Poorly Designed Appliances

How about reverse-engineering the motherboard, upgrading it with durable components, and tapping into what looks like a great market?

The mother board can't draw that much power. Put a battery, or capacitor in the supply circuit.

Or, have the power company check the supply line quality.

Or, give up, take the loss and buy one that can take the abuse.

Agreed, except: how do you know which one can take the abuse?

Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm. The salesmen for all of the last four major appliances I replaced, all 30 or more years old, indicated that I'll get a lot less life out of the replacements.

My home AC (a Carrier) is 44 years old, and undoubtedly less efficient than most new ones, but I don't plan on replacing it unless it dies!

I'd demand a full refund -- 70% is ludicrously low. The unit is clearly defective, unless the manufacturer can show that power in your house is abnormal. The principle of the Lemon Law should apply.

I'd also put the brand name in your posts. There are many refrigerators that, as a result of poor design and quality control, range from irritating to downright unsafe. My fridge was a fire hazard, and recalled for that reason, but the manufacturer, GE, dragged their feet in fixing it. The fix was about $20 in parts, but they were willing to risk a house fire (several fires had been started by these units at the time) rather than expeditiously fix the problem.

Hardly a day goes by when I am not disappointed by the quality of stuff from once-reliable names. Many of these manufacturers have no interest in doing the right thing, so a certain amount of force is required to get a fair settlement. Tally up all your costs (food loss, parts, your time, etc.) and ask for at least that plus the full purchase price. With so many failures, it seems very unlikely that you are the only customer experiencing these problems. A class action suit may be in order.

Oops. Maytag is the brand, not GE, as I wrote.

It's the old "FORD" syndrome of it's cheaper to pay the claims than recall & fix the fault.

Everything may be ok with that appliance except for the location of motherboard, Just see if it is not kept very close to compressor which may be causing this problem due to EMI/RFI, specially at the time those frequent switching of compressor,

Great Entertainment workinG on thEse devices. My new fridGE is only a year and a half old and had service techs in twice to fix. Now that it's not under warranty I'm Going thE easy route and fixing it myself. The motherboards are prone to failure. That's how they met the enerGy rEquirements, By going DC on everything. Small power surGEs wipe them out even with surGE sepressors

Good responses. In many areas I have worked, I find myself fixing the mistakes of those who have gone before me. I am so tired of half baked products. The brand that I bought is Electrolux. They now have a poor rating in Consumer Reports. I suppose they asked for it, and they certainly earned it.

I like the lemon law idea. I'm going to look into that. I've decided that we have to give the problem back to the morons that were more worried about making a production quota than quality. I recently realized that I tend to buy Japanese products when I can because quality is still important in Japan.

Next time, I'm checking with Consumer Reports before I buy. Their information tends to be a little outdated buy the time it is published with respect to certain models, etc. but a company that produces crap will continue to produce crap no mater what model number they assign to it. It just seems to be "a way of life".

When a board fails, it is usually one component that takes it down.I would be curious to know which component is failing.If it is on the power input side, or on one of the signal inputs or outputs.The remedy may be a properly selected and properly located MOV surge suppressor.

I have permanently fixed sensitive boards and components by using MIL SPEC components and high quality gold plated bifurcated chip sockets or high quality soldering when sockets were not an option.

Sometimes components are selected based on cost alone, and operate at the far end of their parameters.I have sometimes found it necessary to spec a different component with better tolerances and higher ratings for durability.

With the appliance market being as competitive as it is, and cost containment being a priority, quality and durability have taken a back seat to profit and greed.

I have a brand new refrigerator, and it gurgles,whines, clunks, and thunks and wheezes like an old model T. The owners manual says that this is normal.

The ice maker sounds like a corn grinder when it dumps, and the fill valve sounds like a small jet engine.

I had a 50 year old round-top refrigerator that you could not even hear running.This is progress in the name of efficiency?

Gimme back my retro appliances any day.

is it an amana?

it's the rigid foam insulation

the one we have works good & is about 10 years old

When appliances use controls based on mechanical devices these type of failure did not occur. Electronic appliances are sensitive to voltage surge . This is a major drawback . Improvement in the electrical safety installations will reduce these type of failures. Keep few motherboards as spare for replacement .

A well designed electronic board is not sensitive to voltage surge. You can make them more reliable than the mechanical counter part.

The problem is that appliances manufacturer try to squeeze so much $ out of every units that the electronics they use is anorexic. The design philosophy of appliance electronics designer is not one of quality. They sacrifice everything for a penny.

As suggested above, Give the board to an electronic designer who has industrial experience and he will make you a compatible one that will last forever. Then sell them on EBay for half the price of the manufacturer's replacement crap and you will make good money.

This is how new businesses are created!

Please see my post #21

Why not contact those small industry owner for a much cheaper and reliable cards.

I solved all my power problems by buying a protec contract from my electric company. It guarantees that I will not have appliance problems due to electrical surges or dips. I have a rural electric co op here in SC.

I found out early on in the repair cycle that they want you to purchase a service contract. So much so that they waived the repair fee when I bought the service contract. I later cancelled it.

I suggest you call your electric supplier and inquire about line protection. You may still get failures, but at least they will be paid for.

I just read the entire thread. It's a sad indictment of what's happened to American quality. People like us can tear into appliances or cars and repair things, the average person is clueless. Not only that but they're hands are tied by the manufacturers. I find it sad that one of the posts suggested using a brand from Japan. Long term quality has been almost entirely replaced by short term profit. That isn't the mentality that built this country.

To the question, I'd demand they take it back. Go to a moving or garage sale and get a 10 year old fridge. It will probably last you another 15 years with no hassles.

If you add more electronics to appliances you invite more problems. I have "Whirolpol" washing machine and fridge. Fridge does not have any electronics in the machine and it is working good since past 10 years. But washing machine has front mounted electronic control board which I had to replace thrice.

I must say, digital read outs, motherboards, electronic cards to preform functions has put the cost of repairs beyond the homeowners ability to pay for these parts that was to make life easier, much less the labor to get the repairman to the door. DIY is out completely. I gave a 2 year old washing machine to my repairman for parts and he wouldn't even haul it off. He stated that if he worked on another one it would leave him obligated for the repair and he would not use the parts or resale the machine due to the cost to him and his reputation..Brand is not the problem most come from a whirlpool based Company or one with a good reputation as theirs but no design to last in our imperfect world. Voltage., dirt, cat hair, water, heat, old, etc..When the Machine [?] was $200 the cost of the service man and part was about $60, the New machine is now floats around $900-$1500 do the math, $300-$600 for the service and even plus the part...

New developments making the life of common man awful, even technicians. All digital read outs, motherboards, electronic cards etc even for more sophisticated equipment like PCs, Industrial Machines is Domestic Industry [mean small one]. Mst of the manufactures use their cards with names printed to their requirements.

I have been working on Small / Medium power UPSs, Soft Starters, Drives and had noted almost common Power & Control boards are used. Printing as per manufacture & language by producers' country.

Original manufacturer's ID nowhere, in print or PCB etching.

And most of the looting is due to these electronic boards.

$1 shops are good sources for such supplies.

I got CR2032 3V cell in Weighing machine. The same cell is used in blood sugar Tester & Blood pressure [semiAuto Pump manual ].

Asked from my pharmacy its cost 1$ less than new machine.

Got the same 2 for $1 from $1 shop.

Why not ask for a more reliable electronic products ?

I was using my Compaq Presario [Not Pentium. Pentium trademark started after it] till 2 years back. Win95 pre-installed, Cab folder to copy for re-installation. All boards Made in China, CPU made/assembled in Malaysia.

Very easy user friendly.

Now with new version of windows much is done on COSMATICS as the Car industry is doing

It was called 586 [as indicated on bootup]

Just FYI for this thread. While it is no guarantee that there will be no problems, I subscribe to the online version of this. It's pretty cheap, and at least I can get some idea as to reliability before making a purchase.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm

you don't even have to bother with that

do a search

type in brand, model

add complaints or problems after

if people aren't happy, they will make that known

Yeah, I do that too. The complaint pages are some good, but people aren't always reasonable. The thing I like about Consumer Reports is that the tests are the same, and controlled, across a range of similar products from different manufactures.

Of course, I've also been told by people that CR is on the take, and favors some over others, due to sponsorship money. I still find them to be pretty reliable.

The company and the distributor should make this right; however your patience may not hold out (sometimes I think they count on it). I worked for appliance controls division of GE when they were mostly electromechanical and the reliability was excellent. Seems like they and most others have done poorly transitioning to the new electronic controls. Seems like many appliances brands have taken a deep dive in quality over the last 5-10 years as their average life has halved.

My advice: if they can not tell you the cause(s) for the board failures and the corrective actions (and you don't want to redesign/upgrade yourself), take the 70% and go to another brand. As mentioned, CR is generally a good reference source & they have both car and appliance surveys which can predict trends pretty well. Their down side - they may not have tested your model or your board is a new design with no history yet.

I worked for appliance controls division of GE when they were mostly electromechanical and the reliability was excellent.
Just today the electromechanical start switch on my two-year-old GE dryer failed. It is a spring-loaded momentary contact rotary switch (which has always felt spongy) -- it could just as easily be a pushbutton. Now the spring has failed, so that today the dryer started as soon as I selected the drying routine. The switch can be manually returned to the off position -- it feels like the spring has failed or come adrift.
Remarkable that they can't even get this right.
Some of these rotary start switches are a stunning $25 - $30, for $2.00 worth of electrical function.

I feel your pain. 30 years ago we did not skimp on materials and life cycles. Also we manufactured our own controls (not always so today). Seems like almost everyone in the appliance industry are too focused on cheap and not value. My friends let me know every day. Wish I had an answer.