Design News for Mechanical and Design Engineers

I could not agree more with your editorial about the advanced features on appliances (DN MY VIEW 03.07.05 http://rbi.ims.ca/4393-508). Our machine was a fairly simple unit, no electronic nuttin. It was about 15 years old when once in a while a shirt or light-colored something would come out with a small grease smear on it. Since it was my clothes that had the spots, I just got blamed for being careless as usual. I have been known to go out and dig in the garden in my new slacks and shoes, and change oil in the car wearing a white shirt. Anyway, one fine day a shirt of hers got nailed. Now I had to figure it out. Found a bad seal on the agitating shaft. A very small amount of grease would seep out and the spin cycle would act like a centrifuge and splatter the clothes. No fixing that versus the price of a new machine. Nice brand new model (white) and no electronics. Just a couple of push buttons and a timer knob. Should last a good long time.

Al Peace, Gardena, CA

I once was so foolish to buy a White Westinghouse washing machine—the first one I ever owned. It was only about 3-4 years old when the top of the machine (the top sheet metal with the door on a top loader) started rusting. It was ugly, but didn't hurt anything, until my wife told me the washer wouldn't spin anymore. I found that the sheet metal around the hinges that held the door had bubbled up with rust so bad that the door wouldn't close completely and couldn't push down the little switch to signal the machine the door was closed. I removed the entire top sheet metal along with the door, removed the rust, bead-blasted it, repainted it, and put it back together. It worked fine until the transmission let loose not long thereafter. Total life was about four to five years.

Terry Crock, Massillon, OH

After a couple of months with our new refrigerator, our in-door ice dispenser ran out of ice. I noticed the hopper that stored the ice was completely empty. At first I thought the optical sensor that sensed the level of ice was malfunctioning, but after an hour with a schematic and multimeter, I determined that the sensor was actually working okay. The icemaker itself seemed relatively simple in design, so there were no obvious signs there. I began to look at the path that the water takes to get to the icemaker. The water came in the back, ran up along the outside of the back, then into and along the top of the freezer, and into the icemaker (located in the front of the freezer). The last leg of the journey was the part that concerned me. When the icemaker was not running, there was water in the tube, sitting at the top of the freezer. After 5 min with a blow dryer I had the water line defrosted. After a call to customer service, I was informed that this problem was well known. When the technician showed up, he said that for over a year he made repeated calls to "blow dry" frozen water lines. Finally, they redesigned the water line to include a section that had a heating element. Imagine that, it only took a year for someone to realize that water freezes if it gets too cold.

Greg Opalka, Carbondale, PA

I also purchased a washing machine (just so happens from Sears). After the warranty period conveniently ran out on my washing machine, I found it was leaking oil. I got nowhere with Sears so I eventually opened the machine (no small feat, parts all over the place) and found a leak from the washer transmission. I opened the transmission cover and found a gasket that was broken from not having been seated correctly. I reassembled the machine (again no small feat) and used it until I was able to find a new gasket and a very expensive replacement oil. I reassembled the washing machine and it seemed to work fine, but it eventually started leaking again. Knowing how much work it is to open the washer, I've just let it leak. After all, it's just a small leak.

Jim Vitello, West Babylon, NY