3 Oct
2010
3 Oct
'10
3:38 p.m.
On 10/3/2010 1:03 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
Been
there, done that, though it has been quite a few years. I would
still be glad to fix things that way if possible.
I do worry
sometimes about all the appliances we have with IMHO
Not a microwave oven, but for washing machines :
Old washing machine ran for 40 years. In that time it needed one repair
to its electromechancal timer, something which involved me cutting about
1" of brass strip and screwing it in place. Of course in those 40 years
it's needed new hosesm seals, etc, but I am only considering the timer...
New washing machine : After about 4 years, the motor control module
failed. And it was the custom microcontroller chip. I have the wiring
diagram, but not of course schematics of the module, but I could prove
the relays, triac, etc were fine. And they won't sell just the chip :-(.
Result : Over \punds 100 for the motor controller.
I had exactly the same thing
happen. By that I mean I had clothes
washer board/s fail after only about 5 years. I kept the bad boards but
have not yet tried to delve into exactly what is wrong with them. When
the washer needs replacing I'd love to get one with a simple
electromechanical timer. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that is possible
any more. The guy at the Fixit Shop where I usually buy my appliance
parts did not think so when I mentioned that idea the last time I was in
there. This crazy washer we have now has two motors: a pump motor which
runs at line frequency, but the main mechanism drive motor is PWM'ed at
varying frequencies up to I think a few KHz. Who needs it? Not me!
Washing clothes is not rocket science!
Now which do you think I prefer?
Yeah, us too, as far as manually cooking goes. But so much of the
control stuff is electronic I don't think it would be very easy to
circumvent. At best, it would probably look pretty bad I think. I
should probably really get serious about a whole house surge suppressor,
though I realize that still does not remove 100% of the vulnerability.
Later,
Charlie C.
unnecessary electronics since we don't have a
whole house surge
supressor. e.g. Clothes washer and dryer, range, refrigerator. The
Our new ovens do have electronic timers, but the thermostat is still the good
old bulb + bellows type. And it's fairly obvious how to bypass the timer
if it fails so you can still cook manually (which is all we ever so anyway).
-tony