[thfuran]

>I began to feel like I was losing my mind. How could a simple IP block disable a vacuum cleaner that is supposed to work offline as well?

It sure sounds like they were aware of the relation, just not how or why one thing led to the other.

[BoredPositron]

You are right the logical conclusion would be to send it for repair repeatedly.

[akerl_]

Yea, I feel like this is the kind of thing that makes manufacturers resistant to open/hackable devices.

I've done restrictive or invasive things to a variety of devices I own. But if something isn't working the way it should, "reset back to a clean default state and test again" always comes before trying to engage a warranty service process.

[hakfoo]

There's two possibilities there:

The device might not be designed with a publicized tool to restore to a "clean state", and there's also the business signaling factor of "the device stopped working, so I will make sure sure it costs them money to handle a warranty claim".