I'm still mad after reading a few weeks ago about someone had to power-cycle the fridge. I can't recall ever having to do that for a motor or compressor or any fridge.

The computer in the fridge was faulted. So either pull the fridge out to unplug it or find the breaker, there's no power switch on refrigerators.

I would like the ability to set what time of day it does a defrost cycle.

For ToU pricing on power, or for operating on solar power, it would be nice to be able to say "Hey you know when you draw twice as much power than usual? Do that at midnight when the power is cheaper, or 3PM when the sun is most directly shining on the panels."

A smart fridge is the only one that tempts me a bit, but only if I could trust the OS, and there's no way I'm trusting any of the current major fridge makers.

But, there are some useful ideas. If it has a built-in scanner or camera, it could theoretically keep an inventory of what's inside, when it was bought, and if it's something like milk, when it expires. I'd love to get an alert that my milk was expiring soon rather than find out by accidentally drinking sour milk.

In theory, it could also pre-populate a grocery list for me, based on what I'm lacking.

I have a recipe app that I like called Paprika, that has the concept of a "pantry". If I'm looking at a recipe in there I can click a button to add all the ingredients in the recipe to a shopping list. When it does that, it checks what you have in your pantry, and doesn't add those items to the list. That way, you only buy the items you need for the recipe but don't currently have. But, the "pantry" in the app is something you have to add things to yourself. It doesn't know if that list is accurate, or if it was accurate but you recently ran out of something.

It would be great if Paprika could talk to the fridge and figure out "hmm, this recipe calls for butter, which is normally in your pantry, but you're currently low on butter, so I'll add it to the list" or "this recipe calls for milk, but your milk has expired, so I'll add it to the list". Or, the reverse, when you come home from shopping, you throw a bunch of things in the fridge and it updates what you currently have in your "pantry". Similarly, a smart "pantry" would also be useful for those same reasons. Probably even more than a fridge, because I see what's in my fridge (except the stuff at the back) nearly every day. I really forget what's at the back of the pantry.

It would also be nice if my fridge was "leftover aware". Like, if I put the rest of my casserole in the fridge on Monday, it would know about it. If it knew that casserole leftovers typically lasted 3 days it could alert me if I was about to lose those leftovers.

Really what I'd want though is a fridge that came with sensors (cameras, barcode scanners, spoilage smell sensors, temperature sensors, etc.) and and API for them. But, from that point on, it was an open platform where you could install your own apps. That way I'm not stuck with say Samsung's fridge software, which would no doubt be full of surveillance and ads. I'd want to run open source KFridge or something that might be a bit janky but that I could trust wasn't trying to gouge me for money, or show me ads, or sell my data, or whatever.