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Innovation.... I saw a fridge that had an app so you could control it from anywhere. My requirements for a fridge are remarkably simple, to the point the only
by billpg 3y ago
Innovation....
I saw a fridge that had an app so you could control it from anywhere.
My requirements for a fridge are remarkably simple, to the point the only practical use I could think of an app was alarm that I'd left the door open or something.
(If this particular app did have a door-open alarm, it wasn't on the list of features. It did say you could adjust the temperature from your office. A location I'm often worrying about the fridge.)
- jesterson 3y agoExactly this. Who decided to call useless ideas an "innovation" is beyond my understanding.
- hef19898 3y agoI need a printer to print. Ideally at acceptable prices (I know, ink cartrigaes are like razor blades and that won't change ever). Plus points if it can be connected to a network (which is a given today). I don't have to print when not at home (why would I fax something to myself when I am not at home?). Ideally, as I print photos mainly, I get more then 4 colors and decent color management. Added bonus for scanning (with or without document feeder). Not much else there. Pay-per-page subscriptions are ok, by the way, price wise for home office use. Then it comes down to innovation in the fields of color management, ink mixing and print heads and paper handling. And inks, of course. Anything else is just pointless, and nothing I would call innovation.
- garethrowlands 3y agoEpson make EcoTank inkjet printers ink tanks that you refill from a bottle, not cartridges. It's vastly better than ink cartridges, there's no comparison on price, convenience or environmental impact. The tanks and bottles hold vastly more ink than a cartridge does. The printers are roughly the same price as any inkjet printer. I do not work for Epson.
- hef19898 3y agoI have an ET-8550 at home. Considerably more expensive than a comparable non-tank printer, with a factor of two give or take. Without a deal I got, it would have been out of budget. Compared to a Canon Pro-200, they break even was somehwere around 300 printed a4 photo mark if I remember my detailed calculation correctly (850 bucks for the Epson and 460 bucks for Canon). But yes, I love that printer! Because as a person, I do not think like my busoness case, hence with the tank printer I do kot think about print costs, as the purchase price is gone and mentally accounted for. I never compared the non photo-capable EcoTank and whatever canon calls their tank printers to the cartridge cousins so.
- garethrowlands 3y agoGlad you like your ET-8550! That's quite a high end, expensive printer. I have a much less expensive one, though, on reflection, I agree the initial purchase price is higher than cartridge ink jets.
- hef19898 3y agoThere are only so many A3+ sized photoprinters on the market. Decent ones that is that don't suck at B/W printing. It, for me at least, came down to either the ET-8550 or the Canon Pro-200. Break-even was somewhere around 300 a4 photos, based on retail price for the printer. So initially, I was inclined to take the Canon one. Then I got a decent deal on a ET-8550, and the peace of mind to not re-run ink costs everytike you print, plus the Epsons home office printer functions, closed that decision. And the Epson print quality is really good, even B/W, so far, with the right media setting and paper, no colour tints whatsoever (at least that I can see).
- _giorgio_ 3y agoIt seems that nobody knows of ecotank... It should be the top reference in this thread.
- molszanski 3y ago
- varjag 3y agoMine has a camera that shows you the contents of the fridge. It's been useful on many occasions.
- ekianjo 3y agoHelpful to save you three steps and a lift of a hand to see whats inside?
- shiroiuma 3y agoIt's likely useful when you're at the grocery store and can't remember if you need to buy eggs or not.
- Fricken 3y agoI rely on a shopping list like my grandma. Another scenario where not innovating is the way to go.
- ArnoVW 3y agoI imagine the use case is more one of “I’m in the supermarket and I need to know if I have enough xyz left”
- the_other 3y agoThese two solutions are more fun. - make something else - buy more regardless and make a larger batch They have fewer points of technical failure; they don’t create security attack surface; they save bandwidth; they get you talking to your friends, family or neighbours more; most food waste biodegrades, so it’s not really “waste”.
- varjag 3y agoSure, there's a way to talk down anything.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
- mrweasel 3y agoMy dishwasher has a "wifi-button", so I decided to figure out what it does, as it turns out, it's completely useless. The only features you get is "you're out of rinse aid" and "Turn on remotely". The thing is that turn on remotely is useless, it requires that you've added soap, closed the dishwasher and that it's turned on. At that point you might as well just set a timer. There are two features I could see being useful: Auto-start during the night, when the electricity cost is lowest and a detailed error report, like heating element is 100% function, or water is leaking. None of those features will ever be available, because that's not why they are adding "smart" features.
- moogly 3y agoI measured the energy consumption of my connected iQ-500 Siemens dishwasher. It used 750 Wh per load total, regardless if I used eco (3h55min) or 40/50 degree standard program (2h15min). I am guessing the "eco" mode only saves water. There's no money to save on spot price optimization there.
- arethuza 3y agoWe got a new dishwasher a while back and it came with a mobile app - this was a bit of a faff to get working but was mildly useful in that it would send a notification once the cycle was done. Then after a few weeks the company decided they had to change their authentication scheme to something really complex and I couldn't be bothered - deleted the app and don't really miss it.
- tralarpa 3y agoRemote start could be very useful if you want to maximize self-consumption for your solar panels. Do they support that?
- londons_explore 3y agoDishwashers aren't very solar-friendly if you don't have net-metering. They typically have a very powerful 2.5 kilowatt heater they run in bursts - for like 5 mins when prewashing, for like 10 mins when starting the main wash, and like 10 mins again when drying. In between those times, the machine uses only ~60 watts for pumps. I have often pondered what a world of machines designed to meet solar output looked like - and for a dishwasher it would involve the heater being modulated to match the solar output (and knowing that sometimes the wash cycle would take longer if a cloud was overhead so heating was delayed by a half hour).
- gaazoh 3y agoEven a door-open alarm works better as an actual alarm than an app notification. My fridge does that: it beeps if the door is left open, so you can get your ass back in the kitchen and shut it. I don't want to receive a notification from my fridge app while I'm at work because my wife left the fridge door open at home (or vice versa), I want whoever is physically close enough to the fridge to leave the door open to be notified. I have yet to see a single non-bullshit feature from any "smart" appliance, honestly.
- seb1204 3y agoI recently bought a LY washing machine that is smart. I now get notified when the wash cycle is done, this is actually useful for me as the laundry is not in the house so I can't head a buzzer or chirm. Is it essential? Probably not.
- LorenPechtel 3y agoYup, this is the proper use for connecting an appliance. Our washer and dryer are in the house but from my computer I can't hear the dryer, the washer doesn't even make a noise. (Note that we've had these for more than two decades, they're dumb by modern standards.) I've been wondering why somebody doesn't make a smart plug that can send a notification when it's connected appliance draws power in a specified fashion. (Both would be fine by setting a minimum power to activate, then below it for a specified period. Washer: The threshold would be set below the power the agitator draws. The delay would cover the rinse fill time. Dryer: Threshold for the motor that runs the drum, immediate trigger if it stops.)
- jasonjayr 3y agoI have a fridge in our garage that has no such alarm. It turns out it was a very simple Wifi ESP8622 project to wire up a reed switch + a magnetic door sensor to add such an alarm to Home Assistant.
- garblegarble 3y ago>I want whoever is physically close enough to the fridge to leave the door open to be notified. Same - although I have experienced an interesting extension of this: HomePods now have alarm detection (the intention being to detect a smoke/burglar alarm). It is also triggered when the fridge is left open, leading to everybody in the household getting a critical alert (which ignores silent mode).
- 0xDEADFED5 3y agoknow what innovation i want? a smart camera inside that can scan a label and remember the expiration date...then later on notice if i've used it or not and remind me to cook it/eat it if nearing expiration
- layer8 3y agoThat would be useful, however expiration dates are often printed so badly and in all kinds of locations that it seems difficult to make that work reliably. Also people wouldn’t want photos of their fridge contents being uploaded to a cloud AI all the time.
- hef19898 3y agoI have the solution for those labels, even if that hype is over for quite a while now: RFID tags! /s
- master-lincoln 3y agoCan somebody enlighten me why the above statement was sarcastic and why it was downvoted? Aren't RFID tags on all groceries a viable solution to make product info available to a fridge?
- hef19898 3y agoBecause RFID labels are orders of magnitide more expensive than bar codes and printed labels. The groccery margins are simply to small for that. Hence the sarcastic comment of using expensive tech (that had its own hype curve in the early 2000s), to solve the how-do-I-know-whats-in-my-fridge-without-opening-it problem.
- bluGill 3y agoIF RFID was useful for other purposes it would be worth the small cost (scale can bring RFID costs down - it would cost more than bar codes, but potentially can bring enough logistical benefits that overall it is cheaper). However so far the logistical benefits can't be realized because you can't be 100% sure you read all the tags in a room.
- duckmysick 3y agoWouldn't it be better to have a fridge close the door automatically after one or two minutes? If you get a notification at work that your fridge door is left open, it would stay open until someone gets home and manually closes it.
- seb1204 3y agoNah, this requires hardware that makes the fridge more expensive.
- AlfeG 3y agoMy fridge also have an app, with usefull feature - to track when bottle of water is cooled. But. I need to login to app everytime I open this app. And there is no way to share access to the fridge to anyone else.
- bloopernova 3y agoWe got an air fryer recently, a Cosori brand. Its app tells me when the cook cycle is done. I named the device "PHILLIP J AIRFRY", so getting a notification makes me smile. Yeah it's silly, but sometimes you need a little frivolity in your life.
- cwsx 3y agoPhillip J Airfry made me smile, love the name.
- bloopernova 3y agoWe got a humidifier today. Name of "MISTER ROBOTO".
- quickthrower2 3y agoI solved the problem of a freezer door (upright) being left open. Shoved a plank of wood under near the front to increase the tilt. It shuts itself.
- abcd_f 3y agoIt's an official installation guideline for Samsung fridges.
- TheMagicHorsey 3y agoIsn't being level a requirement for the condenser pump?
- vel0city 3y agoI can't imagine a few degrees off from perfectly level is going to make a big difference.
- thunkshift1 3y agoMy fridge has an app store
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- vGPU 3y agoMy fridge has a door open alarm, and I wish it didn’t. I have yet to be like “wow, I’m so glad my fridge is beeping at me while I try to decide if I want chicken or taco leftovers”.