In 2014, mellow, Inc. billed it as’the world’s first smart sous-vide machine’. Now, the company is taking away those smarts from existing owners unless they pay $ 6 a month, or $ 48 for an annual subscription.

The app update barred owners from using most of the cooker’s previously free’smart’ features without paying for the new’premium subscription’.

Mellow originally cost $ 399, but it’s currently on sale for $ 149. It’s likely most buyers paid the typical asking price of $ 200 to get one.

Mellow released a statement on Instagram, citing financial hardships in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Claimed that many potential investors and acquirers interested in the company walked away, and argued that the servers responsible for the cooker’s smart features cost too much to operate.

Mellow v1 was built with WiFi only and uses outside servers to run its systems and software. The bills are based on the usage of all the mellows. In 2018 mellow was going to shut down.

After 2 years the company was again on the verge of closing down. The new owners dug deep to try and figure out a way to save the company. That solution was to start charging a monthly subscription to use the app.

We know some of you are really mad and we understand. We hope in time you will forgive us and support us during these trying times.

Logitech’s Alexa-powered harmony express remote is just one of the most recent examples. In that case Logitech offered exchanges and full refunds.

Fans who chipped in to crowdfund the second generation of mellow’s sous-vide gadget demanded refunds following the announcement. The mellow team says pandemic travel bans and restrictions are forcing it to delay the release of that second-gen product by six months.

In May, wink announced that it would require customers to pay a $ 5 per month fee to access its smart home features that were previously free. Earlier this month, smart home company Wyze announced a pay-what-you-want model to access the AI-powered person detection feature.