> Samsung has made garbage appliances for my entire life.

When I moved into my first own flat, family, friends and colleagues pressured me to buy good appliances. They will last longer they said.

Buy Miele for a washing machine, nothing else, they said. I didn't had the money for that, so I bought a washing machine for 250 Euro. It has been going for 11 years, moved two times and doesn't show any signs of going out.

Another friend told me he only buys Samsung fridges. Best machines, one shouldn't buy anything else. I bought a fridge for 200 Euro because I liked the retro look and its red color. Also going strong for 10 years and moving two times. He has got the third Samsung fridge in 10 years now.

Yeah, that's anecdotal but I haven't really found the part where buying something more expensive really helped with expanding its lifespan, rather the contrary where "high tech" broke earlier or more often.

Why are you throwing LG in with Samsung? They routinely have some of the most durable appliances, check consumer reports if you don't believe me. They even offer ten year warranty on their direct drive washer and dryers

I think it may depend on the LG appliance. Their washers and dryers are generally rated pretty well and last a long time (personal experience). They are generally pretty self-repairable and parts aren't obscene (again, personal experience).

That said, next go around, I'm buying a top loader Speed Queen Commercial washer and dryer. The ones with analog knobs.

But yeah, I'd never buy a Samsung appliance and that seems to be universal advice among the clued.

Is this lack of quality a US thing?

Where we live (Kazakhstan), we had a Samsung fridge, AC and TV for about 7 years without any issues whatsoever. After moving to a new apartment, we bought another Samsung fridge and it has been quietly humming along for over 2 years now.

I never heard anybody complaining about Samsung.

damn I really like my samsung fridge and dishwasher that ive had for just over 2 years. Hopefully my fate is not the same cause that dishwasher is quieter than a church mouse. if it is, back to the scratch and dent appliance store for something else I guess

I wonder if it's a regional difference. Here in the UK I have their fridge and dryer - both came with 5 year warranty. My inlaws have their fridge in Poland, that came with a 10 year warranty on the compressor. They've had it now for 8 years and it's been working fine. Obviously it's anecdotes, but if a company offers 10 years warranty for something I tend to see that as a strong signal it's going to be at least somewhat reliable.

From what people say, if you want french door fridges, Bosch and Fisher Paykel are the ones to go for.

I always joke with people that I hate software in anything but a traditional computers _because_ I'm a software engineer. I want the car with the fewest smart features, a normal door bell, a non-smart washing machine.

Software sucks a lot of the time and it often gets in the way, at least the way it's deployed over the last decade. Very few things in my home should connect to the internet. My phone and computers. Begrudgingly my TV now.

Also, those things that connect to the internet but don't let you have control? They get EOL'd, despite having paid a premium for them. I've never had a stove from this century and they all work fine, because why the hell wouldn't they?

The earliest that I can track down is https://www.tumblr.com/michaelblume/169525456166/tech-enthus...

Real tech people don't own printers.

(to ruin an otherwise good joke)

I'd go with an ancient boat anchor LaserJet but, otherwise, yep.

if it makes an unexpected noise, to be precise

Aside: I heard that "eco mode" is typically not actually the most energy efficient mode on most washing machines. Apparently it's a standard mode they have to add so that energy efficiency can be measured across machines, but that means it can't be optimised.

You're typically better off looking for some kind quick/fast mode. Or even the "regular" mode.

(YMMV, look things up for your specific model)

Set your BSH free!

https://github.com/hn/bsh-home-appliances

It's true with basically all technology these days. We have a lot of cool and useful technology, but every company who will sell it to you has designed it so that the device you paid for is also being used by them to screw you over.

make sure to enema yourself with a verification bag to continue

Honestly baffled by this. You load the dishwasher and then go sit down on your phone, open an app, and turn it on? And that will be preferable to clicking start as you close the door?

"Never buy hardware that requires and app to use" has been my rule for a long time and I've never once regretted it. If the need for an app wasn't disclosed before purchase the item gets promptly returned.

This is the most accurate definition of Samsung products I ever read.

That probably means you've been wasting toner on "enhanced darkness" (check if it's turned on/off).

I have never understood the negative controversy around this.

I expect the printer to use whatever inks it has on hand to print in the best quality it can.

The use of ink is an inevitability.

It always struck me as one of those things analogous to “I don’t understand why my car needs oil when I already put gas in it.”

Just give the machine the stuff it requires to operate.

Fixed speed compressors are okay for AC condensers but for tighter applications like heat pumps a variable speed drive offers a good efficiency gain, the problem is there is no standardization established for the driving of say a variable motor since they are all redesigned and unique so when the controller goes kaputz you are out 3-4000 dollars for something that costs 30 dollars to manufacture

I am not an SWE, rather a hardware guy with light software experience, and the next home project on my docket is getting AI to write the code for my own ESP32 thermostat (with a nice e-paper display too).

We have a mix of splits, central air, and gas baseboard, so being able to customize all that to fit our utility pricing time slots is a dream.

The problem here is there is almost always incentive to make that software shit.

Don't update anything unless its broken (apart from computer and phone unfortunately). Never connect to wifi.

Literally anything, there is simply no real gain, potential for loss absolute.

> Now it automatically goes to sleep after a few minutes of tv inactivity.

> All those companies push shit updates to keep their existing engineering teams busy.

Or comply with idiotic energy conservation laws in places like Europe.

I don't want any of those except security

There are definitely some uses for a washer and drier with "smart" capabilities. Just alerting me when the program is done so I can put the next load is great. The cycles are not "fixed time" anymore, they all weigh the load and end up variable.

I could do without them, and it's not the end of the world if the laundry stayed 20m or 1h longer in the drum. It's practical, and hopefully not a critical feature of the internal board. One could argue if alerting is really a "smart" feature either.

Biologics (of rare diseases) cost well over what insulin costs, a patient could have medication in their fridge equal to the cost of a car.

Yes, freezing insulin destroys it, which is a problem for me when I’m outdoors in the winter.

Every single time I see Tizen, I get reminded of this,

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/samsungs-tizen-is-ri...

https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/posts/cpp/0519/

The E in MBA stands for experience.

Certainly not in their QLED technology..

Remember that Samsung is more of a kingdom of feuding lords than a single unified company

We have RIoTS already... two more letters and we get a Scrabble.

Would a different argument be - which is worse, the energy innefficency of vintage - or the massive amounts of waste produced by modern efficient crap that is disposable.

That depends. If something doesn't last as long as I expect I'm going to look for a different manufacture, while if it lasts as long as I expect and they give good support I might buy (and more importantly tell my friends to buy). On expensive things I also research from the likes of Consumer Reports to see what lasts.

If the temperature goes out of acceptable range than then it is defective. The only people who need that plot are the lawyers for the class action lawsuit for a defective appliance.

There are scientific reasons to need the plot, but that is not normal and they likely need a special fridge with tighter controls or something anyway.

If there is a door open sensor there should be a close door function.

I’d just throw an analog min/max thermometer in there and investigate if the max temp goes above 40F, sounds a lot easier than adding a temp probe and door switch to a residential refrigerator.

Your fridge must be a complex place to navigate. We have 70cm wide tall Siemens one and what we have vs what is missing is a question of maybe 10-15s check. This covers 4 people.

Chest freezers would be more tricky if full and could take maybe up to a minute but we don't have those. If you are bad at tracking, make a list.

No, we really don't need 'smart' fridges and people should vote with their wallets.

> We have had refrigerators for 100+ years [citation needed]

If you’re thinking about the domestic appliance, apparently since 1913 [1], so close enough (what a stupid name, though). AFAICT the first one with something that looks like the modern cooling loop is the first Frigidaire from 1916. But the concept of refrigeration to keep food for longer is older.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOMELRE

Here's a crazy thought, you could just talk to your elderly family members.

> Looking in on elderly family members might include picking up things from the grocery store and having a list of staples needed might be an example

You would turn up unannounced with things you think are missing from the fridge surveillance camera? Here's how that should go: Visit old person. Check fridge. Check cupboards. Visit store. Visit old person.

In 2006 shortly after I bought my (first and still only) home, I bought the cheapest Kenmore fridge from Sears (~$600 at the time) as the one that came with the house failed soon after moving in - it was probably 26 years old with metal grill shelves. I was stretched for money for a bit due to dealing with closing costs, etc. I figured it'd last 5-10 years and I'd just get a new, "better" one when my cashflow wasn't acutely tight.

Despite having since remodelled the kitchen (again spending more than expected as one does when renovating), I kept the fridge...it's still working fine 20 years later, though the plastic drawers are starting to degrade. Next to higher-end German appliances it looks a bit well worn and out of place in an otherwise very nicely renovated kitchen, which my wife and I semi-seriously joke gives the place character.

Every once in awhile I'll wander through an appliance aisle and sigh. Similar fridges feel cheap and are much more expensive. In fancy fridges, I just see more components that'd fail. I'll I really want is a freezer and a fridge. I want need an ice maker (especially after learning how gross they can get). Ideally I'd have a standard old-fashioned sized fridge that had a good separate temperature control for the freezer and is common enough that I can get replacement parts 20 years from now.

The kicker was I now realize the old 26 year old fridge probably just needed a coolant top up. Maybe that wasn't possible as I'm not sure when freon was banned and if it would have been possible to do that.

I guess the sellers and industries should have thought of this when they offloaded manufacturing to cheap countries that can and will undercut them.

> How else would I change the temperature remotely if it didn‘t?

...why do you need to change the fridge temperature remotely?

My non-Samsung fridge lets me change the temperature settings from my phone. That’s why the compressor answers to software. How else would I change the temperature remotely if it didn‘t?

I can't tell if you're serious or sarcastic, so I'll bite: why on Earth would you ever want to change the temperature settings of your fridge?

> they want to be able to display the current temperature

Do they really? When replacing my 20 year old fridge (that had an actual mechanical temperature gauge) with a new one I specifically bought one that had a (now digital, of course) display for the current temperature.

It turned out that the temperature display is completely faked. It always shows exactly the set temperature, from the moment you power it on. I guess because of (actual or imagined) customers complaining why their fridge shows e.g. 7°C when they set it to 4°C.

Incidentally, my new smart AC does exactly the same thing. Subjectively it's worse than the old one at keeping the place not too cold and not too warm, but it makes damn sure to never show the actual measured temperature anywhere.

Everything is getting dumber.