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A comment on LG signals plan to put Wi-Fi in every appliance it releases in 2017. Parent comment

Re:LG signals plan to put Wi-Fi in every appliance it releas... by dogma1138 on Saturday January 07, 2017 @09:15AM (#13344223)
TBH since the IOT part is removable you might just buy a new panel every 10 or so years. After 20 years it's unlikely that you'll be able to connect it to anything anyhow, most Wifi 802.11a cards do not work anymore with modern routers. You can't connect a 20 year old cellphone to modern networks, and even 15 year old DSL modems can very well not work anymore in many countries, same goes for cable modems if you have a DOCSIS 1.1 modem you likely not going to be able to hook it up to a modern cable network since most of them run DOCSIS 2.0 or higher.

So security updates should be mandated for the 7-10 years or so warranty period for large appliances, ideally you'll want more than that sure, but I don't think that connectivity would be common at that point.

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Re:LG signals plan to put Wi-Fi in every appliance it releas... by vic-traill on Saturday January 07, 2017 @09:40AM (#13344315)
Your comment got me interested in what warranties are about for modern appliances (I'm cheap, I buy my appliances used).

This link [0] asserts that LG warranties are diminished beyond one year, although some models continue parts-only coverage up to seven years, with a ten year parts warranty on the compressor of a particular style (so-called French Door models). The warranties are non-transferable from original owner.

This [1] bottom-freezer French Door model's manual states the warrant is as described above (warranty summary table on page 55 of English manual).

So we'd want to be careful about updates being supported for the warranty period - perhaps the longest term stated in the warranty, and updates required regardless of owner?

[0] https://www.reference.com/home-garden/lg-s-warranty-policy-i...

[1] http://www.lg.com/us/support-product/lg-LFX31925ST

[edit: got rid of referral link on second ref]

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:LG signals plan to put Wi-Fi in every appliance it releas... by dogma1138 on Saturday January 07, 2017 @11:09AM (#13344777)
It really depends on the country, in the UK the Sales of Goods Act guarantees you the rights to file a complaint period of 6 years. Most white goods are sold with a longer service period guarantee by the manufacturer, and those who aren't the retailer often provides more at a small fee or even "free".

Samsung, LG and the rest provide upto 5 years full warranty on both parts and labor for white goods in the UK, technically it's often paid but pretty much every place you go has a promotion which gives you the extra 2-3 years for "free".

http://www.samsung.com/uk/fiveyearwarranty/

That said it's important to note that the warranty period and the service period are 2 different things, the warranty period is how long the manufacturer will provide free cover to either parts labor or both, and the service period is how long would the manufacturer make parts and labor available and offer service and repair to the item.

As a rule of thumb the service period is usually 2-3 times the length of the warranty period.

P.S.

The SOGA/CPA acts in the UK are pretty good as far as security and other software related bugs go because one of the things that need to be proven is that the problem was there at the time of purchase (or was introduced by the manufacturer) and this is very easy to do with security bugs since they are in the software, software can introduce bugs on its own (yet) this isn't a pipe that fails.

I got a 5 year old router replaced based on this act recently, if the seller gives you trouble then the ombudsman services solve it pretty darn quickly (http://www.consumer-ombudsman.org/) since they will answer complaints immidiatly.

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