View Single Post
  #86   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair,sci.electronics.repair
Bob Larter Bob Larter is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 389
Default Why can't electronics on new washers & dryers be tougher?

GregS wrote:
In article , Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:08:34 -0500, Steve Barker
wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Bob Larter wrote:
William R. Walsh wrote:
Hi!

The obvious solution to this problem is to buy laundry equipment with
conventional electro-mechanical controls. (Assuming they're still made.)
They most certainly are. It's still quite possible to buy (at least in the
US) a washer or dryer with conventional, non-microcontroller-based

controls.
Even some of these fancy-dancy front loaders are made that way:
http://greyghost.mooo.com/doingthela.../newwasher.jpg (494x691,
20KB).

I've been inside it once, and the internals are what you'd expect of a
machine much older. The timer is a simple mechanical one, water level is
detected by vacuum, and while the drum motor has an electronic controller,
it looks to be well made.

How it's possible to not make the microcontroller-based controls work
reliably for years and years is beyond me. Makers of microwave ovens have
managed to do so for years. I've *never* seen a microwave oven with a dead
control panel.
I have, several times.

Dozens of them.


I've never seen a microwave quit for any reason. AND if it did, i'd get
out another $69 and buy a new one.

My microwave is 23 years old, and everything still works. Would a new
one last that long?


Around 1990 my brother had the family microwave and threw it away
for because it was larger and was in the way.


My ex threw away a huge, old, ultra-reliable uwave for pretty much the
same reason. I was /really/ ****ed off that she hadn't at least asked me
if I wanted it.


--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------