>They didn't say whose value it strengthened.

LG's, Westinghouse, GE, and so forth!

Actually, if they had the testicular fortitude, your Samsung would display an add reading, "if you had bought LG, you wouldn't be seeing this!" :)

hawk

>Has about the same importance as smart tech in a fridge for me.

I live in the desert, you insensitive clod! :_)

but seriously we doohave many days of 115-117F most summers. Self-replenishing ice is *important*.

it's not why we bought it, but our LG actually has two ice makers; one in the refrigerator door, which you can actually clean out, and another for larger square tubes in the upper freezer drawer (which we turn off for the cooler half of the year)

>A fridge will last for a decade or more,

you would *think* that, but my prior fridge was a Samsung.

The ice maker died of its own buildup just out of warranty, the drip tray for the water dispenser caused rust lines through the paint below it, and the whole thing failed at 4 or 5 years--we came out one morning and it was at 50.

Compare to the Samsung dryers whose stainless steel barrels tend to crack and go out of round, wanting a $400 replacement!

The refurbisher who came out with our temporary dryer told us that from his experience (primarily washers & dryers), Samsung had the highest failure rate, while the other Korean brand, lg,had the lowest, with everything else in between.

>Agree, and don't even allow my TStat's to connect to wifi.

Have you *read* the license on those?

I brought home a wifi thermostat, thinking it would be nice to be able to change it half an hour out when coming home, and then read the terms.

It was like a parody of the terms you find offered sarcastically around here.

Pretty much, "you agree that we can send armed goons into your house, torture your dog, rape your cat, and sell your children into slavery. We may do anything we want with your data, and even more so if someone is willing to pay us for it."

It went back.

They tried that, briefly.

Then they gave up . . .

"It uses less electricity than a modern frig"

So that seemed incredible; but after doing some research it is plausible (with caveats). I have a few questions:

1) What 'modern' fridge are you using for comparison? There is a substantial difference between 1982, 2002 and 2022.
2) What are the volumes of the two fridges being compared?

The average 1940s fridge looks to be only 6-8 cu ft; while the average 2000s fridge is 20+ cu ft. Even if it slightly beats the modern fridge on total electricity, it's probably only cooling 1/3 to 1/4 the volume

For example in the 1940s you might be around 400kWh; but if its 7cu ft, its only getting 57kWh/cu ft/year; and comparing it to a 550kWh fridge from 2002 cooling 21 cu ft for 26kWh/cu ft/year. (And that's a 20 year old not particularly efficient "modern" fridge... you could get that down to 300kWh annually on a new fridge if you buy specifically for efficiency)

Sure the 1940s fridge might beat that not particularly modern or efficient "modern fridge" on total use but it's still not really a win unless you only need 7 cu ft. And if all you need is 7 cu fit, in 2025 you can get 8 cu ft for 167kWh year. (60% less electricity)

cites: some data on 2025 fridges
https://shrinkthatfootprint.co...

data on refrigeration energy usage and capacity over time:
https://www.researchgate.net/f...
https://appliance-standards.or...

Fair comment, but the point stands that it's in there and sooner or later it will.

That's such an arbitrary calculation. The big turning point was in the 70s energy crisis when energy star became a thing. And there is a huge efficiency jump from 1970 to 1980; sure 2020s appliances are significantly more efficient than 1980s appliances but is a logarithmic improvement curve and there's no justification to buy one every 10 years.

I bet it uses 4-5x the electricity of a modern one and is slowly leaking Freon too. Nice flex!

You probably could pay for a new basic fridge in a couple years with what you are wasting in electricity to run that old one.

Get a new one without an ice maker and just use ice trays and it'll be rock solid too. (The vast majority of the reliability issues across ALL brands are in the ice makers.)

If you were dumb enough to buy one of these "smart" refrigerators, you get what you deserve. There is absolutely no reason to have a "smart" refrigerator. It's a refrigerator. It should only do two things: keep the stuff in the fridge cool and the stuff in the freezer frozen.

Anything else is a waste of money.

But they have no problem paying $50 to have a Big Mac delivered to them.

Perhaps a rethinking is in order.

You missed the best part and directly related to this story. Texas got rid of the mandate that construction companies provide breaks for their workers in high heat.

This doesn't mean the company can't give their workers breaks, just that it is no longer mandated. How many do you think no longer give these breaks?

This is one of the oldest rationalizations for shitty behavior: "if I won't do it, somebody else will anyway".

Yup, and it's used to this day to justify genocide.

This is no different than requiring the manufacturer to include a warning about the stove tipping over if there is no anti-tipping bracket installed. Consumers are being warned of the issue.

If they're going to whine about this, might as well whine about every other warning they are required to provide with their product.

The Federal Reserve is only getting a response rate of approximately 42% when it sends out its surveyes. Since they only send out a little over one thousand surveys, trying to guesstimate policy for an entire country based on that response rate is effectively impossible.

First, their sample size is too small to begin with. They should sample at least three times the number they currently do. Second, who they sample also needs expanded. Getting a response from Corning is significantly different than getting a response from Billy Bob's Downhome Fried Chicken in Bumfook, Louisiana.

This lack of response, as this article relates, carries over into people getting surveys. Being asked 5-10 questions is far different than being given a booklet of 100 questions to answer. You need to make it easy for people to respond. Blind calling no longer works, as many on here have pointed out. Send people a letter with uniquely identifiable information they can use to complete a survey online. Since they won't be handing out their personal information it will make it easier for people to respond. Just use the code given and keep it down to a few questions.

The USB-A should be relocated between the Centronics and RS-232 ports. Save space by mounting it vertically!