Lil, If you can keep the older stuff working, lots of times those appliances are made of sturdier materials. Wouldn't you agree, Lou? Some old appliances were made well, designed well, and function well for the job they are expected to do. Not all old things are worth repairing. Not all old designs are well thought out or efficient. Not all old appliances or things are robust.
There are several old models of printiers and copiers I don't repair because they were designed poorly or the biggest thing is, they were designed to produce an income stream for the manufacture, more than they were designed for the user to get his/her moneys worth of printed materials/prints. It even said so in the companies (plural) financila/stock holders report. Shame, shame, shame on those boys and girls, ya think?
The down side to the term "New and Improved" sometimes means the company found a cheaper way to make the item. When I hear the phrase when I hear "new and improved" my brain tells me to look for a "Cheaper something/part and more plastic. Sometimes “New and Improved is true, but not always.
I know fuel injection for automobiles is much better than a carburetor. I understand both systems fairly well. Fuel injection (FI), when it works well is far superior to a carburetor. FI one reason engines last so much longer than they did 40 years ago.
What I found that annoys me is some things are made to meet a price point more than they are designed to do a job. The second thing that bothers me is some things are actually designed to be too smart.
In 1994 when I started my printer business officially, an inkjet printer put ink (dye based) on paper according to a computer generated code and the printer's interpretation (software driver and chip programming) of that code. Ink jet printers had 1 paper sensor to detect the papers travel through the printer. There are various parts that are also necessary to print something, you want printed. If the job didn't print but the paper and all of the other printer actions happened in their proper sequence, most likely the ink supply was depleted.
Now the printers check the ink supply through sensors that actually check the ink or more like some mathematical formula that "says" there "should be" X amount of ink in the ink cartridge, which may not be the case. 30/40% of the ink might still be in the cartridge. Nice revenue generator, isn’t it?
Now if the paper feed motor draws a little too much current, the printer goes into error mode. If the paper doesn’t reach or go past point "A" with in some exact time, the printer also goes into error mode.
Some printers have fans and a controller function counts the fan's RPM/speed. If some control chip detects a low fan RPM, bingo, error mode again.
I used the printer instead of the washer but suspect something similar to what I think of “too smart for its own good” to function reasonably well, sometimes.
Sure, I want things to run and operate correctly and in a way, having the built in checks should save the device from some forms of self destruction. My guess/question is, are the upper/lower limits built into these devices too narrow of an operating range?
Lil I had a portable dishwasher that my first husband gave me for Christmas in 1972 Holey cow, 31 years! That is a long time. Two things come to mind, the product was built and designed well, and you didn't buy into Madison Ave.'s tune that you have to have what supposedly was the newest and greatest since sliced bread. My point, advertising drives consumers to buy things because of emotions rather than a real need.
BTW a local store sells un-sliced bread and it is much better than the sliced bread. The person/people that use the sliced bread comparison might not be correct in as many cases as presented.
I know it is a metaphor (or what ever is the correct term for those English majors, you can let me know what I might have said) that compares/contrasts emotions, some times factual, and sometimes false opinion, ideas about what is good or what is progress. I am using the un-sliced bread too concretely in this case.
We are in our house since 1974 and have had 3 dishwashers, 4/5 refrigerators, 3 freezers, 3 cook stoves, 4 microwaves, 5 or 6 TV I that I can remember and too many radios, stereos, VCRs, DVD players/burners, and satellite TV systems/plans to remember.
KM Okay, you made me feel better about keeping my ancient top-loading Maytag running H just replaced a belt on it, and sometimes you have to shut the lid several times before it will start. Well I am not a cable guy or do I play one on TV (as in Larry). My truck/vans both have tow head lights and a hood ( “Cars” , the movie) but I have repaired a few washing machines.
I don’t remember what type of switches your machine has on the lid. All of the ones I know about have a spin cycle switch and paw. Sometimes I bent the switch arm or moved the paw a little. Some machines had a damaged pew on the lid.
What I like about older washers, is, what ever cycle they are operating in, it is almost all observable and mechanical. I can’t see the electricity but there is a movement I can see during most phases of the operation. The timer moves, current goes to a device, that device activates.
The new washers all have circuit boards and lots of relays I cant see or determine if they are working. Some of the relays are low voltage and soldered to a board I can’t get to, so I can measure the voltage.
I think printed circuit boards (PCB)with integrated chips is the way to go, no doubt about it. PCB are better than the old way, but it does complicate some methods of testing components.
Well bad news. Friday the Whirlpool Duet washed refused to do anything, so BB and I went shopping, but not until I talked to several people from Whirlpool and the Lowe’s special appliance rep.
Both deny there is anything wrong with the washer that warrants any special considerations. Whirlpool did offer 50% off $523.00 worth of parts if I wanted an authorized tech to repair my machine. The local most knowledgeable Whirlpool repair person said I needed a boat load of parts, he has BTDT when it comes to my model of Duet front-loading washer and said if I wanted it fixed, that is how it has to be done. I turned both of them down on their offers and went to the resources on the web. I am still considering Whirlpool’s 50% off offer if I can do the work.
Today I took the advice from the internet resources and re-soldered all of the larger connections on the CCU/main PCB. I ran the diagnostic load 2 times and real wash load 2 is running right now. What else can I say.
I am not superstitious, I don’t knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder, black cats I pet them if they want petting, and contrary to some friends I have, I don’t pray about physical things or events. I heard electrons go from point to point when something happens and believe the laws of physics applies to all people, no matter what.
If you know how to solder/de-solder, you know about safety...right. Use a good grade of flux core solder, a soldering temp of 370 degrees so careful. A 15-30 watt iron works fine for me. I filed the solder iron point to look like a regular #2 pencil I had in school.
