The situation isn’t hard to imagine: a dishwasher with several years on its back throws in the towel. Getting its spare parts (which moreover don’t guarantee it will work) represents a good chunk of the cost of a new unit, and several online recommendations point to a specific model… but after installation, the manual reveals that nearly half of its functions require an account, a WiFi connection “and” an app. That’s exactly what happened to Jeff Geerling, and the question is: where’s the limit?
Try to buy a large TV that isn’t a Smart TV. Good luck. While there are still isolated and compact models (read: “below 40 inches”), the most effective way to “de-smartify” a TV is to not connect it to the Internet. However, something tells me we’re not far from mandatory connectivity. I don’t know exactly how it would work, maybe keeping the channel list in the cloud or blocking inputs and outputs… but I know it’s on the way. I can feel it.
Unfortunately, that disturbing reality has already reached many appliances that technically don’t need anything from the cloud… and now they are “Smart”. That brings us to Jeff Geerling's second channel, who had to buy an emergency dishwasher (in a house with five kids, dirty dishes multiply at a frightening speed) after his old GE Adora gave up. Buying spare parts didn’t guarantee its resurrection, so he decided to go with a new Bosch 500, after consulting Consumer Reports and other sources…
The “Smart” nightmare: WiFi and app for basic functions
The physical part of the installation went better than Jeff expected, but his plan was to run a rinse cycle without dishes to make sure everything worked. At that point he discovered the manual’s surprise: the Rinse and Machine Care cycles, along with the Half Load, Eco and Delay options, are only available through the Home Connect app.
For a moment, Jeff thought he could fulfill the app requirement and use it to access those functions directly via Bluetooth or local network… but no: Home Connect is a service, and the dishwasher must connect to the Internet, which in turn requires creating an account. Let’s visualize that: a smartphone, with the official Bosch app and a registered account, connects to the Internet to access a remote service, and start a rinse cycle on a dishwasher… that’s just centimeters away.
Once again: it’s not a security system, it’s not an IP webcam, it’s a dishwasher. Yes, Jeff can ignore those functions and use the rest without issues, explore the hacking route (there are already some projects exploring the protocol) or bite his tongue and do what Bosch asks. But the whole situation is absurd! We’re talking about inherent risk (you know, the “S” in IoT stands for “security”), the inevitable data collection (obviously), and the possibility of losing functions when Bosch retires its cloud… or starts charging subscriptions for them. “Dishwasher as a service”. The comments are open.
