I develop an acute case of appliance envy every January. That’s when LG, Samsung, Whirlpool, and other manufacturers at the CES tradeshow demonstrate how their new wares can be integrated into the smart home, controlled via a single app, self-report minor problems that could lead up to expensive repairs if not addressed, and—in the case of appliances that work together, like a washer and dryer—even talk to each other.

When our clothes dryer recently failed for the second time in less than three years, my wife and I decided to replace it. I don’t know how many years of service the dryer delivered, but it was obviously what realtors label a “landlord special;” i.e., a cheap, no-frills model that barely covers the basics.

The dryer, and a washing machine of similarly dubious quality, were included in the sale of the home we bought in late 2021. They weren’t great appliances, but I wasn’t about to argue when the seller offered to leave them behind. It saved us time and money, and it saved them the trouble of getting them out of the basement. As sellers, we did the same when we moved from California to Oregon. It was win-win in both situations—at the time, at least.

Having decided to replace the crappy dryer, we decided to bite the bullet and replace the equally cheap washing machine as well—in part to avoid the tariff-induced price increases that are sure to come. But when I started shopping, I quickly discovered that rather than buying the best washing machine and the best dryer, regardless of brand, I’d need to buy all my smart appliances from the same brand if I wanted the promised integrated experience.

I quickly discovered I needed to buy all my smart appliances from the same brand if I wanted the promised integrated experience.

While Matter is looking to knock down the silos between smaller smart home categories—lighting, HVAC control, and home security, for example—it will be many years before the consortium takes large home appliances into account. For the time being, in fact, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) that brought us Matter is leaving large smart appliances up to a whole other consortium, the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA).

HCA membership includes many of the same companies in the CSA, but it’s moving at even more of a snail’s pace. HCA members LG and Samsung, for example, promised their smart appliances would work within each other’s smart home apps—ThinQ and SmartThings respectively—by the end of 2023. Fifteen months later, they still don’t–at least they don’t in the U.S. Samsung says the promised interoperability between Samsung and LG smart appliances is available in Korea, and that SmartThings users in Europe can control Turkish manufacturer Vestel’s air conditioners, washers, and dishwashers with its SmartThings app. “Companies are evaluating results and preferences before expanding to other regions,” a Samsung spokesperson said.

First-world laundry problems solved

My wife and I own a very small home—there’s just 760 square feet of living space—with a partial basement where the washer and dryer hookups are located. To make the most of the available storage space, we decided to stack them—another factor that dictated buying both appliances from the same brand. You can’t buy a kit that allows you to operate an LG dryer on top of a Samsung front-load washer, for example.

After reading lots of product reviews, we settled on an LG WM5500HWA washing machine and an LG DLEX5500W electric dryer.

We’ve been using the washer and dryer for a couple of weeks now, and the interconnectivity has delighted the geek in me (I’m not entirely sure my wife appreciates quite it as much). The two appliances talk to each other over a Bluetooth connection, so when you select the type of load you’re putting in the washer—towels, for example—the dryer will already be on that same setting when you turn it on and transfer the load into it.

The washing machine sends a push notification to our smartphones when its current cycle is finished, reminding us that the laundry should be removed promptly, and that if it must be left in there for a long period of time, we can start a short wash cycle—right from our phone—to keep the clothes fresh until we can put them in the dryer. The dryer, for its part, will send push notifications when it’s finished, with a reminder to change its lint filter and to clean the filter with water after every 10 cycles. The dryer has a similar function if you can’t unload it right away; this one periodically fluffs the clothes to prevent wrinkles from setting in.

Having the appliances connected to my Wi-Fi network means I can use an app to turn them on and off and to choose which settings they should operate on. But LG’s ThinQ app does other things that are even more useful. An energy consumption tracking feature will report how much power each appliance has consumed this month and last, and it maintains a history of the cycles used each time, including the cycle options (temperature, dry level, energy saver mode, and so on).

LG’s app also lets you create IFTTT-like Smart Routines that execute on demand with a button press, or that are triggered by a condition—the time of day, your current location, or even the weather, for example. When you leave home for a short time, your LG robot vacuum can start up and clean your floors while you’re gone. That’s all great—except for the fact that setting up these routines depends on all your smart appliances being LG products.

Smart kitchen appliances

I’d already purchased a new dual-fuel range when the one that came with the home—another landlord special—failed shortly after we moved in, and the repair tech couldn’t obtain a replacement part. I chose an LG model because I wanted dual electric ovens but a gas cooktop. Yeah, I know natural gas is a fossil fuel, and burning it pollutes the air inside your home. But there’s nothing like cooking with gas. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. The LG range connects to Wi-Fi and is also part of LG’s ThinQ smart home ecosystem, but that didn’t factor much in my decision at the time. I just wanted a quality stove, and this one got good reviews.

In this case, I’m glad I wasn’t counting on ThinQ to improve my cooking and baking experience. Apart from periodically sending me reminders to put the oven in self-cleaning mode—using the oven’s controls, not the app—the range’s connectivity hasn’t delivered much in the way of day-to-day convenience. That’s not to say the range’s ThinQ features are useless, they’re just less obvious. I work at home and my wife is retired, so the ability to start the oven when we’re away from home isn’t a big attraction.

On the other hand, if the range starts to behave oddly—if one of its burners fails to start or the oven doesn’t reach the programmed temperature, for example, I can run a Smart Diagnosis routine from the LG app on my smartphone that will check various components, including the temperature sensor, heating element, convection fan, and even its buttons for abnormal operation. If a problem is identified, I can push a button in the app to send the report to LG’s customer support along with my phone number, so they can call me.

But there are two other features that I think will prove even more useful, and these are both available with the washer and dryer as well as the range. First, if I need detailed information about any of these appliances’ features or settings, I can download a copy of its user manual right from within the app. Second, if I ever need to buy a part for these appliances or have any of them serviced, I only need to open that app to find not only the model number but the serial number and—for warranty purposes—the date the appliances were put into service.

No ThinQ, no problem?

While we didn’t need to replace our cheap refrigerator last year, we had grown tired of bending over to find things inside its refrigerator compartment (we much prefer freezer-on-the-bottom designs), listening to its loud compressor, and paying high electric bills due to its inefficient operation. In addition to having the freezer on the bottom, we wanted a French-door model, reasoning that the smaller doors would function better in our tiny, 47-square-foot galley kitchen.

When we went shopping, we discovered that LG was the only manufacturer that offered an Energy Star-certified model that would fit in the narrow 30-inch-wide space we had for it (the LG model LFDS22520S fit by a whisker, being 29.75 inches wide). The one thing I didn’t check before I ordered the LG fridge was ThinQ compatibility, probably because I wasn’t impressed with ThinQ in the range I bought. And as it turned out, the refrigerator doesn’t really support ThinQ because it doesn’t have a Wi-Fi adapter onboard.

Interestingly, that didn’t stop me from adding the refrigerator to the ThinQ app, I just needed to hold my phone up to the top right-hand door hinge, where the words “Smart Diagnosis” are printed, and then push and hold a button on the refrigerator’s control panel, located on the left-hand door. This triggered the refrigerator to send a report to my phone, encoded in a series of beeps and boops.

Besides the troubleshooting feature, the ThinQ app doesn’t deliver much in the way of user benefits for the fridge. But you can download the user manual from here, and you can register its purchase with LG for warranty purposes by providing the name of the retailer you purchased it from along with the date of purchase. The app will even let you snap a picture of your receipt or attach a PDF of the same.

And that’s how I became locked in the LG ThinQ ecosystem

I’ve been a smart home enthusiast for more than 20 years, and I’ve always been able to make disparate standards and protocols work together: Alexa, Google Home, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Philips Hue, and even Ring and Nest—I have products based on all of them. I’ve found smart appliances to be a whole different animal.

I didn’t set out to make this aspect of my smart home revolve around a particular brand. In fact, I hadn’t given it all that much thought before now, because Samsung didn’t acquire SmartThings until 2014, and LG didn’t fully launch ThinQ until 2017. Heck, ThinQ didn’t even factor into my decision-making when I bought the LG range in 2022, the LG refrigerator in 2023, or even the LG washer and dryer I just acquired. Wondering about my dishwasher? We took out the crappy one we had in our tiny kitchen and converted the space to a cabinet.

For the time being, I don’t regret being stuck in the LG ThinQ ecosystem—it really has solved some of my first-world problems. Given the fact that large home appliances are supposed to last 10 to 15 years, however, I do hope that the Home Connectivity Alliance delivers on its promises before I need to replace one of them. I don’t want to be in a position where I have to buy another LG appliance just to maintain compatibility.

But I’m not holding my breath on that score. I also queried LG about its interconnectivity but no one got back to me before press time.

Author: Michael Brown, Executive Editor, TechHive