It knows what you are eating, it knows when you’re awake.
Those are the apparent benefits of new Samsung smart fridges, which look more like gigantic phone screens than they do refrigerators.
‘Being able to glance at what’s inside right from the screen or my phone …’
With a 32-inch display and the ability to tell homeowners what is inside their fridge, the Samsung fridges offer endless technological capabilities seldom seen in something that is simply supposed to keep food cold.
However, with a six-foot-tall smart device comes the need for internet connectivity and, of course, mandatory updates.
When users of the product went to open their smart fridges last week just before a holiday, they noticed they had suddenly lost power and stopped functioning.
South Korean outlet Star News reported that dozens of fridge owners saw blank screens after the update, or text that read “Checking SmartThings app during update,” or “offline.”
Standard fridge owners are used to seeing nothing on their appliance doors; for smart fridge owners, however, the lack of an operating system display and absent LED lights meant their fridges weren’t powered and weren’t keeping their food cold.
To make matters worse, the report stated that in some cases all cold air had escaped the fridges completely.
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The affected products predominantly included Samsung Bespoke AI 4-Door refrigerators released in 2024 or later.
These fridges are described as using artificial intelligence to monitor its contents, and the AI can track expiry dates or suggest recipes for the user. This is, of course, made capable through the use of internal cameras that work with Google Gemini and an “AI Food Manager.”
One review suggested the “item tracking save[s] serious time and cut[s] down on forgotten, expired groceries.”
“Being able to glance at what’s inside right from the screen or my phone makes meal planning seamless,” the review added.
The gigantic display screen also makes it possible to watch videos or listen to music from the refrigerator, with another user stating that they like to use the fridge screen to monitor their security cameras.
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When some users reached out to Samsung to get emergency repairs, some were allegedly told that “employees have left for the day, making immediate action impossible.”
Further consumer reports said there was no mention of activating an emergency response team, even though inquiries had allegedly led customers to being told that an engineer visit was required for repair.
However, Samsung has since responded to the incident saying they had “activated an emergency response protocol, and its service centers are taking immediate action to address this issue.”
“The issue has been limited to Korea, with no impact identified to overseas markets,” Samsung told Ars Technica.
The statement concluded, “It occurred September 22nd afternoon due to an error during Samsung’s internal testing related to a refrigerator software update. Samsung immediately suspended the testing upon receiving reports of the issue.”
The incident happened just before South Korea’s Chuseok holiday break, which was celebrated September 24-26 this year.
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