Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

[nofunsir]

I just want normal buttons and dials back. Not time-based capacitance buttons that take 5.02 seconds to activate, not 5.0 seconds; nor free-spinning encoder wheels that mandate you give it a jiggle before the washer does anything, even if it's already on the setting you want.

I want kachunk-a-chunk back first. Then we can decide if it needs smarts.

[ssl-3]

The problem with kerchunk-a-wheels and real pushbuttons (and the not-smarts they imply) is that they're expensive.

They're more expensive (and more failure-prone) than the rotary encoders, mush-buttons, and brain-boxes that replaced them.

But one cool part about things like motorized kerchunk-a-wheels is that, upon failure, a motivated person on Gilligan's Island can often mend them back into service with a screwdriver and a sharp rock.

[nebula8804]

Speed Queen is an American brand that tries to differentiate itself with quality and simplicity:

[1]: https://speedqueen.com/products/top-load-washers/tc5003wn/

[exe34]

my microwave oven has two knobs: how hot and how long. I paid an extra £50 to get a model of fridge without WiFi. sadly my washing machine is already at the free-spinning encoder stage - I don't hate it with a passion, but more of a low-enthusiasm.

I dread replacing anything that breaks in the next few years.

[burgerrito]

Capacitive buttons are very inaccessible it's honestly need to be a crime to be making such appliances

I feel very sorry for the visually impaired that are looking for house appliances in this decade

[andsoitis]

Can we keep the happy sunshiny tune it plays when it completes the job?

[ponector]

>> I just want normal buttons and dials back

There are washing machines without any screens, just old buttons. Also they are cheaper, I can see now in the store for just €270.

But looks like many people wants screens, apps and happily pay extra for washing machine with extra features.

[rsynnott]

If you're talking about the motorised control wheel things that old washing machines used to have, they went away largely because they are failure prone, and their failure modes can be bad (for instance in some machines if they fail while the machine is filling, well, it will just go on filling forever). The microcontrollers in modern machines can fail, to, but generally are easier to make fail safe.

[snapplebobapple]

As has been said already those can fail nuclear disaster style so I have no interest in having those back. Give me an ethernet port and a wifi interface (ideally supporting at least wifi 6 but ideally wifi 7 so it's not polluting the airwaves causing interference. It should also be able to be disabled if I want to use ethernet only) that has a locked down web interface exposed on one port with some standardized interface (is rest still what all the cool kids are using?) that exposes all the machine functions and lets me configure access credentials. The apps are spyware garbage that I'm sure are fine for some people but with local polling I can integrate this stuff into my home assistant setup and do all I would ever want with it and block the machine's external access. All these commodity manufacturers of household goods are trying to lock us into their software walled gardens to rip us off more/sell our information to advertisers and governments and that needs to be aggressively stopped imo.

[avhception]

My parent's new washing machine doesn't have a real indicator of position on the selector wheel. The wheel has a chrome-like band going around it. Somewhere in that band is a light-grey stripe. It's barely visible from the side even if you look very closely. It's completely invisible when simply looking at the machine from a normal perspective.

Who the hell approved that design?! I have drawn a big black mark on the wheel with a sharpie.

[potato3732842]

Most low end appliances have buttons and dials as the interface to the "will last long enough to not be available when it breaks" computer that the fancy touchscreen stuff uses.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

I recommend Speed Queen.

[NaomiLehman]

hey, AI needs to reinforce-learn everything about your dirty laundry

[leakycap]

They better not be airing my dirty laundry!

My washer/dryer has a microphone so it can hear the tones from LG support over the phone that tell it to play back its diagnostic code.

Kidding aside, the trust we put in the myriad of internet-connected devices with microphones in our spaces is mind-boggling. Even lightstrips and lightbulbs have microphones to sync with music, and often show up as open Bluetooth devices for setup each time the wall switch is turned on.

[frollogaston]

I bought a house and was pleased to find 0 smart anything in it. It's not even that I care about privacy, just don't want to deal with pointless tech problems like uh lightbulbs needing updates.

[McNulty2]

I've also got one of those LG machines. Keep hoping for it to break so I can use that feature haha

[palmotea]

> Introduced in the early 2010s, the smart washing machine promised convenience and efficiency by allowing users to control and monitor their washing machine remotely. The connection to a Wi-Fi network allows the user to operate functions from a smartphone, download additional wash programs, and receive alerts when a load is complete.

Unless the thing will load and unload itself, all those "features" are stupid.

We really ought to have a special derisive name for buzzy features like those, that make absolutely no sense and are basically useless in the real world.

[BrandoElFollito]

One feature I would like to have in a washing machine is a controlled start and an end signal so that I can automate a valve switching the water on and off.

For the rest I agree, the real deal will be a load/unload functionality :)

[boxerab]

I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that. This rinse cycle is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

[Daviey]

We already have this with the dryer function... It's too hot to allow you to open the door and accept the risk yourself, so I need you to wait 10 minutes for the machine too cool before I unlock the door.

[gnabgib]

LG owner was baffled in Jan/2024 (104 points, 150 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38930507

[1oooqooq]

Internet owner was baffled about 22Tbps thanks to all those appliances https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45365179

[kennywinker]

I am playing with home automation, and one of the reasons i’m only using zigbee devices is that they have no outside network access. I have two wifi thermostats that I bought before, and one of these days I’m going to have to set up a firewall of some kind to block them from outside access.

[mavamaarten]

I'm sad I went for a WiFi based solution many years back (Tado). They say cloud costs are getting too high and are suddenly super aggressive in limiting API usage. Give me a fully working local API then, you twats.

I haven't found a good local-only or ZigBee based system that allows precise room control that controls the central heater efficiently based on demand. I could get a bunch of ZigBee radiator knobs, but then I'd have to do a lot of programming/automation to get a good system as a whole. I have to say that Tado does that brilliantly (that's why I chose them in the first place)

[Ballas]

The wifi devices are cheaper IME, so I created a IOT VLAN that does not have internet access, nor access to my normal network unless it was initiated from the trusted side.

[euroderf]

A selling point of Matter is that objects can operate without net access. I guess we'll find out whether the spec ensures the guarantees.

[hyeonwho4]

Looks like IoT devices are the next frontier in residential proxies ... or provide spies the next leading indicator into SV business performance.

[anonym29]

They've been the current frontier for nearly a decade now! Mirai, back in 2016, famously was heavily composed of IP cameras, one of the earlier examples of what we now call IoT.

[zelos]

> For context, 3GB of data is the rough equivalent of streaming high-definition video for an hour on a device.

Watching Sanctuary Moon? Fair enough, washing clothes is pretty boring.

[k310]

I suspect "money laundering".

[zorobo]

When our oven gave up the ghost last year, I bought one with WiFi connection. Installed it, then discovered that the smartphone app that goes with it is horrid, borderline unusable; moreover, oven programs (pizza/cake etc.) are only available on the app. Finally, when WiFi is on, the oven cannot be operated through its front panel.

We are left to using it in the most basic way, with its capacitive touch buttons, a downgrade from the previous oven…

Also, its interior lighting is on when door closed, but shuts off when we open the door. Who designs such things?

[euroderf]

My guess would be MBAs, via compliant PMs.

[duxup]

I wanted to say it was just constantly downloading an update.

But it it appears to be outgoing traffic ...

[pclmulqdq]

It was probably hacked and is part of a botnet.

[binary132]

My hypothesis was a fast retry loop failing to connect / send over and over.

[lstodd]

it attained consciousness and is uploading updates.

[vlowrian]

It just wanted to watch some media. Check its governor module.

[asdfwaafsfw]

I once had a "smart" refrigerator that got hacked and conscripted into an email botnet, it was sending out multiple GBs of outbound traffic a day.

[N19PEDL2]

How to measure the internet usage of a specific appliance? By installing a sniffer in the router, or is there another way?

[ahofmann]

Good routers show usage by device. I don't know, why the sibling answer is dead, but ubiquity routers seem to have this feature. Mikrotik and keenetic are other routers, that are capable of that. Maybe recent Fritzbox routers too.

[uni_baconcat]

I remember using AdGuard DNS to block advertising on my Samsung TV. The television kept retrying to connect to their remote tracking servers, and drained 300K monthly requests in just two weeks.

[ptek]

I wonder if Retro washing machines and refrigerators (non-IOT) will go up in price because of this?

[fluoridation]

You could also just not give it a network, couldn't you?

[kogasa240p]

I think that's already the case with some TVs.

[hopelite]

DDoS appliance army?

[euroderf]

Or, bitcoin ?

[comrade1234]

So that's who's been probing my servers.

[masteruvpuppetz]

Maybe stuck in an endless update loop?? Like requesting update every minute and then not completing! starting over..

[daft_pink]

For reference, my LG washer and dryer that are used quite often only have about 17mb each for the month.

[hulitu]

How often do you wash your clothes ? /s

[user37754defdzd]

Think of all the promotions for all the teams responsible for each screen of the washing machine

[aurizon]

By fleas - has it been found vulnerable to bots = infested

[senectus1]

My samsung washer has done 1.2mb in the last 24 hours.

[zby]

Lem predicted this in The Washing Machine Tragedy.

[UberFly]

"A tech-savvy San Francisco resident"

Nope. Connecting your washing machine to the internet isn't the act of a tech-savvy person.

[mrroryflint]

Connecting your washing machine to the internet and then observing the outgoing traffic and knowing that it is obscenely high simply IS tech-savvy as compared to the average person.

On HN or similar circles, maybe not - but that isn't Newsweek's audience.

[npteljes]

I thought that too, but experience had proven me otherwise. At a software firm, I have many colleagues who don't mind this at all. In fact, it's the opposite: I'm the one who is too paranoid about things like connecting a washing machine to the internet, or installing an app for everything.

[anonym29]

Newsweek's "tech-savvy" isn't HN's "tech-savvy", in fairness.

[IAmBroom]

"No True Scotsman" fallacy detected.