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Samsung Recalls 2.8M Top-Load Washing Machines
- lcfcjs 10y agoWere they exploding?
- smaili 10y agoLooks like 2016 has been a tough year for Samsung. Obviously not directly comparable, but this has somewhat reminded me of Chipotle's past troubles and the impact its had on customer perception.
- r00fus 10y agoSeems like a perfect storm - but why? Clearly any one of these doses of bad news (Hanjin bankruptcy, Note7, washers) would be enough for a year, but all three?
- pjc50 10y agoIt's 2016. Bad news has been hyper-intensified. :(
- tedajax 10y agoHas Chipotle's customer perception been hurt that much? I know personally the threat of E. coli infection, while certainly higher than it should have been, was not really that much worse and I certainly didn't stop going to Chipotle over it. Maybe that's just myself but I know I've heard similar sentiments from others. Has Chipotle said how much damage they think was done?
- encoderer 10y agoThey have negative same-store growth.
- acchow 10y agoPost hoc ergo propter hoc
- jerf 10y agoOK, sure, but what else have you got? Shall we run a controlled double-blind experiment where we expose only half of the participants to the idea that e coli was found at Chipotle, but not the other half, and repeat it in 20 distinct different cultures? It's not exactly a crazy theory that "people eat less at a store than has been in the national news for poisoning people". Science and logic do not require us to pretend to be complete idiots.
- nommm-nommm 10y agohttps://consumerist.com/2016/07/15/analyst-chipotles-customers-still-havent-all-come-back/ https://consumerist.com/2016/07/15/analyst-chipotles-custome... >a customer survey by Morgan Stanley showed that 25% of customers said that they’ve either stopped going to Chipotle, or still go but stop in less often. 13% of participants said that they will no longer go back to the restaurant, which is surprisingly close to the number of customers who said the same during the food-safety crisis. >Another survey released this week showed that while 20% of adults surveyed were “very worried” about the chain’s food safety in January, the figure had fallen to 13% this month. 26% of people surveyed said that they had not visited Chipotle since the worst of the outbreak.
- electic 10y agoI would argue this is far more serious than the phones that were recently recalled: > "The washing machine top can unexpectedly detach from the washing machine chassis during use, posing a risk of injury from impact," according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. How scary is that? This likely could cause death. You are talking about the water, clothes, and the weight of the drum flying out and potentially hitting you.
- pat2man 10y agoPhones that burst into flames could also cause death...
- FLGMwt 10y agoNot to mention you don't usually take your washing machine with you on a flight :p
- foldr 10y agoIt's highly unlikely that a phone catching fire in the cabin would bring a plane down.
- zeusk 10y agoIt (fire) is one of the most likely thing to bring down a plane.
- foldr 10y agoYes, but a small fire in the cabin should not spread to the rest of the plane. Plane manafacturers have figured out by now that making seats etc. out of flammable material is not a good idea. Also, I think it is statistically false that a large fraction of plane crashes are due to fire. In fact I don't even know of a plane crash that was caused by something in the passenger cabin itself catching fire.
- mrep 10y ago
- mirekrusin 10y agoThey should pivot to military contracts.
- shahzeb 10y agoAnd building exotic buildings like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa#Development
- snerbles 10y agoThey did develop the SGR-A1 sentry turret about a decade ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azQzwI9-GHU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azQzwI9-GHU
- i998sd9as89 10y agoIt is amazing how many things that were a solved problem at least 40 years ago continue to be reinvented badly.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- maxerickson 10y agoThey are now expected to work with less energy and water. https://www.energystar.gov/products/appliances/clothes_washers https://www.energystar.gov/products/appliances/clothes_washe...
- Kenji 10y agoKnow-how has to be maintained. Knowledge has to be passed down to the apprentices and juniors. Otherwise it is lost over time and has to be rediscovered/reinvented, often by failures like in the article. Technological progress is never guaranteed or a certainty. Progress is the result of incremental improvements and sustainable hard work.
- emodendroket 10y agoI suppose the classic example is concrete. That said, is that really the problem here, or a culture of trying to rush products to the market?
- mysterypie 10y agoAnother example is mechanical parts and linkages. In the early 20th century there were many incredibly intricate mechanical devices -- the Curta calculator is an example[1] -- that have been replaced by semiconductors. I wonder if those could even be made today without having to recreate the knowledge and manufacturing processes. [1] https://calculating.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/curta-calculator-breakdown.jpg https://calculating.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/curta-calcul...
- 10y ago
- fapjacks 10y agoWell, Samsung has made its entire business out of making the crapiest goods possible. They are masters of the "it works within the definition of 'works' according to the warranty until the warranty expires" which Americans just can't get enough of.
- jdietrich 10y agoI'm surprised that anyone still makes top-loading washing machines. They completely disappeared from the UK market decades ago, due to the vastly superior energy and water efficiency of front-loading machines. Does anyone know why top-loading machines persist in the US market?
- etimberg 10y agoProbably because they're much cheaper. Plus, it's easy to manually adjust the cycle (or add things at a later point) since you don't need to drain it to open the door.
- Spooky23 10y agoTop losers are cheaper and more reliable. Even factoring water and energy usage. We bought a low tech, inefficient speed queen with a 7 year warranty. The 10 year TCO is like 40% less than a comparable front loader.
- roseburg 10y agoSpeed Queen now makes the best top loading machine, hands down. It's just hard to find them locally. I believe they can be purchased on Amazon now.
- FigBug 10y agoThey are cheaper
- carterehsmith 10y agoThey tend to be cheaper than front-loaders.
- 1123581321 10y agoWe bought a top loader recently. It was by far the cheapest option that met our volume and reliability requirements. We estimate that an equivalent front loader would break even in about 10 years, which isn't very good. Also, we buy used/refurb appliances when possible, and there aren't many available front loaders.
- Spooky23 10y agoWhy does anyone buy fancy washers?
- dexterdog 10y agoYou can do a huge load in a reasonable amount of time with energy efficiency and usually reliability.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoFancy in what way?
- roseburg 10y agoIt's just shiny. Cosmetic only. All the parts and design elements haven't changed in decades for dryers.
- roel_v 10y agoEnergy use reduction, they're gentler on clothes, automatic programs, less noise, better detergent dosing, ...
- kw71 10y agoUsing less water is what got me interested. When I bought it I was worried about loading the septic drainfield with excess water and soap. Then I moved to a city where water is very expensive. The energy to heat the water is a concern too. I found that compared to a normal American style top loading machine with agitator, it takes better care of my clothing. I happened to choose a machine that can spin at 1200 rpm, which is apparently rather fast for a laundry machine. The electric dryer seems to work a lot faster. Now my machine is getting old, I had to repair the electronics once, and am wondering when the gasket will tear and will I be able to find a replacement, etc. I have had to repair top loaders more often but parts for these kinds of machines seem to stay in the market for 30 years or more. That's probably not going to be the case for this fancy import.
- roseburg 10y ago
- ajharrison 10y agoSamsung: A symbol of quality™
- JoelBennett 10y agoAs someone who currently has a Samsung stove, I can wholeheartedly say I hate the thing. The interface is one of the worst I've seen - touch "buttons" on a stove. It does't work half the time if your hands are the slightest bit wet - which they often are after washing hands. It's incredibly frustrating, and has completely thrown me off about buying any sort of Samsung appliance. Samsung has such potential, but it's untested things make me wonder about their long-term value.
- mmariani 10y agoGoing on a tangent, if you like to cook you should get a traditional gas burning stove. No fancy UI beats the simplicity pushing and turning knobs. Not to mention the heating control precision. I think that's much more important than fancy knives and other expensive tools of the trade.
- roel_v 10y agoNope, induction is better on all fronts (control, ease of cleaning, safety). And if you buy a good brand (I currently have Miele, my previous Siemens was great too), touch controls work perfectly.
- mmariani 10y agoI have used a lot of induction stoves and I didn't like it very much. I just called a chef friend of mine and he agrees with me as long as you get a decent stove with big burners. Anyway, you should use whatever makes you comfortable at the kitchen. The important thing is to keep cooking and having a good time doing it.
- erpellan 10y agoYou haven't seen precision until you've tried an induction stove. Instant heat, almost no residual temperature (they heat the metal of the pan directly rather than firing radiation / hot air at them) and super easy to clean.
- acchow 10y ago
- bcheung 10y agoSounds like using an accelerometer to measure vibration and reduce spin speed if vibration is too high might be a good addition to washing machines.
- kw71 10y agoMy made in 2004 LG frontloader has a simpler device for this. A ball bearing rests in the path of an LED light. If it shakes, the ball moves, allowing the light to shine on a phototransistor. The machine will slow down or stop and toss the load around depending on how much trouble it is having.
- jsmith0295 10y agoWell, at least these aren't bursting into flames. (Although, hilariously enough, they are still sort of exploding, just in a different way.)
- taspeotis 10y agoTheir other model catches on fire [1]. (Under "FAQs" click "What is the issue?") [1] http://www.samsung.com/au/washingmachinerecall/ http://www.samsung.com/au/washingmachinerecall/
- jsmith0295 10y agoThat is too funny, almost too good to be true...kinda like how Anthony Weiner got pulled into all this Clinton scandal business.
- discordianfish 10y agoFunny you say it this way. I would say Hillary got pulled into the Weiner scandal..
- jsmith0295 10y agoThat is a better way of saying it, I was more thinking of it from the perspective of the media coverage
- narrator 10y agoI recently replaced a Samsung washer after the thing started to stain my clothes with rust that was getting generated from the internal parts of the machine chipping and exposing the rustable interior to the water. Got a Speed Queen and am happy.
- americandream 10y agoDang it. We bought the Samsung instead of LG, because of videos[1] that showed the LG exploding. Top load models have a much large capacity than front loaders, but there are some serious challenges to overcome for these models that lack a central agitator column. Despite being billed as "water saving", ours often has to repeat the setup for the spin cycle. It does this by dumping several gallons of water, sloshing the clothes around until it calculates an even load, then starting the drain+spin again. If you are unlucky, this can happen multiple times. We are tipped off by the noise of the machine momentarily whacking into the surrrounding items in the laundry room. It seems Samsung is offering "free repairs", but that makes me wonder if it's just a technician with a USB cable coming to reduce things like spin rate or make the machine even more likely to halt and prompt for intervention (ugh-- wet clothes are heavy). [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_z4fjiCz6tU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_z4fjiCz6tU
- smokinjuan 10y agoThe "free repair" includes "reinforcement of the washer top." I haven't had any trouble with mine, but I don't pay much attention to it. https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2017/Samsung-Recalls-Top-Load-Washing-Machines https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2017/Samsung-Recalls-Top-Load-W...
- americandream 10y agoThat's good news. In any event, the spin cycle is fast enough (in the 1/2m•v^2 sense) that even before the recall, I wouldn't let my small kids in the same room with it. A repair still won't fix that precaution.
- msane 10y agoIs Samsung in the middle of an industrial sabatage capaign?
- debt 10y agoif they get really good at retrofitting their recalled shitty hardware then maybe this'll just be something samsung owners should just expect going forward. i hope this doesn't happen in their heavy industries unit though. can you recall ships that leak/sink.
- clinq 10y agoI don't know what's going on with Samsung's QA process. Their cellphone apps are buggy, their newest flagship cellphone has a design flaw that is still being root-caused after global recall, now another hardware design flaw in washing machine. But today, a complain from my friend who works in Samsung Research America at MTV may explain something: on his posted screenshot, the boss sent an email to ask them to fix bugs during the weekends...
- colindean 10y agoI own an affected model. The exchange program is seemingly not worth it. My compensation offer was $295 if I purchased a Samsung replacement, $195 for non-Samsung. I chose the "repair" because those amounts were approximately 25% at best the cost of a suitable replacement. I have several dogs, so I do a lot of laundry daily and need an expensive unit geared toward large families because of it.