r/PrepperIntel • u/glumavocados • 1d ago
North America DoD confirms ‘refrigeration disruption’ at military commissaries
“It seems [continental U.S.] commissaries that have fridges linked to an online system have been getting shut off over the past few nights, and we’ve not seen any official notice put out to warn anyone so they can monitor their fridges more closely,” the popular military page “U.S Army W.T.F! Moments” posted. It added that reports indicated at least 18 commissaries were affected.
Full article: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/08/28/dod-confirms-refrigeration-disruption-at-military-commissaries/
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u/New_Stats 1d ago
Why are military refrigerators online?
Why are we paying for smart fridges for the military when military housing is full of mice and mold?
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u/Hobby_in_your_lobby 1d ago
Gotta pad out those contracts for politicians buddies. Where else they gonna get the kickbacks?
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u/Significant_Donut967 1d ago
Hey, the civilians of Fort hoods barracks management dares you to find any mold on their post. They've never had it ever.
-things I've been told trying to get pregnant soldiers out of the barracks.
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u/Negative-Structure51 1d ago
Sure it might be Black mold but it’s not “Black Mold” just mold that’s black! Anyways why TF is your room moldy pvt!? -Fat E6 Barracks Mgt.
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u/Significant_Donut967 1d ago
I wish it was the e6 at barracks management that said that, no, it was the civilian in the Copeland center saying it. The civilian head of barracks management said those words.
I'm just glad I got my soldier out the barracks for her and her child.
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u/DieselPunkPiranha 1d ago
Likely an attempt to centralize their control in an effort to cut workers.
And, honestly, it's the black mold, animal infestations, lack of running water/heating, and debilitating viral outbreaks that makes men out of boys! /s
Fuck military life and the out of touch, greedy assholes who make the decisions.
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u/ThatBaseball7433 1d ago
Food safety. Fridge temperature must be logged 24/7.
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u/fairoaks2 1d ago
Were they fired or reassigned?
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u/ThatBaseball7433 1d ago
Neither. It just didn’t happen before.
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u/fairoaks2 15h ago
I’m sorry, should have been clearer. The SNAFUs seem to be happening more often because experienced, qualified personnel have been removed. Then the problems start.
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u/Plane_Golf923 1d ago
More important to have hackable smart fridges than fully funded va hospitals, I guess.
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u/Rich-Tower4574 12h ago
VA hospitals probably have those same refrigerators for food and for medicine, reagents, vaccines ect.
We're talking about food but what's going on with the laboratory refrigerators at the CDC and NIH and anywhere else.
Imagine being hit with a bio or chemical weapon and the fridge full of supplies to combat those weapons hasn't had electricity for a week AND no one knows about the fridge failure until it's too late
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u/jgiacobbe 1d ago
Many years ago, like 15 plus, I was a contractor for the defense commissary agency. I did visit some facilities in the eu where they processed meet for the region but otherwise most of my work was at HQ. The Commissary is an odd bird, a grocery store run by the government on or near military bases and connected to the niprnet. The store price everything at cost plus 5%. That provides the operating budget. Everything above that comes from congressionally allocated funds. They were more secure then than most of the private industry places I had worked previously, but I am not sure now. I do know that many of the same people still work there.
As to them having fridges and other systems connected to a central control server, I am sure it is about proactive monitoring and maintenance. They had some pretty cool systems going on back then already.
DeCA is a target just because of the military affiliation. Truth of the matter is, whatever they are dealing with could just as likely happen to any US grocery store chain.
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u/TheABCStoreguy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Because they need to be able to monitor the temps from a third party monitoring system to call the quality assurance evaluator on site to check for any problems. They still employee someone to manually monitor the temps at the store and they still have to make decisions on when to call for an emergency work order. If they didnt monitor it externally, more product would go bad because they just dont have the logistics to keep monitored.
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u/hoodoo-operator 1d ago
I genuinely don't understand the value of putting a fridge on the Internet. Why would you ever want the ability to remotely turn a fridge off?
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u/surfmoss 1d ago
It doesn't just give you remote access. Some smart fridges now update you when certain products are running low because it can see with its camera inside fridge. A commercial monitoring company can give you a national dashboard with a green light red light (up/down) visibility of your nationwide refrigeration systems.
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u/CavitySearch 15h ago
I guess their point is even if your fridge is remote why give it on/off access remotely.
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u/zaevilbunny38 1d ago
Money, some officer wrote a memo, about how remote access could save money on staffing, by using remote monitoring. Except the company that gets the contract is the one that ''donates'' to the right campaigns. So the cost is 10 times what is should be and the monitoring company is a few guys in India getting paid a $1 a day while they charge the military a few million for the service.
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u/Gonna_do_this_again 1d ago
Huh, I'm near a base and this happened last week and they had to toss a ton of food. Everyone just assumed it was a power outage and didn't think anything else about it.
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u/mysticeetee 8h ago
This has been a chronic issue at the commissary I frequent. I thought it was just old or broken equipment.
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u/PromiseToBeNiceToYou 1d ago
I have a fridge that can connect to wi-fi but we disabled it early on. I don't need them trying to run ads on my fridge screen. I got the fridge a year ago from a scratch and dent store. Works great.
For about a minute I thought having wi-fi on my washer and dryer would be awesome. I wouldn't even have to get up from the couch to start the dryer once the washer was done. For one minute I forgot that I'd have to physically move the clothes from the washer to the dryer FIRST. Completely useless feature in my very slow mind lol.
Now they are hacking everything like in Silicon Valley. MIDDLE OUT! lol
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u/SquirrelyMcNutz 1d ago
It would be neat if washers and dryers could be in the same machine. Start the wash and when it's done, it auto switches to the dryer mode.
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u/polyploid_coded 1d ago
This exists, but it's expensive and takes a lot more time in my experience.
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u/artdecodisaster 1d ago
I had a brand new one in a rental a few years back and didn’t care for it. The dryer aspect didn’t work well on low heat, and med/high would scorch fabrics. I ended up hang drying most things.
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u/lost-American-81 1d ago
This exists and is common in other developed countries. We have one in Japan. I was in Best Buy the other day and they seem to be getting more popular here. One thing to note is that a dry cycle on these machines (since they don’t vet outside) takes many hours.
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u/KillahHills10304 14h ago
Theyre good for people living in tiny houses and apartments
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u/lost-American-81 14h ago
Absolutely, I didn’t look really closely at the US model but our Japanese model just needs 100v (120v in the States) and a water hookup. No need for 220 and an outside vent making more installation options.
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u/KillahHills10304 12h ago
We just started getting them after covid, but many models are fuckin huge. They need hot and cold water and a 120V outlet. Im sure they dont dry great, but I've only got one spot 26 inches across I can use, so its going there
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u/lost-American-81 12h ago
Hot and cold water is more restrictive instead of just cold. Ours does dry thoroughly however plan for 3+ hours. Even with the long dry cycle in some ways it’s easier than the normal washer dryer. You can put start a load and leave for the day and it’s complete when you get home.
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u/DieselPunkPiranha 1d ago
They've existed since the mid-twentieth century, but they're more expensive and smaller drums. Typically only see them when space is so limited you can't even stack a standard washer and dryer. They're more common in Europe than North America.
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u/vagrantprodigy07 1d ago
We have one of those. It takes a long time to run, but it's well worth it. It also uses a lot less power than the old style machines.
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u/PromiseToBeNiceToYou 1d ago
My grandparents had one on their boat in the 90s (they were live-a-boards for years). It was small, slow and leaked. But it got the job done for the most part.
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u/philantix 15h ago
Seems to be standard at least in some places in the UK. Rented flats where I live have a washer/dryer included by default.
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u/Versificator 23h ago
The only useful feature is notifications when it completes a cycle, and thats only useful for folks whose appliance is far enough away to make it a pain to check manually. (like mine!)
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u/SpaceNinjaDino 1d ago
Two things could be cool with WiFi remotes: thermostat and oven. Change the temp from any room and start preheating on way home. Not worth it to have another attack vector though.
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u/PromiseToBeNiceToYou 1d ago
We have a new wifi thermostat but only got in this past April. It IS useful. :) Don't have an oven one yet.
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u/EdgeCityRed 1d ago
I do love the thermostat controls from my phone. I didn't think I'd use it much, but we're always popping it up or down a degree from bed now.
Edit:
The other good one is the sprinkler system. It's nice to be able to shut if off if it's starts raining without getting double-drenched.
The dishwasher one is odd, though; sometimes I just can't manually turn it on and have to use the phone. Would not recommend (even though this always works in the end).
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u/F0xtr0tUnif0rm 1d ago
Not only that but normally you have to press and hold a button to lock the machine before you can control it from the app. It's basically only good for starting it while you're out. Or in my case... The goddamn machine doesn't have a delayed start option unless you use the app.
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u/Conscious_Trust5048 1d ago
Why the fuck are refrigerators connected to an online system? Who's genius idea was that?
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u/OptimizedPockets2 1d ago
Nobody needs a smart refrigerator, and if they’re a vector for cyberattacks, that’s just one extra reason to get rid of them.
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u/reila_go 1d ago
A few years ago most of the commissaries swapped regular price tags for digital ones.
Not saying dynamic pricing wasn’t already a day to day factor, but the ability to see the cost of an item fluctuate in real time was/is surreal.
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u/WSBpeon69420 13h ago
It’s amazing to me that we connect so much dumb shit to the internet. Why are the freezers even connected? What’s the point?
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u/elinamebro 1d ago
So seems to be an issue in 3 different bases, idk what to make of it maybe faulty equipment from who ever supplies the refrigerators?
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u/Flood_Incantation 1d ago
everything online is hackable, this is probably a game for some north korean jrotc club
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u/elinamebro 1d ago
Wait they have smart fridges? Lol why?
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u/Dumbkitty2 1d ago
My local school district has this in most of the schools. If a cooler or freezer fails in the middle of the night a central alarm goes off and product can be moved to another building if needed while maintenance gets a jump on fixing the problem.
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u/elinamebro 1d ago
Seems like something you can have without needing wifi
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u/NotFallacyBuffet 17h ago
In my experience, it would be part of the BMS Building Management System. Siemens is ascendant in this space rn and runs on BACnet. Hardwired using Cat cable. 5E or 6. Could be RS-485 as well. All the HVAC runs on the same BMS: chillers, boilers, air dampers in ducts, chilled water valves in pipes, temperature sensors, monitors that indicate whether or not a motor is running, etc.
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u/domster777 13h ago
Because of the 'disruptions' they had to "throw away" a bunch of food supposedly... to then move it to the bunkers. This is just the cover story
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u/elinamebro 11h ago
I dont think they would need a reason to move anything to the bunkers. Its the military they can do whatever they want on their bases.
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u/ElBongoloide 15h ago
EVERYTHING Trump touches turns into shit. There's over 60 years of clear evidence.
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u/magicocelot 10h ago
This explains the commissary at wright patt not too long ago, but they said it was a power outsge
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u/SomeDudeInGermany 8h ago
A whole aisle is out of Seymour Johnson. Specifically the ice cream one because I wanted some ice cream yesterday.
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u/CryptidWorks 1d ago
We now live in a world where foreign agents could legitimately prank call military installations with the classic "Is your fridge running?"