This post was prompted by the purchase of a new window air conditioner, and an ensuing conversation with my sister-in-law.
Because our home has an open floor plan on the first floor, we are able to keep the first floor cool and comfortable with a single large window unit and a ceiling fan. The original was an 8,000 BTU Frigidaire unit given to me by my cousin that continues to operate in my basement. It was moved down there when we purchased a newer, larger, and more efficient 10,000 BTU LG brand machine in 2009. Well, as most appliances these days don't last as long as older units do, it has crapped out. I am going to open it up and see if it can be easily repaired, otherwise it will be recycled at the town transfer station. There is a controller problem that won't let us shut it off. The fan will shut off but the compressor stays stuck on. We paid $259 for it at Homo Cheapo.
So I went and got a brand new GE 12,000 BTU unit at Homo Cheapo for a whopping list price of $459! Luckily with my military discount, I saved some dough and got out the door for a grand total of $439.33 with tax. It installed easily and fits and weighs the same as the unit it replaced. It doesn't seem to work as hard to cool the first floor and certainly does a good job. So good in fact, that after an initial run I will put it in "ECO Mode" and let it cycle on and off completely. It has a remote for controlling it across the room. It also has Wi-Fi capability which I refuse to enable.
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| Features list on the box. Wi-Fi... HA! |
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| Voice enabled on smart devices? Aw HELL NO!! |
My sister-in-law thinks it would be a great idea to use an app on my phone to be able to turn it on before I get home from work. I say if I can control such things so could a hacker....
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| Wi-Fi capable. "Whites" and "Colors"? That's racist! |
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| That gray cap under the LED on my Genie garage door opener is where the Wi-Fi adapter goes |
She kinda made fun of me for being worried about a nefarious character messing with my air conditioner. How about fucking with my washing machine? Opening my garage doors? Now THAT would be a serious breach of security. While getting hacked is a big concern, here is a bigger one... data collection. I value my privacy and always have and hate the argument I sometimes get about having "nothing to hide." Those people have been totally conditioned to not give a shit about their personal privacy and willingly give up info about themselves to whomever is willing to receive it. I don't need my air conditioner operating habits logged and stored somewhere, or some entity deciding on my comfortable temperature setting and changing it. Nor my laundry cycles, type of clothing washed, and measured water use. How about logging garage door operation when I am coming and going from my home. What about those refrigerators that keep track of your food and make a grocery list for you. Uh oh... you're not eating healthy enough, wonder why those medical insurance premiums have shot up?
Yeah, FUCK 'EM... FUCK 'EM ALL!
If the day comes when appliances (or anything for that matter) comes automatically enabled and configured to use a cellular data network, I will find a way to make that stop working.
Meh... I've run into a couple of those gadgets at my house as well. Stuff like the A/C, washer, drier, and thermostats don't worry me too much. True, someone could hack into these things and control them, but what could they do; turn it on and off? My power company tried to talk me into letting it control my thermostat. NFW! It's MY house. It's MY choice as to how cool or warm I want to be! Try to force it on me and I simply shut off the WiFi on it. My standing argument is that if there's enough electricity for all the illegal immigrants in my state, there's enough for me to do what I want with! Same goes for your A/C... and all the other aforementioned appliances. The things that really bug me are the TV's and cell phones. There's no way of knowing if someone's hacked into your "smart" TV unless you go into your router and see it connected. Cell phones are even worse! If the battery can't be removed, it's vulnerable! It's actually STILL ON even if it's "off." Those things are listening to EVERYTHING around them!!
ReplyDeleteMy coworkers and I did an experiment one day at work. We initiated a discussion concerning funeral homes. We kept it going for a few minutes and then went back to our offices. EVERY ONE OF US had pop-up ads for FUNERAL HOMES!!! And my phone didn't... and DOESN'T have "Alexa" activated!!!! MY PHONE WAS LISTENING ANYWAY!!!
I see a day when "the powers that be" will have full control of everything in our houses, with our new appliances not being able to operate UNTIL they're "connected." It's coming... Soon... Until then, use WiFi remote connection on what I need it for, and shut it off otherwise...
I have that same washing machine, it sucks. I use the bulky setting most of the time. And if you don't run a good bleach load through it regularly it starts stinking. It stopped working 6 months after we got it, guy hooked up a laptop & updated the software & everything was fine, except it wasn't covered under the 10yr warranty, $150.
ReplyDeleteHmm, our 2019 vintage machine works just fine. When not in use we leave the top open and every once in a while my wife runs a cleaning cycle with an Oxi-Fresh tablet. No stink from mine. My only beef with it is when there is an unbalanced load. It once ran for four extra hours trying to balance the load. When I discovered it still running, I stopped the machine and manually balanced the load, then set it to "Drain & Spin" and it finally finished. Maybe I will look online for an update, and try connecting it to Wi-Fi temporarily to upgrade it.
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