Unlike any other merchandise, gadget, shiny bling’s and blangs out there in the stores, there is always a promoter attached to the products lying out onto the shelves for us consumers to spend our hard-earned money on. So before you hop onto the bandwagon and pop down to the store, only to get convinced by the merchandiser at the aisle to convince you to pick up the smart refrigerator their company has launched, it is wise that you read my thorough research on this topic and keep the points mentioned in this article at hand once you are deciding which options and features would be an absolute necessity and what other options can you make away with!
For the faint of heart, I would recommend you walk away from this article – like, right now! Since the features on the smart refrigerators, I am about to discuss mostly related to the high-end versions. You are better off sticking with a conventional refrigerator if budget is of an issue while reading this article. But hey! Nothing stops us from stepping up our game and finally going ahead and picking one of these bad boys up!
Table of Contents
What Is A Smart Fridge To Begin With!
Have you ever wanted a big screen in your kitchen while cooking? How about not missing on those important serial episodes being aired while you were away preparing supper. Well, say hello to Mr Smart Refrigerator. With the continuous evolvement in technology, smart refrigerators are equipped with a touchscreen interface giving you access to a plethora of features. These fridges can connect themselves with the Wi-Fi at your home, making it a breeze to stream YouTube or Netflix or any other supported streaming services, directly from the fridge’s tele! You would be amazed to know, that the smart refrigerators out in the market these days are also equipped with internal cameras, a magnitude of options to control the cooling temperatures on the device, and finally the privilege of having the complete control of your refrigerator on your smartphone via the smart “app”. What a wonderful world we live in, isn’t it!
That was not enough? How about I tell you that you can now even hook up your other smart devices in your homes such as your smart TV’s, that smart dishwasher and any other smart gadget that you have at home. More about this in the article below!
The List of Most Common Features in a Smart Refrigerator
Here I list down the most common features that you should hope for when investing in a smart refrigerator. After which I would take you through some additional features that are more technical oriented, thus giving you a fair amount of understanding what nitty-gritty options other than the major ones a smart fridge brings to the table.
Wi-Fi Connectivity
You can seamlessly connect your smart fridge to the Wi-Fi at home and control its temperature remotely via your smartphone app. You can also see the status on the filters that are installed in the fridge without the need to pry them open.
Keeping an inventory on expiry dates
With the option of having built-in cameras embedded into the fridge, you can now easily keep a tab of what is present on the shelves. This also allows you to know what exactly is it that is missing in the fridge while you are out grocery shopping.
These smart fridges are also capable of sending reminders on when an item lying on the shelf is close to expiry. This way you would never forget about picking up the milk-bottle or your favourite yoghurt on your way back from the office.
Create shopping lists
You have the liberty of adding items to a virtual shopping list that is saved into the fridge’s smart memory. This then gets synced with your smartphone app, allowing you to carry a list of goods that need to be bought.
An added feature that is being integrated is the voice command. You can use your voice to instruct the fridge to save this list and share it with any other household member. Yay!
Cameras
The option to view the inside of your fridge has been taken to a new level. Who has the time to look into their fridge before going out for grocery? All you need to do now is to fire up the app on your smartphone, and take a complete view of what is there in your fridge at home and just restock your trolley with what is needed.
Internet browsing
You can use the massive touchpanel on your fridge to do a plethora of tasks. Including browsing. For me, this feature is an excellent addition. Reason being, I do not need to carry my smartphones or tabs into the kitchen to view the recipes. You can now just within seconds fire up the browser in the fridge and search for your favourite article or heck even stream videos directly within the browser.
Whiteboard facility
You can use the whiteboard facility embedded into the screen to take notes or scribble reminders onto it. This is a great utility and thus eliminates the need of keeping a separate notepad in your kitchen for taking notes. You can even leave tiny notes onto the whiteboard for your family members. A cute smiley maybe?
Individual profiles for each family member
The ability to segregate tasks and split the grocery list is now a walk in the park. All you need to do is to create a dedicated profile in the fridge, and once the items that are supposed to be re-stocked, the fridge send an alert to the respective household member via Wi-Fi directly onto their smartphones.
Casting TV and mobile-screen sharing
If you do not want to leave your TV lounge because your favourite soap opera is on, then fret not. With the smart fridge to the rescue, you can always cast your current smart TV screen to your smart refrigerator and watch the rest of the show on the display of your fridge.
Ice-maker
You can use the built-in ice maker always to ensure that you have enough ice ready for your next drink. The worry of running out of ice is now a thing of the past with these smart fridges. The dispenser for these beautiful somewhat succulent ice cubes are installed right at the front of the smart fridge and some models even allow you to automate this process of ice cube creation
If you ask me, what feature I liked the most on the list of smart features that a smart fridge offers, is the one with the built-in cameras. Believe you me, I can list down almost around 100 times when I had forgotten to pick up something that I had overlooked while listing down the things that need to be restocked in the fridge.
Open Sesame – Design in Smart Fridges That Is Bound To Impress You
I am sure that you are well acquainted with the term “Open Sesame”. A story that reminds me of my childhood. Yeap, the same old Alibaba & the Forty Thieves.
A similar concept is applied to these modern-day smart fridges. Many at times we have our hands full of stuff and stand right in front of the fridge door, waiting for someone to pop into the kitchen for us to request them to open the door for us. Well, not anymore! You can now easily with the tap on the handle on the fridge, can make it open. Heck, the technologists have taken this concept a step further. You can pass on voice command to your refrigerator to open the door. Not impressed yet? What if I tell you that latest designs have integrated motion sensors into the base of the fridge which senses the foot movements and knows if someone is standing next to it, for it to trigger the lock and open it wide? And as soon as the sensors sense nobody is standing next to the fridge, the door closes firmly.
What if you forgot to close the fridge door when you stepped out for a long stroll in the park? Gone are the days when this used to be a concern. These modern smart fridges can now very quickly self-close the doors and thus allowing you to save on the massive energy bills which otherwise were inevitable in traditional refrigerators when their doors were left open.
There is another benefit that is embedded right into the framework of the dispenser on these fridges. It is the option to have a controlled amount of hot and warm water available directly from the exterior of the refrigerator. You can now easily schedule the fridges to heat up a certain amount of water that you were otherwise used to heat it up in a regular kettle. Thus eliminating the need for additional gadgets in your kitchen. Your morning coffee water will always be prepared and ready for dispensing! Precious moments!
How much should you be aiming to pay for a brand new smart refrigerator?
If you are just beginning out on the whole transition from a dumb home to a smart home, then my best advice to you would be the stay away from procuring these as of yet if budget is of the concern. These appliances do not come in cheap, and a standard price range for these smart refrigerators is somewhat in the range of $2,200 to $8,000. I will not list any examples here as personally I do not want to be the preacher of a particular product, but I do own one and let me tell you; it made me stick to chick-o-fillet for almost a month since that’s the price you pay when you go against listening to what your wifey has to say about a particular purchase. I love my wife! *smile*
Conclusion
This specific gadget is a must-have for someone who wants to step in into the smart home automation world. Without a doubt in mind, smart refrigerators offer us a plethora of features and options that help us get rid of errors, and provide us with an uplifted living standard. Along the way, you can very quickly eliminate the need for a new kettle since your smart fridge can offer you hot water for your hot drinks. Which in my opinion is one of the best features there is! You can very easily find high-end smart fridges with these options and let me be honest here, the way technology is evolving; you are definitely going to see a stride of additional features being added into this smart home appliance.
If your concern is the price, then let me break this in as well. Since this technology is relatively new, hence the price tag. But if you are really into this particular gadget and still want to buy it, then you better should hold off to the purchase till the time you see a significant amount of manufacturers start launching this product and eventually the price on it would come down.
All I know is, if I had the cash to buy a smart refrigerator for each family member I personally know; I would do it!
