Combining technology with furniture and appliances

[Ready]

I purchased an adjustable bed seven years ago from Leggett and Platt. The bed uses a remote control but it was marketed as having the option to add a “WiFi bridge” to allow you to use your Iphone instead of a remote. So after seven years I decided to purchase the bridge when I saw one for sale on EBay. After wasting an hour messing around with it I determined that the developer stopped updating the app five years ago, and it won’t work on anything past iOS 8 (iOS 14 is current). The bed itself has a 25 year warranty.

It leaves me to wonder, why does a company that produces furniture offer to incorporate technology into their product, only to stop supporting it 2 years later?

A few months ago we purchased a love seat from Living Spaces. They decided to incorporate a USB port into the console between the cup holders. But it’s a USB-A port and all of our devices are now USB-C. So it’s already obsolete.

This week we installed a new wall oven after our Viking oven stopped working (it was 20 years old). We made a point to buy an oven without any smarts. They have ovens now with color touch screens and WiFi controls. But while an oven can easily last 20 years, how long is a color touch screen going to last, and how long will the app that allows you to control the oven be supported by the developer?

It just seems like a really bad idea to try and incorporate cutting edge technology in items that people expect to keep around for 20+ years. Why do manufacturers not see this? Or is it done intentionally to get you to keep updating your stuff to the latest version?

 

[target2019]

Seven years ago is like 50 years in tech time. For your furniture, the manufacturer was on the bleeding edge, and didn't realize the ongoing cost to them to keep current with tech.

You can buy a very small adapter or extension for USB-A to USB-C, so it's not really obsolete.

Can't say much about a newer microwave as I don't have one. But I would not see WiFi and app as an advantage, although some others might.

I still have a tough time with a newer oven with touchpad. It has 30 or more buttons to press, and I still have problems with the UI.

 

[Aerides]

Why do they do this? Lack of foresight I guess?

I also avoid built in tech beyond the main functions of the item (I don't want internet-of-things very much). You need look no further than the built in GPS in most cars. After 2 years they need pricey map updates, and after 3 or 4 they look low-res and older than the car.

So..yeah, if it's an item with an expected life of <5 years, it might make sense. But a 10+ year thing it's almost laughable to try.

 

[ERD50]

It's not just the tech. In prepping our home for sale, I wanted to replace the painted metal panel on the oven we installed just 10 years ago, it had some scratches and looked bad. Stupid to have a gloss painted panel that is easily scratched from pots/pans.

I go on-line, find the pane in no time, price isn't too bad. But every source says discontinued. I can't buy a piece of metal for this thing. Ended up painting it myself, hoping it looks good enough to not catch the eye.

I've said it before in maybe the repair thread, the tech in appliances ought to be more standardized and modular and generic. This stuff is super cheap when you buy a generic version of what these modules do. Like < $5 for a controller, <$5 for a board with switches and a display, at retail in quantities of < 5 on ebay/ali-express. A replacement control panel on an appliance is so $$$ that many people just buy a whole new appliance. Landfill, energy and $$$ waste. That's a real opportunity for environmentalists to tackle (like going to generic USB chargers for phones).

-ERD50

 

[DayDreaming]

Similar situation with my car, a 2013 Hyundai. Hyundai's version of OnStar is Blue Link - it provides emergency assistance, crash detection, remote diagnostics, remote door lock, GPS navigation etc. Hyundai announced that Blue Link will stop working in my car at the end of this year because it uses 2G technology. Mechanically, the car still has a lot a lot of life left in it, but the electronics - obsolete. Fortunately this doesn't bother me too much but I imagine some car owners are upset.

 

[mountainsoft]

Call me old fashioned, but I don't need USB ports in my couch, or touch screens on my stove, or a TV in my refrigerator, or GPS in my car, or WiFi on my water heater. I have never been a big fan of "all-in-one" devices (remember when they sold TV's with built-in VCR players, or combo VHS/DVD players). Sooner or later one of the devices fail and you end up having to replace the entire system because one of the built-in devices stops working. So wasteful.

Thousands of people die each year from distracted driving, and yet most new cars these days have some kind of touch screen requiring you to take your eyes off the road. Stupid. What's wrong with a regular button? I can reach over and push a button or turn a knob without looking.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving

I guess people are attracted to gadgets. Oooh, shiny bling bling! If a manufacturer is going to add something like a USB port in a couch, they should do it in an easily replaceable manner. For example, put the port in a removable panel. If technology changes you could easily replace the panel module with whatever new tech is available. Or pull it out and install a cup holder instead.

It's also dumb that every manufacturer has some proprietary tech requirement. Instead of something like a standard universal battery, every device comes with a specialized battery that only fits that device. Heck, even new devices from the same manufacturer use different batteries. Every camera I buy requires that I buy multiple new batteries too. Stupid, wasteful, and expensive. There's no reason for it other than company profits.

The one upside to all these gadgets is nobody wants the bottom end low-tech versions. So "dumb" appliances tend to cost a lot less and will probably last longer.

Reminds me of virtually every sci-fi movie made these days showing people waving their arms in mid air to use transparent display screens. I always think how distracting that would be to look at a display when you can see everything behind it.

As the saying goes "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"...

 

[Music Lover]

I know too many people with expensive new appliances with failing tech, plus as the comment above states I don't want or need most of that stuff (although I do like navigation in my car).

The current fridge, stove, and dishwasher in our house are 20+ years old and work perfectly but we may take them to our new cabin. If so we'll replace them with low-tech models if possible. But, more likely we'll just keep them and buy used appliances for the cabin.

 

[Sunset]

...
It's also dumb that every manufacturer has some proprietary tech requirement. Instead of something like a standard universal battery, every device comes with a specialized battery that only fits that device. Heck, even new devices from the same manufacturer use different batteries. Every camera I buy requires that I buy multiple new batteries too. Stupid, wasteful, and expensive. There's no reason for it other than company profits.

..

Exactly.......

Same issue with phones......... All for the company profit.

Sure, every designer of phones will claim they had to come up with their own battery as their's is best -> just like all the others

And Tools, I'm delaying buying battery operated tools as much as possible, just because I know I'll end up with 5 different battery types, and few/none will work in the other tool

 

[Ready]

We have a washing machine with WIFI connectivity so that it can notify me when the wash is finished. I don’t mind having this feature because I figure even if the WiFi chip fails or becomes obsolete it won’t disable the washing machine itself.

But when we looked at wall ovens to replace a 20 year old oven, the new thing was a color LCD screen to control the temperature and bake/broil settings. It’s like having a mini laptop screen controlling your oven. I can’t imagine that screen still functioning 20 years from now, and it’s likely that the manufacturer will stop stocking replacement parts for it long before the oven itself becomes obsolete. This seems like an obvious design flaw to me.

 

[braumeister]

I dunno. Sometimes they come up with the perfect combination of features.


Miller High Life’s Wi-Fi Enabled Champagne Glasses Let You Toast with Friends from Afar

 

[dak2018]

Given the volatile nature of electronics and software, it seems odd to put them into (hopefully) long lasting durable home goods. Especially where the benefits are uncertain at best.

We almost purchased a refrigerator with a large touchscreen display on the door. I can only imagine the problems that we would have faced a few years down the road, as I doubt that the electronics were built to an overwhelmingly high standard of reliability, and the world of software changes so quickly. Also, who needs another computer screen in their house, and why would you choose to build it into a box whose primary function is to remain cold? And yet, there was a temptation. A wow factor that almost got us. The kicker, is that we ended up buying a Samsung unit, and the ice maker is a piece of junk - so the basic functions of the unit are not even well executed.

 

[ERD50]

I agree with the comments from others about things like touch screens in appliances, but there is a solution of sorts. And here's a very good example:

A few years ago, we got all new high end HVAC and it comes bundled with a 'smart' thermostat, touch screen, color display, all sorts of options for controlling comfort. It works very well (but the UI is just awful). But if it failed, I don't have to replace my HVAC. These things are modular, and apparently use some sort of standard interface protocol over the old hard wires from old style thermostats.

So an appliance could have 'dumb' guts that use a standard interface so the panel could be replaced by a generic unit if/when it fails. Since touch screens are configurable, this might even be cheaper overall, as the mfg doesn't need to stock different hardware, maybe just a few standard sizes of touchscreen. Make it open source, please!

You might even use something like bluetooth, and have one large panel (or iPad/tablet) for all the appliances - a carefully designed UI (we can dream, can't we?), could make it easy to switch between setting the oven, fridge, freezer, Dish Washer, etc.

-ERD50

 

[jollystomper]

Many companies feel obligated to add technology to appliances/furniture for perceived "competitive advantage". There's only so much you can do to improve/differentiate items before the only option is to add what I call "convenience technology" to make it seem more "current".

A lot of my career at Megacorp was spent on coming up with solutions to "what of something goes wrong" questions - we never assumed anything would always work. I take the same approach when looking at technology-laden items - if something goes wrong with the tech, or gets very obsolete (as it is obsolete the minute it is built into the item), is it still worth it?

For that reason I have very few "high-tech"furniture/appliance items. They are still modern, but all I need to have them do is the job they are intended to. The technology I look for are the type of "ports" it has that I can choose to plug things into, rather than having anything built in. Even if the "port" goes obsolete, you will ikely find adapters to allow more modern things to use the port.

 

[harley]

We have a washing machine with WIFI connectivity so that it can notify me when the wash is finished. I don’t mind having this feature because I figure even if the WiFi chip fails or becomes obsolete it won’t disable the washing machine itself.

You hope. Just because you (and I) don't see any reason the washer won't work without the chip functioning doesn't mean they didn't tie it in in some way. I obviously have no knowledge of your machine, but I've seen some pretty dumb decision making about similar situations in the past. The more complex they make the devices, the more opportunity they have to create points of failure. I'm interested in tech, but not for it's own sake. Simplicity has it's own virtue.

 

[Music Lover]

Useful tech would be my WiFi thermostat. It sits on the wall just like any other thermostat but the app lets me adjust and monitor the temperature remotely from a phone or laptop.

 

[triangle]

I am weary of it myself. Think of all your personal devices that had a wired or wireless interface this century and all the iterations of interface standards; from serial cable to USB-B to micro-USB-B to USB-C...with some Lightning thrown in. Different versions of wifi, bluetooth, NFC.

I was recently looking into a high end appliance/gadget which was rightly software controlled, but it only supported Windows powered host machines and used a micro-USB-B interface for control. For some reason I was most appalled by the USB-B interface, just something about how fragile they are to use makes me run the other way for anything other than a disposable device. They at least had some plans to port the software to smartphones and other OS, but that inferior physical interface is permanent.

It is another reason to look for open source projects. They usually have clunker interfaces, but stand a better chance of surviving the next corporate merger.

 

[Bamaman]

Since retiring, I have on purpose gone low tech. After being the first to have a cell phone and being on the phone all day every day, I no longer talk on the telephone often--to anyone. I don't care about controlling my oven or thermostat remotely as they're just something else to break.

We've seen the appliance industry consolidate from maybe 10 large companies into maybe 3 companies in the U.S. LG and Samsung are flooding the appliance market with beautiful appliances with very fragile electronics and the inability to get parts replacements. Many used appliances I see for sale on Facebook Marketplace are LG and Samsung.

Posting #1 spoke of having problems with his Viking wall oven's electronics. My double wall convection oven by Kitchenaid was $3500, and I cannot even imagine what a Viking would cost. I'd be sure mad having to replace Viking wall ovens because of parts unavailabilty.

I continue to keep things simple in retirement. That's why when we needed a new washer/dryer, we went with an old style Speed Queen with a 10 year warranty. And we prefer Bosch dishwashers. Otherwise, all appliances of today are essentially generic.

 

[harley]

I didn't want to start a new thread, but saw this article recently and thought it needed to be shared:

Smart toilet may soon analyze stool for health problems

An artificial intelligence tool under development at Duke University can be added to the standard toilet to help analyze patients' stool and give gastroenterologists the information they need to provide appropriate treatment, according to research that was selected for presentation at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2021. The new technology could assist in managing chronic gastrointestinal issues such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Maybe the toilet could talk to the refrigerator to adjust your shopping list for optimum health. Personally I'd be more likely to introduce them both to my unconnected shotgun.

 

[CardsFan]

Personally I'd be more likely to introduce them both to my unconnected shotgun.

+1000

 

[ncbill]

I don't even want a smart TV much less smart appliances.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Our scan software, VueScan, is the opposite of this experience. Free updates, all the time. The software works amazingly well. The opposite of all our experiences with other software.

 

[old medic]

I don't even want a smart TV much less smart appliances.

I'm with Bill on this one.... I understand the need for a lift chair for some people.... but if your so lazy you need an electric run recliner....
or your fridge to tell your phone you need milk.....

 

[Dalmore]

On a lot of "smart" appliances, I just choose to ignore the functions as that is not what I bought them for. An example is my fridge. It is wifi capable. But as the wifi is an afterthought by the manufacturer and the chip set they used is garbage, it won't stay connected for more than a couple of hours, and the only way to reconnect it is to unplug/plug the fridge...not an easy task. So, wifi is configured, but doesn't work. However, the fridge still keeps my beer cold, so I don't really mind.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I recall back in 2013/14 we purchased a new Samsung fridge. It was from Sears and had some sort of "technician enable" troubleshooting deal on it. The idea was you could put your phone up to an area a push a "diagnose" button or something and it would send the info to the tech as to what was wrong with it. Within about a week of getting the fridge, it stopped working. We called Sears and expected to use the "advanced troubleshooting feature" but nope...just sent out a tech. That is a whole 'nother story but the tech told us that they never EVER used that feature. Of course, this was a number of years ago, so I don't know if they use these features now or not.