The End of the Throw Away Appliance

Rhett Allain

I went to press the “start” button on the dishwasher. Nothing happened. There was no sound, there were no lights. Nothing. It didn’t start. I convinced my daughter to help me take out all the dishes and wash them by hand. It really didn’t 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 wasn’t 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 that’s where the problem was), but what if I’m 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, that’s 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 it’s just simpler to buy a new thing than to repair. I think this sucks.

What ever happened to Luis and Maria’s Fix It Shop on Sesame Street? You just don’t see places like this anymore. It’s 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 don’t 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? I’ll give you three reasons.

Youtube. Even though we have devices that aren’t so easy to figure out, we have help (by we I mean people that want to repair their own stuff). Let’s 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 can’t find it in a video, you can probably find your answer in some DYI 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, that’s essentially what it is. You can build all sorts of awesome stuff and it isn’t even that complicated. I have a group of kids that meet each week to work on building simple things.

Rhett Allain

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.

Why does an oven need a computer in it anyway?

3D Printers. But what if you break a gear or some moving part in your appliance? You are pretty much done for, right? Oh, no – not right. What about the 3D printer? These things are becoming both cheaper and more accessible each day. Even now, I think you could print out any part you would need for a repair. Ok, I suspect there will be some problems ahead. The manufacturers are probably going to have a fit over people sharing parts data. They will claim that the parts for their washing machine are copyrighted and you can’t print out your own. They might even be legally correct (I have no idea). Whether they want it to happen or not, parts will be printable in the near future. And by “near future”, I mean now.

This will be the end of the disposable appliance. I, for one, welcome our 3D printed Arduino powered appliance Overlords.