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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to not want an oven that is smarter than me?

105 replies

WhereDoesThisToiletGo · 02/03/2019 19:59

Just had a first draft of possible new fancy kitchen.
Can anyone explain to me why the fuck one needs a WIFI enabled oven and hob?
It's just one more feature that I will never ever get to grips with.
The manufacturer's YouTube video shows happy smiley people turning on their dishwasher while sitting on a beach!
Turn it on before you leave the house or wait until you get home!

Has anyone got a Smart appliance that is actually worth the inflated price?

OP posts:
WhereDoesThisToiletGo · 02/03/2019 21:37

I consider that I reached the pinnacle of cleverness when I worked out how to set oven to turn itself on and off using the timer.

OP posts:
TeenTimesTwo · 02/03/2019 21:47

I have found my people. Smile

We don't have a dishwasher (I have DH).
I have stickers on the washing machine to mark the settings I use (helpful for DDs to not screw things up too).
And a nice, straightforward, oven.

And people laugh at my phone Sad.

PerkingFaintly · 02/03/2019 21:53

Yep, Stealth, I too was a techie type till the disease wrecked my brain.

And you know what? I would have thought all this crap design was crap design even when I had enough brain cells to operate it.

StealthPolarBear · 02/03/2019 22:04

Disease?

PerkingFaintly · 02/03/2019 22:08

Oh sorry, just meant that literally (I have something neurological and nasty).

Wasn't a clever metaphor for the creeping virus of inappropriate connectivity and crap design. Tho' perhaps it should have been.Grin

BrieAndChilli · 02/03/2019 22:09

I read about a fridge that will text you if you leave the door open - surely if it’s that hi tech it can just close its own bloody door!!!

StealthPolarBear · 02/03/2019 22:10

I assumed the first one. That's horrendous, so sorry. But I agree, your distaste for smart gadgets is not a symptom!

StealthPolarBear · 02/03/2019 22:10

Very good point vrie! Tho gh I suppode if something is sticking out it needs human help

PerkingFaintly · 02/03/2019 22:12

It's given a keen edge to my rage at them though.Grin

I'm also now over-sensitive to noise. Imagine how much I enjoy the beeping...

WhereDoesThisToiletGo · 02/03/2019 22:50

I have also NOT bought the Bluetooth enabled shower I saw advertised.

OP posts:
PerkingFaintly · 02/03/2019 22:54

A shower that can be operated by a person... not in the shower?

How could that possibly go wrong?Hmm

Pieceofpurplesky · 03/03/2019 00:48

I have a new tumblr drier. I have no clue how to get it to dry things due to the three buttons and million combinations ...

Pieceofpurplesky · 03/03/2019 00:50

Obviously a tumble drier

GreenTulips · 03/03/2019 01:00

Who knew?

I haven’t been able to change the time on my oven for some moths now!

We manage perfectly fine

I also dislike being beeped at - it’s not a selling point and it took me ages to fine a non beep kettle

Seeingadistance · 03/03/2019 01:23

I got a new car last year. Picked up the car then gave my elderly parents a lift to hospital. Dropped them off near the entrance, parked at far end of hospital car park, walked over to hospital, and got a text message. From my fucking car, telling me it was in the hospital car park!!!

Topseyt · 03/03/2019 01:47

Oh crikey, I so agree with you here. These appliances are becoming too clever by half, and far too complicated. It is all just something else that can go wrong.

When I need to replace an appliance I buy the fairly basic models. Even so, my washing machine has at least a dozen programs, of which I use at most two. My tumble dryer has 11 (I think) different drying cycles, of which I use just one.

I must admit that I laughed out loud a couple of years ago when my then 18 year old DD came home from her first day at an ICT course saying that she had learned that you could now get fridge freezers which can stream music etc. ConfusedConfused

Why? Just why? As far as I am concerned my fridge freezer is there to keep my food fresh. It isn't a home entertainment system, surely!! Even my teenagers thought that was ridiculous.

Topseyt · 03/03/2019 01:55

and got a text message. From my fucking car, telling me it was in the hospital car park!!!

That made me laugh too. GrinGrin

It would drive me nuts. Can it remind you which row or level you parked on too? I am prone to forgetting which row I parked in. Perhaps my next car should be one that can text me the answer!

MitziK · 03/03/2019 02:09

My oven only has two settings. Off and hotter than the surface of the sun. We manage to feed ourselves perfectly adequate, even though it obviously thinks we're to stupid to cope with things like temperature and fan on/off, never mind the time, which packed up first.

The washing machine drawer has three label written on the edge with permanent marker - Power, Softener and No Idea.

My Tumble dryer is 8 years old. I only found out three days ago that it's got a function that flips clothes around to stop them from creasing after the drying cycle finishes. I won't be using it.

Just had a new boiler fitted three days ago. The thermostat interferes with the wifi, going by the number of times the internet has refused to work since it was installed. I've got until next October to work out how to switch the heating on and I'm really only interested in having hot water when I turn the tap on. Unfortunately, either it's chucking out carbon monoxide or the brand new fancy CO2 monitor is faulty, so we have neither heating or hot water until somebody comes out sometime in the next month to have a look at it again. I'd be fine if we had a real fire - you put things in, set light to them and you get heat.

**

I work in a very technical job. i repair electrical and mechanical items. i use computers and other equipment daily. But I just want something that performs simple functions - I have no intention of letting somebody sell a digital file of exactly what's kept in the fridge and how often I visit it when I'm due on, how many times dinner gets burned, how long I spend in the shower when I'm going out, so whether I'm shaving my legs or not and how many times I forget a cup of tea and let it get cold and need it reheated, never mind a record of who comes to the door, complete with images and timestamps for what time I leave and what time I come back/whether I'm in the house alone or whether it's been left empty.

Technology, despite it being what I'm using now and what makes me my living, is utter bollocks sometimes.

WhereDoesThisToiletGo · 03/03/2019 05:21

Can it remind you which row or level you parked on too?

Now THAT is a useful technology.
I have been known to mark position of my car on my phone GPS if parked in an unfamiliar area. Or take a photo of the aisle and level number in a car park.

A car that says “a bit further down that row, on the left hand side“ is more help than being able to turn on the dishwasher from the beach!

OP posts:
Bagpuss5 · 03/03/2019 05:34

I have Samsung washing machine and a ss drier. Electronic switches - when you turn the dial the clicks don't correspond to the setting so one click - stays on initial setting , 2 clicks - moves to next setting, next click new setting , next click no change. Same with the push button temp setting, sometimes you press not quite hard enough and it doesn't change. Upshot is for every time I wash I have to carefully study the settings . As they are built to last I will probably have lost a year of my life by the time I replace them. Built by men for f ing gadget freaks.
Mechanical knobs and buttons for me in the future( if there still are any).

WhereDoesThisToiletGo · 03/03/2019 06:26

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only Luddite!

OP posts:
tenredthings · 03/03/2019 06:33

I specifically chose a cheap cooker with no electric clock on it after my last expensive cooker's clock developed a fault so I couldn't use the oven. I had to dump a perfectly good cooker as the replacement electric component cost over 1000£ !

I also chose cur car as it has the least electronic extras possible, it even has wind up windows, after my last car developed faults in practically every electric extra. The warning lights incorrectly warned me constantly of faults the garage said didn't exist. Eventually the whole dashboard died. According to the garage electrics don't like being bumped around by movement!

StealthPolarBear · 03/03/2019 06:34

Yes we have a tumble drier with buttons that aren't really buttons. Very insensitive, I press them and nothing happens. I press them more carefully, still nothing. I have learned to hang around and make sure what I think it happening, happens. I wish we could go back to actual buttons (I have normal dials but that description sounds very annoying too)

borntobequiet · 03/03/2019 06:44

My Home Hub kept setting off my fancy smoke alarm.
So now I have mobile data (BT were rubbish anyway) and a cheapo battery operated smoke alarm.

sashh · 03/03/2019 06:48

I love tech, appropriate tech.

I loved my 'human computer interaction' modules at uni.

The tech / wi fi in my home

a) connects my TV to internet
b) vonnects my computers to the printer
c) connects my phone to a speaker in the bathroom so I can play music and have soft lighting in the bath

I can understand having a fridge that you can check the contents remotely if you do a call in on the way home shop and can't remember if you need milk, but ot to turn on ovens.