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Comment by nephihaha | Hacker News Reader

What is the point in the WiFi? All I am interested in is something that washes my clothes. Not something with endless updates and glitches that ger fixed in post.

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My current (Bosch) washer does not have WiFi but I can see one use for it: make the machine start the cycle when electricity is cheapest. That usually is somewhere in the middle of the night, at other times in the middle of the day but generally not when I'm there to press some button. Since electricity prices directly correlate with power demand it makes sense to run these appliances when there is a power surplus and not when everyone just comes home and starts turning on their devices.

Of course I would never, ever give devices like this access to the 'net, not even for a few seconds. What 'smart' devices I have around usually run firmware which I installed on them, replacing whatever leaky spyware they came with from the factory. The only exception to this rule is the Fronius inverter which runs its original firmware but just like all other 'smart' things it lives in its own enclave and never got a single bit from or to the 'net. All communications goes through proxies which are under my control, there are no automatic firmware upgrades, no information leaks, no nothing - we live on a farm in the Swedish countryside so there is chance for any 'smart' device to surreptitiously hop onto an open WiFi-network either. Maybe I'll have a look at adding some ESP32-powered wifi functionality to the washer and dishwasher so I can integrate them into the (OpenHAB-powered) control system I use for controlling all things electronic here, something to do for a snowy day?

As we enter a world of robotics, some users may also find it useful to have their robots directly access their "appliances", including with "retro" appliances that do not adhere to some future interoperability standard. I remember way back when I had a Heathkit HERO-1, it had a built-in solderless breadboard on the robot’s head. I remember the total thrill of programming it that and the Radio Frequency (RF) Remote Control to turn off my bedroom light. Kind of a "hello" program moment for me.

It'll tell you when your clothes have finished washing so you can transfer them to the dryer and/or start a new load.

I can do that without WiFi. So what is the point other than data harvesting?

Depending on your house setup you might not be able to. My washer and dryer are in my basement, and I can't hear them at all (neither when they are running, nor the sound they make when they finish). Moreover, the timer listed on the machine when you start the cycle is not accurate (particularly for the dryer, which is frequently off by 30+ minutes). This means that I have no idea when my clothes are done except by going to the basement to check. That's not the end of the world, but it would be genuinely nice to be able to get them on my wireless network and have them send me a notification.

Perhaps that doesn't apply to you and how your home is set up. Fair enough. But that doesn't mean the use case doesn't exist.

I'd just time it and go down. I wouldn't want my devices to start messaging me. Already have enough problem with vague acquaintances doing so.

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