4 ms·

That reminds me: I have a Siemens washing machine, and the interface have a latency of >500 ms. How they fucked it up is way beyond me. It consists of nothing

by nom 10y ago

That reminds me: I have a Siemens washing machine, and the interface have a latency of >500 ms. How they fucked it up is way beyond me. It consists of nothing more than a rotary switch, four buttons and three 7-segment LED displays. I've played with the thought of disassembling the firmware just to see how they fucked this up this bad. I could never make something this unresponsive even if I tried. It's utterly fascinating and pisses me of every time I do the laundry.

zaroth 10y ago
Why you can't just toss the clothes in, close the door and walk away is beyond me. Wish I could empty the whole 150oz of Tide into the machine and have it dispense over 96 loads too.
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  I've thought this many times, and I suspect it's somewhat complicated, engineering-wise — but solvable. For one, detergent comes in at least three forms: Powder, liquid and those little plastic pouches. Powder would be pretty easy (but the dosage would be brand-specific) and liquid would be messy (flow rate would be a challenge). The easiest way would be if all machines could accept a "standard pellet" which gets loaded in some kind of completely fool-proof way so the machine cannot mechanically choke on them, ever, or accidentally add too few/many to a load. Same thing with dishwashers. As for why you can't just close the door and walk away: Setting the program is an important step in washing clothes. Modern machines do have a single "start" button.
  - dkresge 10y ago
    GE has both under the name "SmartDispense". They use a peristaltic pump to dispense liquid detergent. I owned the dishwasher for a few years and enjoyed the convenience.
- glaberficken 10y ago
  In 20 years, I've owned 3 washing machines. I dealt with maybe 3 or 4 malfunctions over those 20 years, and each of them required only buying some spare part and installing it, or cleaning something inside. Surely this kind of reliability is a good trade-off Vs having to pour some detergent for each wash?

by nom 10y ago

zaroth 10y ago

Why you can't just toss the clothes in, close the door and walk away is beyond me. Wish I could empty the whole 150oz of Tide into the machine and have it dispense over 96 loads too.

lobster_johnson 10y ago
I've thought this many times, and I suspect it's somewhat complicated, engineering-wise — but solvable. For one, detergent comes in at least three forms: Powder, liquid and those little plastic pouches. Powder would be pretty easy (but the dosage would be brand-specific) and liquid would be messy (flow rate would be a challenge). The easiest way would be if all machines could accept a "standard pellet" which gets loaded in some kind of completely fool-proof way so the machine cannot mechanically choke on them, ever, or accidentally add too few/many to a load. Same thing with dishwashers. As for why you can't just close the door and walk away: Setting the program is an important step in washing clothes. Modern machines do have a single "start" button.
- dkresge 10y ago
  GE has both under the name "SmartDispense". They use a peristaltic pump to dispense liquid detergent. I owned the dishwasher for a few years and enjoyed the convenience.
glaberficken 10y ago
In 20 years, I've owned 3 washing machines. I dealt with maybe 3 or 4 malfunctions over those 20 years, and each of them required only buying some spare part and installing it, or cleaning something inside. Surely this kind of reliability is a good trade-off Vs having to pour some detergent for each wash?