Samsung bricks smart fridges.

[sigma]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/owners-mourn-spoiled-food-after-firmware-update-bricks-samsung-smart-fridges/

Quote

 

Some Samsung smart fridges stopped working on Tuesday due to a firmware update.

Korean outlets were the first to report the problems, which affect Samsung’s Bespoke AI line of fridges. Star News Korea, per a Google-provided translation, said that most of the affected devices were four-door fridges from 2024 or later.

Affected fridges “suddenly lost power and stopped functioning immediately after” trying to issue a firmware update through SmartThings, Samsung’s smart home platform, per Star News Korea. The SmartThings app then showed the devices as offline. Some users said that their fridge’s internal display was stuck showing the message “Checking SmartThings app during update.”

 

 

[mikes]

If this goes the way modern enterprise software works, affected customers will have to "purchase an upgrade to the latest version, or purchase a subscription to FridgeCare Monthly to keep your Fridge up to date".  More than once have I had perpetually licensed software break and the only solution is to buy a 1 year license for the latest version !

[jthompson]

If you're having to make sure that everything inside the fridge isn't out of date, then how much extra effort is it to just ensure that the fridge itself isn't out of date either?!

 

/s

[JRA]

I'm sorry I must be new to this modern world or something I swear someone just posted that the damn FRIDGE bricks now because of firmware updates.

 

My fridge is like this little cupboard thing that keeps stuff cold. Like salami and energy drinks and that. And broccoli. I plug it in and it gets cold in there.

 

...firmware??

 

/dramatic old-man outrage

[DavR]

Cloud, specifically, the Internet of Things, in this instance.

 

[NegativeKillDeath]

3 hours ago, mikes said:

If this goes the way modern enterprise software works, affected customers will have to "purchase an upgrade to the latest version, or purchase a subscription to FridgeCare Monthly to keep your Fridge up to date".  More than once have I had perpetually licensed software break and the only solution is to buy a 1 year license for the latest version !

Whelp this is where my mind went when I read FridgeCare Monthly

[ICTDirect_Joe]

What's wrong? Why do you look so sad?

My fridge can't upgrade to CoolOS 26 and now I don't have the latest security patches and my milk is out of date and doesn't work anymore 



It's a joke but also, I don't want to have a fridge that needs security patches - never mind them being out of date. I also don't know how much I trust fridge manufacturers to stay up to date with security patches.
Safe to say my white goods are staying offline for the foreseeable...

[DavR]

2 minutes ago, ICTDirect_Joe said:

What's wrong? Why do you look so sad?

My fridge can't upgrade to CoolOS 26 and now I don't have the latest security patches and my milk is out of date and doesn't work anymore 



It's a joke but also, I don't want to have a fridge that needs security patches - never mind them being out of date. I also don't know how much I trust fridge manufacturers to stay up to date with security patches.
Safe to say my white goods are staying offline for the foreseeable...

 

Are you sure?

 

What if we added an AI assistant that monitored your dietary intake and nags you when you've gone over. Maybe it could lock the fridge for you if you exceed 2500 calories in a day  

[Fazza]

19 hours ago, jthompson said:

If you're having to make sure that everything inside the fridge isn't out of date, then how much extra effort is it to just ensure that the fridge itself isn't out of date either?!

 

/s

 

The food was not out of date.

 

The fridge was not out of date - quite the opposite, it was 100% up to date and it was the latest update that turned the power to the fridge-freezers OFF which is why all their food went manky!!

 

And the DfE want everyone to do firmware updates ever 14 days!! How long until rogue firmware causes networks up and down the country to render schools offline?!

[mikes]

yeah if software was well written, perhaps a smart fridge wouldn't be so bad. But then this is more points of failure. I want a fridge that will last 10, 20 years. OK it might break due to a compressor, or just getting so old it's kind of manky. But having a fridge fail (and all your food spoil) due to a firmware update, nah that ain't it.

 

And again with my point above, sometimes it is hard not to think that some of these software companies intentionally sabotage their older products as a way to force users to have to pay for the latest version.  Or if not intentionally, they are happy to "look the other way" if the servers that these old products rely on, aren't maintained.

So having a fridge that a big company can remotely mess with at any time they want, again that isn't for me. Especially now big companies have realised that Governments really don't care what shady things corps do nowadays and are perfectly willing to let them do it.

 

Is this really worth having just to get a  fridge that what, notifies you when your food is coming out of date? Do these fridges even do that? (unless you laboriously scan in every single item) Give me a 15 year warranty and I'll consider it

[ICTDirect_Joe]

4 minutes ago, mikes said:

Is this really worth having just to get a  fridge that what, notifies you when your food is coming out of date? Do these fridges even do that? (unless you laboriously scan in every single item) Give me a 15 year warranty and I'll consider it

The ones with Cameras and AI do, which now means you have a live camera feed going somewhere because that AI sure as hell isn't locally hosted on the fridge, and you're relying on that LLM still being around in years to come.

If fridges ever turn to having to be connected to the internet to activate them...

[Davit2005]

Interesting video I watched some years back on making a basic fridge smarter 🙂

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5K6P5IeGYI

[jthompson]

4 hours ago, Fazza said:

 

The food was not out of date.

 

The fridge was not out of date - quite the opposite, it was 100% up to date and it was the latest update that turned the power to the fridge-freezers OFF which is why all their food went manky!!

 

And the DfE want everyone to do firmware updates ever 14 days!! How long until rogue firmware causes networks up and down the country to render schools offline?!

Oh, I know, it's just that I'm imagining what a smart fridge apologist might offer by way of an out of touch dismissal of any criticism of the existence of smart fridges (and similar tat).

 

Maybe the "S" in IoT doesn't stand for "security" after all, but "stability".

[Garacesh]

19 hours ago, DavR said:

 

Are you sure?

 

What if we added an AI assistant that monitored your dietary intake and nags you when you've gone over. Maybe it could lock the fridge for you if you exceed 2500 calories in a day  

I'm very anti-smart device as a general rule, but if my fridge played the 'fatty fatty no parents' Wheatley voice line from Portal 2 every time I'd been a bit of a glutton, I'd probably be losing more weight than I am 😅

[sigma]

Probably wouldn’t be smart enough to handle “proper cheese” either.

[JRA]

57 minutes ago, Garacesh said:

I'm very anti-smart device as a general rule, but if my fridge played the 'fatty fatty no parents' Wheatley voice line from Portal 2 every time I'd been a bit of a glutton, I'd probably be losing more weight than I am 😅

 

I can vibe-code that and even a random assortment of other rude words into an Arduino to do that for you and keep it all offline in about ten minutes. It would not do wonders for the self esteem I don't think, after a few months of living with my offensive-fridge-bullying device, but at least Jeff Bezos won't be selling off your data because of it. And ultimately if you didn't like the feature you could uninstall it, take it to the garden, smash it with a brick and shout "who's the fatty NOW, misery-box??" while you did it.

[Davit2005]

On 25/09/2026 at 08:16, Fazza said:

And the DfE want everyone to do firmware updates ever 14 days!! How long until rogue firmware causes networks up and down the country to render schools offline?!

Normally we would not go to the latest version however a number of CVEs have been coming out with Aruba CX so been sort of forced, firewalls never have the latest unless unavoidable.

[jthompson]

On 25/09/2026 at 13:43, JRA said:

 

I can vibe-code that and even a random assortment of other rude words into an Arduino to do that for you and keep it all offline in about ten minutes. It would not do wonders for the self esteem I don't think, after a few months of living with my offensive-fridge-bullying device, but at least Jeff Bezos won't be selling off your data because of it. And ultimately if you didn't like the feature you could uninstall it, take it to the garden, smash it with a brick and shout "who's the fatty NOW, misery-box??" while you did it.

I wonder how long an "Ohh! Suits your, sir!" 'smart' dressing mirror would remain funny for.