"The refrigerator is dead": Samsung's AI fridges shut down after update, causes outrage

Samsung has halted a SmartThings software update for its refrigerators after some units shut down entirely once the update was applied. The failures started on the afternoon of September 22 in South Korea, days before the Chuseok holiday.

Dozens of posts went up on Samsung Members, the company's own community forum — this was reported by Star News Korea and SBS News. Owners said they had tapped an update notification in SmartThings, and that the fridge stopped working right afterwards. One described coming home to find the interior light off, the touch panel unresponsive and the cold gone. Others said the display sat on "updating" and would not clear, and that pulling the power and restoring it did nothing. Several said their Chuseok food was going to have to be thrown out.

Most of the affected units are from the Bespoke AI 4-Door series launched from 2024 onwards. ZDNet Korea reports the cause as a system error that pushed internal test software to customers. Samsung told the outlet it had spotted the deployment error and stopped distribution at once.

Samsung has also apologized publicly for the disruption. It asked owners to book an engineer visit, since a technician has to check the unit in person, and advised moving food into ice boxes in the meantime. Some owners reported that the booking system itself was struggling under the load.

The repair timeline has become its own complaint. One customer said a service centre told them a visit would not be possible until after the holiday. Samsung Electronics Service says it will keep engineers and call centre staff on duty over the break for urgent cooling failures, with SBS citing September 26 and 27.

Samsung has not said how many refrigerators are affected, and it has not announced any compensation for spoiled food. Users in the meantime have resorted to stopgaps such as packing their fridges with dry ice.