When Was the Last Time You Had a Tech Fail at Home?

"We had an LG Smart LED TV that would turn itself on and off. We searched the net for a few days and found a similar issue that someone in Asia had experienced and resolved by putting a small computer fan on the television’s board processor. The processor has a tendency to heat up too much and, in a self-preservation effort, turns the set off. No shop in our area would touch the modification. So, following the saying "Any port in a storm," we opened up the TV and epoxied a computer fan onto the frame of the processor. It took 30 minutes and cost $5. It’s been 10 months and all is well." - J.G. Cintron

"The day that Alexa, Lutron Caséta, Sonos, Rain Bird, Nest, Logitech, and Haiku all stopped speaking to each other. I had to divine a shutdown/restart/resync sequence that got all the kids playing together again—while my wife insisted no more f-ing automation." - Robert Grenader

"The WiFi didn’t work when it was installed at my new place. It turns out the cable guy put a bunch of staples through the cable when attaching it to the wall . . . DOA." - Jackson Hyland-Lipski

"A great wireless Internet connection is my nemesis. I live in a four-story, 24-foot-wide home. The Internet turns on and off repeatedly. Streaming is a pain in the a__ and I cannot find a signal booster that helps the situation. Love/hate on a daily basis." - Julie Durand 

"Our automatic garage door would open but randomly not close in the morning. After trouble-shooting electrical and programming issues multiple times with no replication, we discovered that, at 7:45 a.m.,  the sun is at the perfect angle to reflect on the auto-stop eye, which senses obstructions and stops the door from closing. The solution is decidedly low-tech: Wait for the sun to move and get up and manually hit the switch." - Melanie Simms

"This morning, still half asleep, I walked into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee and took the electric Bonavita kettle, filled it with water, and placed it on the stovetop, which was set on full blast. Electric kettles don’t work well on hot stoves. I melted the entire bottom off, all while filling the house with thick, plastic smoke at 6 a.m." - Andrew Hill 

Have your own story about faulty technology? Share it here.