LAS VEGAS—Are you ready to hack your fridge? I expected Android-powered home appliances to have a higher profile at CES this year than they did. But still, a few manufacturers were carrying the torch for smartening up devices in your home, and trying to provide some solid reasons for you to buy them, like energy savings.

The flashiest Android appliance at CES was definitely Dacor's Android-powered oven, which automatically programs itself according to recipes selected from a tablet.

In Chinese manufacturer Hisense's booth, I found a new fridge running Android 3.2 (3.2!) and a surreptitiously Android-powered air conditioner. The fridge's screen lets you run a bunch of custom apps, including one which tracks the freshness of your food after you check it in with a bar-code scanner built into the door. The fridge also runs a diet app, grocery list, notepad, and a terrific power-management app which lets you see how much energy your fridge is using and schedule it to run its compressor at cheaper times.

The air conditioner is operates remotely via an Android app. You get similar power management features here, with the ability to monitor the AC's settings and change modes remotely. Both the fridge and AC are coming to China first, but they might arrive in the U.S. later this year, Hisense said.

LG's latest washer, dryer and smart fridge all probably run Android. I say 'probably' because nobody at the LG booth could tell me what the underlying OS was, but the demo guy said the previous models had run Android, so he didn't see why these wouldn't. In any case, they're locked down, not open platforms.

The LG fridge has very similar features to the Hisense fridge, albeit with some brands more familiar to Americans - the weather information is Accuweather-branded, for instance. Just like other smart fridges, it can track the freshness of your food, summon up recipes, keep a shopping list and monitor and alter its energy usage.

LG's "SmartThinQ" washer and dryer have 7-inch touch screens built into them, so you can set programs and modes, diagnose problems, and call for help if something goes wrong. The best feature here is the companion Android app, which lets you check to see if your laundry is done via your phone.

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