5 ms·

My 2000-era Bosch washing machine failed. I opened it up and it had a huge circuit board which was pretty easy to figure out and repair. I imagine these days

by gumby 4y ago

My 2000-era Bosch washing machine failed. I opened it up and it had a huge circuit board which was pretty easy to figure out and repair. I imagine these days it would just have a few power transistors and an inscrutable ASIC. Sigh. BTW all my appliances from 20 years ago (washer, dryer, dishwasher, pool heater, fridge, oven, stove..) are still going strong. I've only had to fix the washer and microwave.

musingsole 4y ago
>I imagine these days it would just have a few power transistors and an inscrutable ASIC That just make an it easier to replace with an ESP32 and flashing OpenWashingMachine
- adversaryIdiot 4y ago
  git hub actually has some washing machine repos. Man I love open source
  - dieselgate 4y ago
    curious if these are mostly circuit diagrams or also contain dimensioned engineering drawings for components/pieces?
- kamaradclimber 4y ago
  Does openwashingmachine really exist? EDIT: found https://github.com/topics/washing-machine?l=c%2B%2B&o=asc&s=updated https://github.com/topics/washing-machine?l=c%2B%2B&o=asc&s=..., https://github.com/stav98/Washing-Machine https://github.com/stav98/Washing-Machine, https://github.com/narenakash/IoT-and-Smart-Laundry-using-OneM2M https://github.com/narenakash/IoT-and-Smart-Laundry-using-On..., https://github.com/tailsu/miele-brain https://github.com/tailsu/miele-brain
Calvin02 4y ago
I'm genuinely curious: Have you compared their efficiency levels with newer appliances?
- gumby 4y ago
  I have not. I suspect the fridge would be a good upgrade, but probably not the others. Even if efficiency had improved, the cap ex of replacing it would probably take a long time to pay off.
- unwind 4y ago
  I was at a mini-lecture about how to save energy in small houses, and the lecturer stated that a 10 year old fridge uses 2X the power of a modern one. For a 15-year old fridge that goes up to 3X. I have not researched this to verify but have no reason to doubt it.
- bryceacc 4y ago
  I've monitored the electricity usage of the original 30yr old fridge my house has. It uses about 980kwh a year with today's energy prices costing about $400. If I got a new generic fridge ($630) with the energy star rating of 332kwh a year, that would save a whopping $265 a year. That's a 2.5yr break even. If you get a fancy fridge costing double the price and using double the energy it doesn't make as much sense
  - teawrecks 4y ago
    And that's not even considering the cost of being less repairable.
  - Our_Benefactors 4y ago
    2.5year break even seems pretty fantastic actually. I did the math on replacing my boiler and it was something like between 12-15 years to pay back.
js2 4y ago
I've kept alive my Fisher & Paykel dish drawers and double oven from 2004. I've even retrofitted improvements they made to the models during their production run when a part has failed and they've sold me the improved part. The oven was fun. I had to build an exact-height dolly to remove it from my cabinet to work on it: https://ibb.co/yP05P1j https://ibb.co/yP05P1j https://ibb.co/5Lxqc3N https://ibb.co/5Lxqc3N But after that it was easy to swap parts. These aren't exactly high tech appliances. :-) None of my other 2004 appliances have survived. The Trio fridge failed at 16 years and it was in the closed system, so not worth paying someone to fix and I don't have the necessarily refrigeration system skillset. A top-load Maytag washing machine also failed at about 16 years. The bottom seal gave up the ghost. I probably could've fixed that but I really wanted to redo my entire laundry room anyway so upgraded to a new HE model and matching electric dryer (previous dryer was gas). Those are now 4 years old and have so far been trouble free.

by gumby 4y ago

musingsole 4y ago

>I imagine these days it would just have a few power transistors and an inscrutable ASIC That just make an it easier to replace with an ESP32 and flashing OpenWashingMachine

adversaryIdiot 4y ago
git hub actually has some washing machine repos. Man I love open source
- dieselgate 4y ago
  curious if these are mostly circuit diagrams or also contain dimensioned engineering drawings for components/pieces?
kamaradclimber 4y ago
Does openwashingmachine really exist? EDIT: found https://github.com/topics/washing-machine?l=c%2B%2B&o=asc&s=updated https://github.com/topics/washing-machine?l=c%2B%2B&o=asc&s=..., https://github.com/stav98/Washing-Machine https://github.com/stav98/Washing-Machine, https://github.com/narenakash/IoT-and-Smart-Laundry-using-OneM2M https://github.com/narenakash/IoT-and-Smart-Laundry-using-On..., https://github.com/tailsu/miele-brain https://github.com/tailsu/miele-brain

Calvin02 4y ago

I'm genuinely curious: Have you compared their efficiency levels with newer appliances?

gumby 4y ago
I have not. I suspect the fridge would be a good upgrade, but probably not the others. Even if efficiency had improved, the cap ex of replacing it would probably take a long time to pay off.
unwind 4y ago
I was at a mini-lecture about how to save energy in small houses, and the lecturer stated that a 10 year old fridge uses 2X the power of a modern one. For a 15-year old fridge that goes up to 3X. I have not researched this to verify but have no reason to doubt it.
bryceacc 4y ago
I've monitored the electricity usage of the original 30yr old fridge my house has. It uses about 980kwh a year with today's energy prices costing about $400. If I got a new generic fridge ($630) with the energy star rating of 332kwh a year, that would save a whopping $265 a year. That's a 2.5yr break even. If you get a fancy fridge costing double the price and using double the energy it doesn't make as much sense
- teawrecks 4y ago
  And that's not even considering the cost of being less repairable.
- Our_Benefactors 4y ago
  2.5year break even seems pretty fantastic actually. I did the math on replacing my boiler and it was something like between 12-15 years to pay back.

js2 4y ago

I've kept alive my Fisher & Paykel dish drawers and double oven from 2004. I've even retrofitted improvements they made to the models during their production run when a part has failed and they've sold me the improved part. The oven was fun. I had to build an exact-height dolly to remove it from my cabinet to work on it: https://ibb.co/yP05P1j https://ibb.co/yP05P1j https://ibb.co/5Lxqc3N https://ibb.co/5Lxqc3N But after that it was easy to swap parts. These aren't exactly high tech appliances. :-) None of my other 2004 appliances have survived. The Trio fridge failed at 16 years and it was in the closed system, so not worth paying someone to fix and I don't have the necessarily refrigeration system skillset. A top-load Maytag washing machine also failed at about 16 years. The bottom seal gave up the ghost. I probably could've fixed that but I really wanted to redo my entire laundry room anyway so upgraded to a new HE model and matching electric dryer (previous dryer was gas). Those are now 4 years old and have so far been trouble free.