Pet Peeves

What drives me up the wall is the unavailability of necessary maintenance information and the exorbitant price that white goods manufacturers charge for spares.

As you say no system is perfect, and, faults do occur. But why do manufacturers leave you high and dry when something does break down after the warranty period is up.

The locking mechanism on my washing machine recently went low impedance and burnt out large parts of the control board. The control board is a single sided PCB with an ASIC, a large switch, a few small power component, a few micro-switches, a few LEDs, and a handful of other components. The total cost to the manufacturer must be about £10 (~$15), but, they want over £100 (~$150) for a spare part.

Hi Randall,

I have faced similar problem on my Washing Machine of reputed make. I had to replace control panel 3 times at cost of $60/-. I was told that control panel is imported from China so it is giving problems. Problem with PCB is that you can not replace the defective component but pay for complete new panel.

Valid post. I have been in the same quandary (as I am sure many others have too!)

My advice.-

1) Never buy anything from that manufacturer ever again....ever.

2) Inform all your friends and acquaintances of the problems experienced, so they don't buy from them either....

3) Find and go onto websites that have this manufacturer as a "problem", add your problems and experiences.

4) What a friend of mine did some years ago (2000?) was to take out the defective high priced controller board and replaced it with one of his design using a PIC/Microprocessor of some sort. It was the work of some weeks of effort in design & test and he had to buy another washing machine to keep clothes clean, but when his wife was testing his design, once the (many) software bugs were cleared, his wife preferred it!!!! (Sadly I have lost contact with him since our company was taken over!)

He even designed extra programs that he wife wanted.....that the old controller could not achieve.....

I gave him the idea after I told him of another friend of mine in the UK did the same using a Nascom 2 in 1979!!! Basically for the same reasons.....in those days the replacement part was far cheaper and the computer more expensive, he just did for the fun of it, but his wife was only allowed to wash clothes when he was not using it!!!

Before anyone asks, I don't know the manufacturer's name of either machine anymore.....but it's Germany anyway for the latest one.....but the principle remains, great project and nowadays very cheap to produce the electronics (I would recommend today a PICAXE PIC, REALLY cheap! learn how to interface Triacs and read sensors....great hobby!!)

The colleague here in 2000 was really "steaming" when the machine went wrong just when the guarantee was at an end.....He will NEVER buy from that manufacturer again.......

One of my pet peeves is on products that work fine in an environment that is dirty, and it's expected that they will get dirty, but are VERY HARD TO CLEAN! The design engineers should be required to use and clean the products before they go into production. The most recent is a dog crate that has surfaces that are nice and smooth and clean easily as well as surfaces that are rough and hold the dirt unless you go to extremes (power wash, steam clean etc).

I'm surprised there have been so few responses, as this frustration has hit us all at one time or another.

I chalk it up, first to poor design. And the poor design is, sometimes, part of planned obsolescence. Second, is the poor attitude of letting known design problems stand. At least it appears that way from my limited experience with a Phillips brand TV. It wasn't hard to find complaints about the same problem I was experiencing on websites just like Andy Germany is mentioning. Maybe the lifetime of TV models is short enough that design flaws only last for that generation of product. Still, it implies no real world testing and burning in of products.

Having started my career with the repair end of electronics devices, after I moved on to a small company that manufactured scientific instruments, I was in a position to influence the design because I performed so many functions -- a lot having to do with production. I was the unofficial production manager. The official one was mostly a bean counter. Ease of service was always a top priority with me when giving engineers feedback / suggestions, before we had committed to production. Engineers don't always think that way, sadly. Consumer electronics are a good case in point. Many TVs, VCRs, etc. are not made to be repaired. They are meant to be thrown away if they fail. And that is very sad. A smaller company has more reason to fix design flaws because it's life is so much more fragile than a large corporation that has diversified by having several divisions, and sometimes owning companies that provide products and services that aren't even related to the corporation's main product line.

As a child of parents who weathered the Great Depression, I value products that have durability. While some electronics last an amazingly long time -- computers, as a general rule do -- a lot of products don't. Products meant for the industrial world fare better, because manufacturers of these products know that these "larger" businesses expect more durability. If you lose their business it represents a large number of units sold.

But, hey. We've all gotten used to it, I guess. Just like we've all gotten used to pumping our own gas, checking out our own goods at hardware stores and grocery stores, etc. and talking to machines.

1. Anytime there is an error document it, so there is a reference along with the solution to fix the problem. Otherwise you are destined to making the same mistake over and over again.

2. Establish Standard Operating Procedures.

3. Hold a meeting with all the workers involved and come up through brainstorming a solution so everyone is on board and feel they played a part in that decision making process, they adhere to new procedures better that way and everyone can watch out for each other making sure they all follow it too.