Buying a Smart/Internet refrigerator really makes sense?

Some smart refrigerators costs more than $5000 which allows you to do stuffs starting from entertainment to social stuffs. But it really makes sense to invest $5000 or more in a smart refrigerators? I think it’s dumb but read the article until the end to get a final conclusion for this.

How does a smart refrigerator look like?

The first smart refrigerator I saw was the LG refrigerator. I thought there’s nothing different in that refrigerator but I was wrong. It looked like a normal fridge with a display or a tablet mounted on the door. It looks cool, you can use it for playing music, watching videos or pics from your smartphone, or use it as a whiteboard for writing stuff. This sounds normal but it’s not. It works pretty well and smooth, the mirroring TV screen on the refrigerator is the best part for someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen.

The moment I heard about smart refrigerators I started imaging about automatic monitors for groceries and food placed inside it, live list of content, automatic temperature control for each section, but that was just my imagination. I saw a tablet hanging on the door! That sounds dumb, right? Exactly it is!

Why I don’t prefer Smart refrigerators?

The main problem starts with a ‘Smart’ product is the update. What if that device will stop getting firmware or software updates after some time? It is not a smartphone which you’ll change it in few months or a couple of years. You’ll use the smart refrigerator for a decade at least. You can use it happily for a year or so, and later you’ll be ignored by the manufacturer for updates and you’ll use that old outdated software on that refrigerator.

That’s not my opinion, I’ve seen that in many ‘smart’ devices. For an example, Samsung smart fridge launched in 2012 was pretty popular at that time, but in 2014 everyone failed to connect it to Google Calendar. Google found another way to connect it, but they never bothered to give an update on that. After 1 year, they threw an update and the representatives of Samsung gave a cute advice “Have you tried rebooting your refrigerator?”.

The smart refrigerators run on Tizen, if the company drops the project Tizen then the smart refrigerators users will never get any future updates.

It makes me think twice that the LG or other brand smart refrigerators will last for 5-10 years? Probably you’ll use a normal refrigerator more than that you’ll use the latest LG smart refrigerators.

Also, lack of security patches and updates makes the device vulnerable. Yeah, no one knows what people hack! Basically, you should not take a risk on that stuff.

Mounting a tablet will fix most of the problems!

Yes, that’s the cheapest alternative for a smart refrigerator. You can mount an iPad or an Android tablet on the door and use everything properly on it. Attach a velcro or use a dedicated fridge mount on the door and make it smart. Buy a High-end refrigerator at less than the half price of that of the smart refrigerator.

Smart refrigerators are not developed that good yet. It’s just a tablet mounted on the door, you can do that manually and save a couple of thousand bucks easily. Paying few thousand $ more just for a mounted devices makes no sense, you can mount an iPad for that and make it more functional.

Wrapping it up

This was our basic guide to smart refrigerators. If you think I’ve mentioned something wrong in the article, then drop a comment below to let us know about it. Stay Tuned.