stroke.
You might think you’re being edgy and cool, but this is a nice feature unless you want 10000000 buttons on your machine for every conceivable use case.
It really only needs 2 modes: intense and quick. So here goes 2 buttons. A timer to use cheaper power at night can be of some benefit if you have a tariff supporting it. The rest is… unnecessary. And yes, this is my strong opinion of a man with wifi in his dishwasher that will never get connected.
Here you can read about it with morbid fascination.
Doesn’t matter, it’s an LG, You’ll have to buy another one in two years.
Bought LG washer and dryer five years ago with an extended warranty. Didn’t need it. They work great.
I need my phone to send a push notification when the laundry is done instead of going through all the trouble of setting a timer.
My washer and dryer both support internet-connected “smart” features, which I find pretty silly.
However, some water got into the dryer’s interface (touch screen buttons), and we were unable to start it. Connecting it to the internet and using the app to start it was a workaround. Fortunately, the water dried and now the button works again.
So that’s one niche use-case I can think of. I’d just prefer physical buttons that are more reliable, though.