Improved technology is often intended to fix a problem or produce a better product. In some cases it seems like bad design or simply poor planning has created an inferior product with new technology.
I have a few examples that I have recently experienced although I wonder how many other products have similar flaws.
The fridge that needs to be reset after a power outage.
We have this fridge that was purchased about 5 or 6 years ago at a summer home where power outages are a frequent problem. Typically, the power is only out for an hour or two but sometimes longer, being in a remote area and that we don’t need power for most stuff it isn’t an issue. When we replaced our fridge with a newer model we began to notice that after a power outage the fridge would no longer cool. The freezer part stays cold but the fridge will warm up. Doing a search, we discovered this was a common issue and can be resolved by holding two buttons to reset it. After a reset the fridge works normally again, the issue seems to reside with the circuitry and fan to circulate cold air. Another issue with the same fridge is that when it is really humid it will sometimes freeze over.
In older fridges the bulk of the circuitry and temperature control was done by a mechanical timer to determine when to defrost and a mechanical thermostat. These components had no issue with a power outage. It was even possible to force a defrost cycle by manually turning the timer if you knew where it was. With this new fridge it has a fairly complicated circuit board that monitors temperature runs the display as well as the defrost cycle. There is no way to force a defrost cycle and it seems to reset the timer when the power goes out. This has caused a fair amount of food loss and general annoyance. The larger problem is if no one is there to reset it. Talking to a local appliance center it seems many new brands are subject to this same problem and buying a new one won’t necessarily fix it.
The washing machine that is trying to cause a leak
We have a newer front loading washing machine that works okay except for one issue. When it fills with water it does so in a way that it pulses the water on and off at a rate that seems perfect to create a water hammer effect. In my research is seems this might have been done to help better disperse the detergent. This also seems to be a common issue with this brand, one solution is to put in water hammer arresters and they do help a little but do not resolve the issue. Our house is about 40 years old with copper plumbing in good shape. I have gone through our house and added support and holders everywhere that is reasonable. While this has helped some any pipe with any flexibility like the braided lines that run to a sink or toilet still shake when the machine fills. In my mind a simple fix could probably done with software to pulse in a random patter although that isn’t likely to happen. On online search reveals that this brand has caused others damage in broken pipes and flooding for some. Thankfully for me I haven’t had any damage yet. Online talks of a class action suit are evident but none that I know of have been filed as of this time.
The toaster oven that needs to be reset
The toaster oven used to be one of the most basic devices. Today many toasters have digital displays and advanced circuitry, although the one in question simply has knobs and appears to be analog. Even the timer on it ticks and clearly is a mechanical timer. Yet something in this toaster is digital because every once in a while it refuses to work and the power light on it blinks on and off. The fix is simple just un plug it and plug it back in and presto it works again. A slight annoyance but these problems simply shouldn’t exist.
The TV that forgets channels
I have had cable for years and decided to cut the cord and use an antenna for my local channels and internet serveries for others. My house had an attic antenna from yester year, I connected it and works great. I have a few fringe channels that sometimes don’t come in for a brief period depending on the leaves on the trees or snow on the roof. My TV sees these channels aren’t coming in and helpfully decided to forget they exist. To get them back I have to do a complete rescan or manually tune to them. I am sure this could be fixed with some software yet it should not be an issue in the first place.
These are just some examples from my firsthand experience. If you have machines using digital circuitry for what used to be analog and is now creating problems that didn’t previously exist I would be interested in your examples.
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Smarter Devices Can Sometimes Cause Dumb Problems
Re: Smarter devices can sometimes cause dumb problems
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