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I really have no idea how to reply to this without sounding like an ass so apologies in advance. Well yeah duh if the door was shut properly every time fridges

I really have no idea how to reply to this without sounding like an ass so apologies in advance. Well yeah duh if the door was shut properly every time fridges wouldn't need door or temperature alarms at all (most have an audible one already). But it's called an alarm for a reason, sometimes shit goes wrong and it's handy to know before all the food has been at room temperature all day. We had a freezer door pop open overnight once, because one of the drawers wasn't quite shut properly... in 40+ years of interacting with a fridge/freezer, yes occasionally mistakes are made I also have friends and family and at least one will be aware and be willing to go to the house if necessary when we are away (only happened once when our intruder alarm went off for no apparent reason) and my neighbours would also pop in if I was at work. Seriously your response showed such a lack of thinking of real world situations and usage I can only assume you work for the Google UI team or something

jventura 3y ago
My dumb LG freezer plays a “ping ping ping” tune whenever the door is not properly closed after a few seconds. No need to send a smartphone notification!
- darreninthenet 3y ago
  If you're home or not upstairs asleep I guess it's sufficient
  - beAbU 3y ago
    And what do you do if you are not home?
    - midasuni 3y ago
      So the fridge just opened itself? Ok, I’ll bite. What do you do? Your phone has just told you the fridge door is open. Now what? You aren’t at home, so you can’t close it.
      - Kluggy 3y ago
        We did lose a fridge full of food once. On our way out for the weekend, my wife opened the freezer to grab ice to pack the cooler. She left the freezer door slightly ajar and grabbed the cooler and threw it in the car and we left. We came home on Sunday to the fridge and freezer completely ambient temp and had to toss everything. If we had a mobile alert on our phone, we could have turned around and closed it just fine, or asked our neighbor to.
      - asystole 3y ago
        Some people have family or close friends who have copies of our keys to deal with just such a scenario (or to water our plants when we're away on a longer holiday).
    - darreninthenet 3y ago
      Friends and neighbours? Turn around? My wife works 15 minutes drive from home?
  - eichin 3y ago
    It's a lot more common that you didn't close it properly Just Now (and haven't gotten very far, and are maybe still in earshot) then the door spontaneously opening, especially with the slight negative pressure and magnetic gaskets. (of course, where they're really useful is as office fridges, when the perpetrator wanders off oblivious but someone else gets driven mad by the just-barely-audible-beeping and hunts it down...)
    - darreninthenet 3y ago
      Yes? But that still isn't a case for saying avoid it... I didn't say it was earth shattering life changing feature... if it has it, it's "handy". Not something that would make me buy it but useful if it does.
htshnr 3y ago
> Seriously your response showed such a lack of thinking of real world situations and usage I can only assume you work for the Google UI team or something Laughed out loud. This is gold.
- peterleiser 3y ago
  LOL'd as well, which caused my 1.5 year old to laugh; He gets it. Every time I use the Google Cloud Platform web UI I feel like someone is reaching through the monitor to slap me upside the head for not doing Infrastructure as Code.
CogitoCogito 3y ago
Doesn’t a beep from the fridge suffice? That’s an old solution that’s existed for a very long time.
- darreninthenet 3y ago
  If you're home or not upstairs asleep it's sufficient... it's not a feature that would make me choose the fridge but it's handy when it has it.
beAbU 3y ago
At least you apologised in advance <3 You make the perfect argument for a physical alarm. I agree, that makes perfect sense, and is a cheap addition that significantly improves quality of life. Will you be woken up by a midnight phone notification that the fridge is open? I tend to sleep stuff like that. Does a once in 40 years mistake justify carrying an app around that does god knows what else, and the extra expense and hassle of a fridge that might or might not spy on you? Do we need to therefore instrument our stoves, ovens, baths and basins to insulate ourselves from the other common domestic nightmare scenarios? Also, you talk about intruder alarms? I thought we were talking about "smart" wifi connected fridges? That's a completely different scenario, and I fully agree with you. I pay a security company to monitor my alarm, and they visit my house within 5 minutes of the alarm triggering. But my fridge can stay as dumb as it gets, thanks. Literally the only thing its allowed to do is go brrr.
- arter4 3y ago
  >Does a once in 40 years mistake justify carrying an app around that does god knows what else, and the extra expense and hassle of a fridge that might or might not spy on you? >Do we need to therefore instrument our stoves, ovens, baths and basins to insulate ourselves from the other common domestic nightmare scenarios? Exactly. There are a lot of things that could go wrong in daily life. Let's say you are sleeping and one of the bed slats bends or breaks (this has actually happened to me). It's messy, especially because you wake up and putting the bed slat back is not easy. So what do you do? You either ignore the fact it may happen, or you say "well if it does happen, I guess I'll sleep on the couch or something". No one that I know, even among the most "smart home" obsessed people, has a bed which automatically beeps or sends a push notification if the slats are about to break. Ok, now you wake up and nothing bad happened so far. You have breakfast (maybe you have a smart fridge which ensures you're not running out of yogurt or whatever). Then you go dress yourself. But then you realize your favorite shirt has a stain you didn't notice. Do you have a drawer that automatically beeps if your clothes have stains? Probably not. You either remember to watch closely your clothes and wash them properly, or say "whatever, I'll go with something else and I'll wash that later". And so on. Life is full of minor inconveniences. That doesn't mean you should necessarily fill your life with sensors and beepers for every possible scenario. I might be getting too philosophical, but part of life is also becoming aware that things happen and you can't always be 100% safe in any possible scenario.
SPBS 3y ago
The number of times my fridge door has popped open (yes it has happened to me as well) is not worth making it a smart appliance that talks to the internet. It plays a physical alarm. That's it. It's not the end of the world if some stuff inside goes bad. Again, not worth making it talk to the internet.
coldtea 3y ago
I too really have no idea how to reply to this without sounding like an ass so apologies in advance. Well, our parents, and for the younger, our grandparents too, and us, have managed to do fine for like 60+ years of using fridges without an fridge door alarm. Fun fact: for an alarm for when you are away for days, and you want to know if the fridge power went off and back on in between, you can freeze a jar of water in your freezer, put a coin on top, and leave it there. If you find the coin in the bottom of the jar at some point, the fridge power/temperature has been off for a while.
- darreninthenet 3y ago
  They did fine for many years without mobile phones, cars, aircraft and computers... your point is irrelevant. It's just a handy extra to have I really don't see why people find my phone pinging me if the door is left open so offensive :-D
  - coldtea 3y ago
    >They did fine for many years without mobile phones, cars, aircraft and computers... your point is irrelevant. Nah, rather it's the comparison that is off. Without cars, for example, transportation was slow and constrainted, affecting commerce, work, and lots of other things. Whether good or bad (since there are negatives too) the introduction of the car was a huge change. Network connected fridges? The incovenience they solve is so rare and small that most people don't give a damn about, not to mention the incovenience from their assorted crappy controls, the privacy issues, and other such factors, can be even higher and more constant. Might as well compare the invention of fire with the Shake Weight.
    - scrollaway 3y ago
      And without open door alarms, food would sometimes get spoiled and cause waste. Why are you fighting the guy over this feature? Everybody here is in agreement that network-connected fridges are not particularly useful but you're trying to make a point about open door alarms.

jventura 3y ago

My dumb LG freezer plays a “ping ping ping” tune whenever the door is not properly closed after a few seconds. No need to send a smartphone notification!

darreninthenet 3y ago
If you're home or not upstairs asleep I guess it's sufficient
- beAbU 3y ago
  And what do you do if you are not home?
  - midasuni 3y ago
    So the fridge just opened itself? Ok, I’ll bite. What do you do? Your phone has just told you the fridge door is open. Now what? You aren’t at home, so you can’t close it.
    - Kluggy 3y ago
      We did lose a fridge full of food once. On our way out for the weekend, my wife opened the freezer to grab ice to pack the cooler. She left the freezer door slightly ajar and grabbed the cooler and threw it in the car and we left. We came home on Sunday to the fridge and freezer completely ambient temp and had to toss everything. If we had a mobile alert on our phone, we could have turned around and closed it just fine, or asked our neighbor to.
    - asystole 3y ago
      Some people have family or close friends who have copies of our keys to deal with just such a scenario (or to water our plants when we're away on a longer holiday).
  - darreninthenet 3y ago
    Friends and neighbours? Turn around? My wife works 15 minutes drive from home?
- eichin 3y ago
  It's a lot more common that you didn't close it properly Just Now (and haven't gotten very far, and are maybe still in earshot) then the door spontaneously opening, especially with the slight negative pressure and magnetic gaskets. (of course, where they're really useful is as office fridges, when the perpetrator wanders off oblivious but someone else gets driven mad by the just-barely-audible-beeping and hunts it down...)
  - darreninthenet 3y ago
    Yes? But that still isn't a case for saying avoid it... I didn't say it was earth shattering life changing feature... if it has it, it's "handy". Not something that would make me buy it but useful if it does.

htshnr 3y ago

> Seriously your response showed such a lack of thinking of real world situations and usage I can only assume you work for the Google UI team or something Laughed out loud. This is gold.

peterleiser 3y ago
LOL'd as well, which caused my 1.5 year old to laugh; He gets it. Every time I use the Google Cloud Platform web UI I feel like someone is reaching through the monitor to slap me upside the head for not doing Infrastructure as Code.

CogitoCogito 3y ago

Doesn’t a beep from the fridge suffice? That’s an old solution that’s existed for a very long time.

darreninthenet 3y ago
If you're home or not upstairs asleep it's sufficient... it's not a feature that would make me choose the fridge but it's handy when it has it.

beAbU 3y ago

At least you apologised in advance <3 You make the perfect argument for a physical alarm. I agree, that makes perfect sense, and is a cheap addition that significantly improves quality of life. Will you be woken up by a midnight phone notification that the fridge is open? I tend to sleep stuff like that. Does a once in 40 years mistake justify carrying an app around that does god knows what else, and the extra expense and hassle of a fridge that might or might not spy on you? Do we need to therefore instrument our stoves, ovens, baths and basins to insulate ourselves from the other common domestic nightmare scenarios? Also, you talk about intruder alarms? I thought we were talking about "smart" wifi connected fridges? That's a completely different scenario, and I fully agree with you. I pay a security company to monitor my alarm, and they visit my house within 5 minutes of the alarm triggering. But my fridge can stay as dumb as it gets, thanks. Literally the only thing its allowed to do is go brrr.

arter4 3y ago
>Does a once in 40 years mistake justify carrying an app around that does god knows what else, and the extra expense and hassle of a fridge that might or might not spy on you? >Do we need to therefore instrument our stoves, ovens, baths and basins to insulate ourselves from the other common domestic nightmare scenarios? Exactly. There are a lot of things that could go wrong in daily life. Let's say you are sleeping and one of the bed slats bends or breaks (this has actually happened to me). It's messy, especially because you wake up and putting the bed slat back is not easy. So what do you do? You either ignore the fact it may happen, or you say "well if it does happen, I guess I'll sleep on the couch or something". No one that I know, even among the most "smart home" obsessed people, has a bed which automatically beeps or sends a push notification if the slats are about to break. Ok, now you wake up and nothing bad happened so far. You have breakfast (maybe you have a smart fridge which ensures you're not running out of yogurt or whatever). Then you go dress yourself. But then you realize your favorite shirt has a stain you didn't notice. Do you have a drawer that automatically beeps if your clothes have stains? Probably not. You either remember to watch closely your clothes and wash them properly, or say "whatever, I'll go with something else and I'll wash that later". And so on. Life is full of minor inconveniences. That doesn't mean you should necessarily fill your life with sensors and beepers for every possible scenario. I might be getting too philosophical, but part of life is also becoming aware that things happen and you can't always be 100% safe in any possible scenario.

SPBS 3y ago

The number of times my fridge door has popped open (yes it has happened to me as well) is not worth making it a smart appliance that talks to the internet. It plays a physical alarm. That's it. It's not the end of the world if some stuff inside goes bad. Again, not worth making it talk to the internet.

coldtea 3y ago

I too really have no idea how to reply to this without sounding like an ass so apologies in advance. Well, our parents, and for the younger, our grandparents too, and us, have managed to do fine for like 60+ years of using fridges without an fridge door alarm. Fun fact: for an alarm for when you are away for days, and you want to know if the fridge power went off and back on in between, you can freeze a jar of water in your freezer, put a coin on top, and leave it there. If you find the coin in the bottom of the jar at some point, the fridge power/temperature has been off for a while.

darreninthenet 3y ago
They did fine for many years without mobile phones, cars, aircraft and computers... your point is irrelevant. It's just a handy extra to have I really don't see why people find my phone pinging me if the door is left open so offensive :-D
- coldtea 3y ago
  >They did fine for many years without mobile phones, cars, aircraft and computers... your point is irrelevant. Nah, rather it's the comparison that is off. Without cars, for example, transportation was slow and constrainted, affecting commerce, work, and lots of other things. Whether good or bad (since there are negatives too) the introduction of the car was a huge change. Network connected fridges? The incovenience they solve is so rare and small that most people don't give a damn about, not to mention the incovenience from their assorted crappy controls, the privacy issues, and other such factors, can be even higher and more constant. Might as well compare the invention of fire with the Shake Weight.
  - scrollaway 3y ago
    And without open door alarms, food would sometimes get spoiled and cause waste. Why are you fighting the guy over this feature? Everybody here is in agreement that network-connected fridges are not particularly useful but you're trying to make a point about open door alarms.