Eighty-nine percent of the internet-connected products the Federal Trade Commission checked never told shoppers how long the manufacturer would keep the software running that makes the appliance’s advertised features work, according to the agency’s own review of 184 products, detailed in a Federal Trade Commission press release. That gap between what an appliance promises in the showroom and what it actually delivers once it’s plugged in has become the through-line of a wider consumer standoff that spans refrigerators, washers, ovens and even a baby bassinet. Buyers keep discovering, often well after the return window closes, that the “smart” half of a smart appliance can stop working, or start costing extra, the moment a manufacturer decides it should. Regulators, right-to-repair advocates and the manufacturers themselves have now all put the same shift on the record in their own words: appliances are increasingly sold as hardware with a subscription-shaped asterisk attached.
A federal review found the same blind spot everywhere
The FTC’s staff didn’t rely on complaints to reach that finding. Investigators pulled marketing materials and product listings for 184 connected devices and looked for one specific disclosure: how long the company promised to keep supporting the software those devices depend on. Almost none of them said. The agency warned that the omission itself can cross a legal line, noting that “a representation, omission or practice is deceptive and violates the FTC Act if it is material and likely to mislead a consumer,” and flagged a second exposure under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act for any product sold with a written warranty that stays silent on software support duration.
Consumer Reports ran its own version of that test on the appliance aisle specifically, checking 21 major brands directly rather than waiting on a federal survey. Only three publish any guaranteed software-support window at all. The longest commitment anyone found, from GE Appliances and Afero-powered Vissani devices, tops out at five years. Consumer Reports’ own research found most owners expect a major appliance to last closer to a decade or beyond, meaning a washer or fridge can still be structurally fine, and functionally dumber, well before the warranty on the box itself has expired. Sub-Zero, for its part, declined to share any specifics on its cybersecurity or software timelines when asked, saying only that those details aren’t something the brand discusses beyond what’s already public.
The manufacturers already put the strategy in their own press releases
None of this is a secret internal memo. LG’s own 2023 announcement for its ThinQ UP 2.0 platform described appliances that unlock new washing cycles, brightness settings and personalization features through subscription periods running “three to six years in length,” on top of add-on services like automated detergent reordering. LG president Lyu Jae-cheol didn’t soften the pitch: “LG ThinQ UP 2.0 marks the beginning of our journey towards a more service-based business model,” he said, describing it as the start of a “Home as a Service” era for the company.
Samsung took the same logic further this year, and aimed it at a different group of owners. The company’s SmartThings developer blog confirmed a new “Personal” pricing tier of $4.99 a month for API access, effective as free usage ends after the third quarter of 2026. Anyone using the standard Samsung mobile app won’t notice a thing. But owners who connect their Samsung washers, fridges or thermostats to an independent smart-home system, the exact kind of setup enthusiasts build so their gadgets keep working no matter what any single company decides later, will now pay monthly for the privilege of using hardware they already bought.
Consumer advocates say the paper trail already has real casualties
Seventeen advocacy groups put a name to the pattern more than a year before Samsung’s announcement. U.S. PIRG, Consumer Reports, iFixit and the Software Freedom Conservancy, among others, sent a joint letter urging the FTC to set clear rules for what they termed “software tethering.” Lucas Rockett Gutterman, who directs PIRG’s Designed to Last campaign, put it bluntly: “Manufacturers increasingly use software to lock us into only using our tech in ways that just-so-happen to generate the most profits for them.” Consumer Reports’ Justin Brookman added that “companies that sell connected devices must recognize their responsibility to the people buying them,” while iFixit’s Liz Chamberlain warned that gadgets become “expensive paperweights not because the hardware breaks but because companies ended software support.”
The coalition didn’t have to reach far for examples. Happiest Baby’s $1,695 Snoo bassinet moved several of its rocking and soothing features behind a $19.99-a-month subscription starting in mid-2024, cutting into what owners can even expect to get back if they try to resell the crib later. Spotify’s $89.99 Car Thing accessory lost all software support that same December, only 22 months after it first shipped, turning a recent purchase into a dashboard ornament almost overnight.
Even the “no ads” promise didn’t survive the business model
The newest wrinkle isn’t a missing feature at all, it’s an added one nobody asked for. Samsung began piloting banner ads, for products like Tide detergent and its own water filters, on the touchscreens of its Family Hub refrigerators, which start north of $1,800, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. Owners can turn the ads off, but doing so also disables the widget that shows news, weather and calendar updates on the same screen, and there’s still no way to block full-screen ads that can appear inside the fridge’s built-in browser. The irony is that Samsung told reporters as recently as last spring it had no plans to run ads on its smart-home screens, a promise LG, Whirlpool and GE have all made separately and, so far, kept.
None of this required a single owner to organize online to become visible. It’s sitting in a federal agency’s own press release, a nonprofit coalition’s letter to that same agency, and the appliance makers’ own marketing copy, all describing the identical arrangement from different sides of the counter: the box that comes home from the store is increasingly just a down payment on the features that make it worth buying in the first place.
Leave a Reply