this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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The trouble is, you don't know how bad the shit is until after you get it home, unless you do a large amount of research beforehand.
Frankly, at this point I think the better tactic is to buy the smart appliances and then return them as "not fit for purpose," even though that takes even more effort, because it punishes the manufacturer in a way that merely not buying the thing in the first place does not.
i dunno if imma spend hundreds of dollars on something I'm gonna do research
Read the device manuals online. It usually tells you what you need to know
They are doing their absolute best to make that impossible too.
With Bosch, who is normally a very good appliance manufacturer, you have to register your product with them to even be able to download the stripped down user manual.
is checking the thing's fucking spec sheet intensive research? do you get AI summaries of your own shopping list?
Show me where the spec sheet for a typical smart appliance tells me if it has a good integration with Home Assistant, whether I can flash it with ESPHome, etc.
Usually spec sheets only talk about a bunch of proprietary bullshit I don't give a fuck about (or actively don't want).
People who use and develop integrations for Home Assistant.
Are those on the manufacturer's spec sheet? 'Cause that's what the comment I was replying to was talking about.
No, they often aren't. Any that are, are not going to be permanent, either (see what Chamberlain did with their garage openers).
My personal take: unless it can function as a "smart" device without a constant connection to the internet, a company-provided HA integration is kinda useless.
You can find out about home assistant support on the home assistant webpages.
In other words, you're proving my point that you have to do research to find that stuff out.
It doesn't take much effort to take an appliance model number and Google it to see the features list. People are just stupid and don't bother to spend even 5 minutes researching their large purchases.
The information on whether it runs its own DNS isn't on the "features list." Or information about what microcontroller it's running and whether it's possible to flash with third-party firmware. Hell, even information on compatibility with Home Assistant itself usually isn't on it! Features lists never include the sorts of information people like us care about in a smart appliance.
@echo @grue Features list rarely include much of the important information. Trying to find the information I sought on recent appliance purchases was difficult at best. PDFs of manuals didnt have the information. Information that used to be readily available, is no longer.