There are updates available for your… refrigerator?

You will not be able to use the fridge during the update…

It’s really my own fault.

The old refrigerator at my house was frequently so over-filled that it affected the airflow within the unit, resulting in areas that were frozen, and others that were too warm (read: not food safe). In case that sounds like an exaggeration, I had to put door latches on the freezer and fridge doors to keep them closed.

The solution? Go from a 20-ish cubic foot, ancient refrigerator to a Samsung Bespoke 4-door behemoth. It’s great, and I’m happy with the purchase.

Part of the setup is to link your fridge to SmartThings. It’s straightforward and easy to do. You get some temperature and door monitoring, as well as the ability to control some of the parameters and options in the unit. Probably the most useful feature are the push notifications when someone leaves a door open (easier to do than you think, when there are 4 doors).

After a month (or so), I get a notification that there is a software update for my fridge. Sure, it makes sense that an IoT device capable of being updated would periodically have updates. The release notes indicated that there were updates to the code controlling the compressor (a variable speed, inverter-driven unit, I think). There have been a couple more updates since, including today.

While loading the update today, I got my Refresher out of the fridge and noticed the interior light didn’t illuminate. The SoC running the show wasn’t reading and responding to the inputs (like the door switch) anymore. Presumably, none of the rest of the fridge was working either, including the compressor. It begs the question, how easy is it to brick this thing?

Sure, a fridge is a pretty simple device, but there are variants of my model that have a large tablet embedded in one of the door panels. What all is in that code repo? Does the door tablet operate independently from the rest of the fridge operation (I sure hope so)? Is there any way to restore the previous firmware, in the event of a code defect that renders the device unresponsive or inoperable?

The best-case scenario is that the device would have some kind of dumb, fail-safe mode that reads the thermostats, operates the compressor, and controls the interior light. Considering that adds cost and complexity, while only providing value in what should be a relatively rare scenario, there’s about a 0% chance that functionality is in there. The ability to hit some kind of “reset” switch that restores the firmware to what was shipped at the factory would be a worse, but still useful alternative.

I think this took about 10 minutes…

So, I’ll put this in the universe:

How good is the testing on these updates?

Considering the possibility of black swan-type events, are the impact mitigation measures commensurate with the potential cost?

How companies handle those two questions will have an outsized impact on brand perception and value, moving forward. To normal people, that applies to consumer electronics, appliances, automotive, and lots of other areas. The impact for business purchasing is huge as well.