I bought a Maytag Neptune washer and dryer after reading an article in Design News, which convinced me to spare the extra expense when our top loader quit. I was fairly impressed with the design. We pay for our water in California, but that was less a deciding factor than the fact that it was gentler on clothes and quiet.
The washer bearing set gave out fairly soon, however, and I was surprised to discover that they were not replaceable. You had to buy the entire (expensive) drum/spider set. You can rent a tool to replace the bearings, but the hassle and downtime was so much that I decided not to fix it. Instead, I bought a new washer/dryer set.
We replaced the Maytag washer and dryer with a Samsung steam washer and dryer, which we've had for 18 months, and so far they work perfectly. Time will tell, but I have the expectation that they will last at least 10 years. If we set the spin speed to "very high," the clothes almost don't need to be dried. They are slightly damp at most. Even on this setting, the washer is so quiet that you can barely hear it spin. The music it plays when it's done is at least twice as loud, and it's not loud at all.
When Whirlpool bought Maytag, it replaced the Maytag-designed Neptune with a Samsung washer and dryer and simply rebadged them. I worked for Samsung some time back, and I had reviewed its washer design once. I was impressed with the design team’s commitment to quality.
This entry was submitted by Kelly Williams and edited by Rob Spiegel.
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Those Neptune units have everything in a big plastic tub. It looked like you had to pull all that out to get to the problem. My folks had the same problem with theres. Bearings lost lube and it sounded like a grinder at 1000rpm. So what did they do... just like any other American.. bought the more expensive Samsung units with matching dryer having the steam option. This time they bought the insurance and the units have been working great for the past year.
It seems like I read more about home washers in this column than any other items. Does anybody have any ideas of why this is the case? I expect a washer to last 10-12 years and since we bought our first in 1967, that has been the case. We are on our second dryer in the same length of time. Our first one was so old It was Harvest Gold in color. Am I just lucky or are most of the respondents cursed?
It seems like I read more about home washers in this column than any other items. Does anybody have any ideas of why this is the case? I expect a washer to last 10-12 years and since we bought our first in 19867, that has been the case. We are on our second dryer in the same length of time. Our first one was so old It was Harvest Gold in color. Am I just lucky or are most of the respondents cursed?
The bearings in my LG WM2032HW failed after nearly 8 years. Parts were readily available, $70 for the 2 bearings and seal. It was an all day job, but it came apart and went back together without major difficulties. I am very satisfied with my LG washing machine, and my Bosch dishwasher. Keep up the great work.
That's an excellent list, Jeff. Unfortunately, price usually trumps quality. Otherwise Wal-Mart wouldn't be so successful at destroying one mom and pop shop after another.
So many engineers, myself included, have ideas like:
1.Products should be designed so they work great and meet and exceed expectations that the customer has for them.
2. Products should be durable, rugged, user friendly, simple, and reliable.
3. When something does fail, it fails from an understood wear out mechanism that was given a fair chance to live a good life by the engineer who designed it and the people who built it.
4. That part that wore out should be readily and inexpensively available. It should be easy to remove and replace because it was designed for serviceability.
5. expressing a strong sense of outrage when 1-4 are violated.
My opinion is that most of the rest of society just wants it cheap cool and now.
My guess is that making a machine hard to repair is a teast partly due to cost reductions. Crimped edges that don't open "gracefully", snap fit assemblies that can not be undone, only broken, and bearings pressed into place and held by upset staking. These are all done for initial cost reduction, but they also reduce quality, for those who equate quality to service life. As for bearings, I still recall the very old Maytag on my Uncles farm, used almost daily. one bearing needed to be replaced every twenty years, he complained. The only washer and dryer set that I am aware of that came close to that was the old "Westinghouse Twins", machines with the tubs at quite an angle, done so that the washer door seal would not have water pressure on it. They were way ahead of time with that pair. The other front loader that was ahead of it's time was the Bendix Duo-Matic, a combination washer and dryer with one tub serving both. That was quite a concept, but it had quite a few problems, as I recall. The idea didn't seem to catch on.
Your story is amazing, jeffbiss, and it sounds like you answered the question about planned obsolescence. If you have to drill holes in the transmission to replace fluid, then I would think that the transmission, and maybe the whole washer, is being designed for obsolescence.
Yes, I know about the bearing replacement tool... But that tool rental would not be a really quick fix, and when I told my wife that it might take a couple of weeks to fix the washer, she said no way...
$485 deposit to get the tool and bearings and seals, then after you ship it back you get a $320 refund...
The big problem was not having a washer for the 2 or 3 weeks it would take... My wife has a thing about laundromats...
I had the same experience with a Maytag front load. I'd really like to hear from some working MEs as to whether manufacturers do practice design obsolescense. There really is absolutely no valid reason to not design a machine to be repaired by a capable individual. In fact, in the 1970s my dad and I had fixed a Maytag washer's transmission by drilling two holes in it to replace the transmission fluid and then plug them up for operation. Then the question was why didn't Maytag design in an adequate drain port? My dad just refilled it for more use. Poor design for repairability has been an issue for quite some time.
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