Jeff Geerling bought a Bosch dishwasher to replace his old GE dishwasher, which was starting to rust and had a display that stopped working. The Bosch came highly recommended both on Consumer Reports and on Reddit.
He was pleased by how easy it was to install (with one minor hiccup (which he solved by buying a hex wrench). After installing it, he wanted to test to make sure the water was working so he tried to activate the rinse cycle. He then learned that the only way to activate the rinse cycle was to download an app onto his smartphone, connect the dishwasher to Wi-Fi, and sign up for Bosch's cloud service. In other words, he had to use the internet just to run the rinse cycle.
The problem with this, he says, is at some point in the future Bosch could decide to start charging $5 a month for people to use the cloud service or stop using the cloud service altogether which would partially brick the machine. He was considering returning the dishwasher, but after the hassle of installation, he's going to keep it, but he refuses to connect it to the internet — and I don't blame him.
Previously:
• Vulnerabilities in smart electric plugs give attackers a staging point for scanning and attacking your whole network
• The previous owners of used 'smart' cars can still control them via the cars' apps (not just cars!)
