"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
I recently went shopping for a washing machine. I only saw one that
didn't have a microcontroller. As an engineer I can appreciate the
gadgetry, but as a tech I also understand the repair cost.

In theory the electronic ones should be more reliable... the traditional
washing machine timer, with a bazillion little detents pressing spring-leaf
switches *will* fail, it's just a question of when.

In practice I wouldn't be surprised if the electronic ones weren't
particularly more reliable. The fact that anyone can easily sit down and
building a washing machine controller or similar in a matter of weeks now
has unfortunately often made reliability something of a secondary concern to
manufacturers, it would seem.