Samsung Has Done It Again

I feel and experienced ^{(in the ME field)} the response was more like this,

"What's wrong with it you ask,.... lets see what the apps says."

I have enjoyed my Samsung 53" flat screen for 4 years now, (that I was thinking of getting another one in the den).

I only had minor issues (glitches where it won't connect up to the wifi), but this was taken care of by updated the software, which was a inconvenience. Unfortunately, since I got it, I feel I spend too much time watching TV.

OH NO ... we bought Samsung laundry machines earlier this year. The washers explode? So far the only weirdness is that both machines play the theme from Schubert's Trout Quintet the the cycle has finished.

I hate that tune the tv plays when it comes on....so I just leave it on all the time....

Here is a link to the washers:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37503116

Samsung bad....

Overall Satisfaction Rating

one star

Based on 349 ratings out of 1,261 reviews

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/samsung_washer.html

wow, one post is that it made your laudry smell bad that you could get out.

Sounds like the Maytag Neptune washer I bought in the late 90's, I understand it that you need to put a little bleach in it, and leave the door open to dry out when not in use, because stuff grows behind the seals..... not saying much about the seals performance.

And Maytag never admitted that there was anything wrong, but they agreed/settled to a class action lawsuit to compensate the buyers a few dollars.

A washer that is sufficiently advanced to measure load parameters and communicate with the drier, should be made capable enough to detect internal dampness where it might typically occur and steam sanitize to kill any growies, then air dry itself....

...

...or maybe they could have skipped that whole complication by designing it like traditional washers that don't have to have to door propped open to keep from stinking.

When I purchase mine, steam was just coming into its own.

Maybe that's what blew it up - - the sanitizing routine. Guaranteed to remove all life signs of any life form on Earth within a 25 ft radius.

Also you can't blame the South Koreans or South Corinthians either if Americans buy their goods at a cheaper price than the former American makers could produce them and sell them. I think the American consumer is as much to blame for the American debt problem as are the corporations that took their manufacturing overseas.

So there.

We've never had that problem with ours.

But, with 3 boys, we wash a lot of clothes.

Especially during swimming season when we'll go through maybe a dozen towels a day sometimes.

That's the Maytag Neptune right?

yes, with 3 boys, your washer is probably going all the time.

When Maytag sent out the letter about it, I never responded because mine didn't. until about 6 months after the dead line.

I flipped up the seal around the drum, and it was the beginning of a build up of nasties. So I wiped it off, and run some bleach in it.

I also left the door open when not in use.

a dozen towels a day... your lucky those weren't 3 girls... you can triple that.

Neptune, yes. MAH5500BWW, Jan.2006. Sounds about right on the age, I'm not into time. We've NEVER had any problem with it.

Yes, 3 boys and their friends = many towels during summer. Small children and their friends in the afternoon, teenager and his friends at night. ^{(The old man sets the curfew)}

I doubt I would have survived this long with 3 girls. My biological daughter is 42, with 4 kids of her own who come to swim too.

I bought mine in 98 or 99. They called it a rebate, and it was sent out in 2003 or 2004 from the class action lawsuit.

i beleive shortly after, congress nix the plan for China to buy Maytag.

Someone dropped their Note 7 in the washer?

I also once had a Whirlpool Dryer.It lasted 27 years.

About every 5 years,it would require a new belt,the old one would break.

About a 10 minute job to replace the belt(after the learning experience of the first one!)

I replaced one idler pulley, 5 belts,and one motor during that 27 year period.

The porcelain was totally gone from the inside of the tub..it looked like stainless steel.

We did a remodel,and got rid of ole faithful and replaced it with a high-end Maytag.

BAD MOVE!

Within a week the tub began to rattle.

Instead of jumping through the flaming hoops with the dealer,I opened it up and found the problem.

The screws holding the beater bars to the tub were loose,and some had fallen out into the bottom of the dryer.

I replaced all the screws,and applied red Loctite to all of the screws.

(Something they should have done at the factory,IMHO.)

No problems since.

It still has many years to go to compete with the old Whirlpool.

I think there is something to the old adage " They don't make em' like they used to"

We bought a new Maytag about 34 years ago and I think I've replaced the belt once or twice. Raising several kids and several decades of me in the machining field required a lot out of that machine. Now I think there is a worn damper pad on the bottom as it now bangs a little in the spin cycle from wobbling and it just hasn't risen high enough on the priority scale to address it. Other that that it won't die. Once in a while we think about replacing it but we hear other people talk about their repair bills on appliances that are only several years old and we kind of let that thought go again.

Had a refrigerator from my wife's Grandmother in the garage that would not die. I think it had to be from the 60's maybe. It was that kind of weird mustard color. We bought a newer one for a good deal at a garage sale and gave the old one away still running. The newer one either freezes the veggies in the frig or the freezer portion thaws out.

Seems all the high tech gadgetry just causes more problems. I guess that's the cost of efficiency - loss of reliability.

Not all, take automobiles for instance, I begin looking for a replacement when my car hits about 170,000 miles, and usually I'll find one by the time hit hits 225,000 miles. And the replacement is used with 50,000 miles on it.

And the reason is I get a different car, driving in Wisconsin winters, salt dissolves the base structure.

There are really some good cars out there,but mostly foreign made.

I would sell my Hondas at 250,000 miles,still in good condition.

Replaced timing belts every 50,000 miles myself.

I had an old General Electric round cornered refrigerator that I inherited from an estate.It was made in the '50s

You could not hear it running.

Nothing fancy about it;manual defrost,a small freezer in the top right corner for ice trays,the kind with the pull- to-release handle.

It simply did it's job,and did it well.

My uncle's refrigerator went out,so I loaned it to him to keep his food from spoiling.

It was later moved to a beach cottage where it is still keeping beer cold.

It is over 60 years old with the original components.

It has dents,dings,and graffiti,all over it:

Cave-art hand outlines,finger painting,the teenage-protest-motto-de jour.

But I can still see my children who did the graffiti,and it is like a family album,so I wont paint over them.

This may have been a one-of fluke that was touched by some magic hands,but we really need some of that magic now.

The older appliances were repairable,not so the new ones.

The new mantra is if something breaks,throw it away.

Consume,consume,consume!

Someone asked me the secret to being married over 50 years,and I replied that there was no secret,we were brought up in an era when something broke,we fixed it,we didn't throw it away.

Yeah, you got me there. There has been reliability gains on vehicles. Seems when I was a kid if you had a car with 100,000 miles it was time to rebuild or replace.

I currently have a 92 Chev truck that is about 250 miles short of 300,000 and still does not really use oil. Just a few puffs of smoke on startup. Yes, I have replaced most of the peripheral components one by one - starter, alternator, water pump, ignition module, radiator, brakes, etc. But that is not unexpected after so many years but the drive train just keeps on ticking. It's the "rusty but trusty" as I also am in Wisconsin. I keep checking the frame and under components for major issues and spray some oil on it occasionally. It is starting to look worse lately. I want to get it past the 300k just because! Wife says - "maybe we should look around for a replacement".

improved roads help a lot also.

There are two main things to which I feel contribute to the longevity of the modern drive trains:

Drastic improvements in lubrication

Closer engine tolerances,as well as closer tolerances in other parts.

Until very recently,the very best lubricant was Sperm Whale oil.

It was reserved for very high pressure needs,like thread cutting,etc.

Then someone discovered that Jojoba oil was almost identical to whale oil.

Working from this knowledge base,vegetable based lubricants were developed by molecular modification of existing vegetable oils.

Just imagine how long the antique vehicles would have lasted with these lubricants!

Materials technology has also improved,like the materials that wet-clutch plates are made of.

The thing that is missing is real reliability built into the products from the start.

Part of this can be attributed to the race car circuit.

Offenhauser told his engineers that if a part failed because it was too heavy,they would be fired.

If it failed because it was too light,there would be no punishment.

This encouraged a lighter race car,that only had to last a single race.

The complete car was overhauled after each race.

Manufacturers picked up on this,and adopted it because it was also cheaper to produce,and hired engineers to design things to survive for the warranty period only.

I have seen failure on every front that has occurred just after the warranty expired.

It has happened too frequently to be called coincidence.

I once had a contract to repair all of the tv's in a motel with hundreds of sets,made by the same manufacturer,with mostly consecutive serial numbers.

The flyback transformers would fail just out of warranty within days of one another.

When the first one failed,I knew the wave of failures was on the way.

Bought extra coffee ahead of time.

I also once worked for a car dealership as a line mechanic,and I have seen it happen there too.

And as an electrician,first as a helper,then later as a licensed contractor with electric motors,panels,and transformers.

And as an electronics technician with computers.

I retired as an electonics technician for the US Government,and they are the biggest suckers yet for the low bid.

Software is also now in the same category,and old hardware is becoming obsolete,and is filling up the landfills.

There is no focus on making software work right the first time.

The goal is first-to-market.

We will work out the bugs later with updates.

In the past,programs had to be very compact and efficient to conserve memory and storage requirements.

16K was a lot of memory.

A drum storage unit could hold 20 meg of 16 bit words,and cost upwards of $60K

Terabyte drives and memory have made efficiency a waste of time.

Like the old song,"Gimme 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around"

Anyone can drive a big rig if given enough room.!No qualifications needed.

OK!OK! I'll get down off my soap box now.

Thanks for listening to my rant!

But that was good rant HiTek. I smiled all the way thru.

Don't even get me started on software. Seems like every software update is fraught with issues. Plus every time we get an enterprise software, cad software, purchasing software update it seems to always take more mouse clicks, more steps, and more time - not less!

Why are updates considered better?

However, I am looking forward to see where 3D printing is going to take manufacturing. Seems they are able to make parts lighter and stronger by new design concepts unobtainable before. So newer can be better in some areas.

I am not saying new is necessarily bad,if they maintain focus and integrity and not be corrupted by myopic short term profit.

3D printing is the new revolution,bringing additive manufacturing to the masses.

It is more efficient,produces very little waste,and makes objects that were previously impossible or very difficult to make.

3D printed buildings have been produced.Real concrete buildings. Amazing!

Consider all of the blind holes in a carburetor for instance,and in automatic transmission hydraulic circuits.These passages can be made with no drilling or milling.

The fact that they are making parts for aircraft turbine engines proves to me that they have moved from the plastic models into real world precision manufacturing.

New should be better.

If it is not,then that is not progress,it is simply yesterday's soup warmed up and served again with a new label.