The End of the Throw Away Appliance

I went to press the start button on the dishwasher. Nothing happened. There was no sound, there were no lights. Nothing. It didnt start. I convinced my daughter to help me take out all the dishes and wash them by hand. It really didnt take too long, but I still love having a dishwasher.

When I had time, I started trying to troubleshoot and figure out the problem. The first step is always to turn off the power and turn it back on. You never know, that might fix it but not in this case. After a couple more tests, it seemed clear that the washer was indeed getting power. I had narrowed the problem down to either the control board (the computer for the dishwasher) or the front control panel.

Here is the real problem. I wasnt exactly sure which part was broken. The control panel costs about $100 and the control board has a price around $120. On a gamble, I could order the control panel (pretty sure thats where the problem was), but what if Im wrong? I could possibly return the piece but the whole process could take a significant amount of time.

Are there other options? Yes, there are two things to consider. First, I could call the repairman. These guys charge about $150 to come out and then you would have to pay for the part on top of that. No, thats not a good option. Could I just buy a new washer? Yes, a new washer would cost between $250-$300.

Now you can see why we are in the age of the throw away appliance. Why would you repair an appliance if it is just a little bit more to buy a new one? Even if I did spend $100 to fix my washer, who knows something else might break next week. In too many cases its just simpler to buy a new thing than to repair. I think this sucks.

What ever happened to Luis and Marias Fix It Shop on Sesame Street? You just dont see places like this anymore. Its not a good business plan since people just buy new appliances when they break. I miss Luis and Maria.

Maybe the companies that make appliances dont really mind that you have a throw-away dish washer. Maybe they are even happy that you have to buy a new one. However, I think the future is near. In this future you will once again be able to repair your appliance. Why? Ill give you three reasons.

Youtube. Even though we have devices that arent so easy to figure out, we have help (by we I mean people that want to repair their own stuff). Lets go back to my dishwasher. If I do a quick search, I can find several videos showing exactly how to fix it like this one. How awesome is that? And if you cant find it in a video, you can probably find your answer in some DIY appliance forum. This is what makes the internet so great.

Arduino. The Arduino is an inexpensive and open source processor. Think of it as a tiny programmable chip, thats essentially what it is. You can build all sorts of awesome stuff and it isnt even that complicated. I have a group of kids that meet each week to work on building simple things.

But could you replace the control board in your dishwasher with Arduino? Yup. In fact, someone already did. So, the Arduino can solve the problem of replacing an expensive control board. What if manufacturers just used Arduino to begin with? It might be cheaper for them to create and it would be easier for you to fix. Also, just imagine all the cool upgrades you could add to your Arduino-based appliance.

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The End of the Throw Away Appliance