Re:Agbogbloshie, the world's largest e-waste dump
by Spooky23 on Tuesday March 03, 2015 @09:08AM
(#9137658)
I ran into the same issue, and the solution that I found was to find a smaller appliance dealer and get a commercial washer/dryer without the coin acceptor installed. The price is a little bit higher (about 20%), but in my case the washer and dryer (made by Speed Queen) has a 5 year warranty on parts & labor, and 10 year on a few specific parts.
All of the big consumer brands spend a lot of engineering resources on planned failure. My understanding based on talking to one of the engineers that works on this for a major manufacturer is that something like 50% of certain lines, subjected to medium/high use will fail by design between 36-40 months.
Re:Agbogbloshie, the world's largest e-waste dump
by aidos on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:03AM
(#9143333)
I want to cry. The cost of a new one and the inability to fix the old one myself at a reasonable cost is pretty depressing. But the totally unnecessary consumption and waste so corporations can drive up their revenues should very much be criminal.
Naturally, I order the bearings I need and start taking the machine to bits. Low and behold, the tub, which can traditionally be split and bolted back together again is now sealed so you can't service it.
Now I have the choice of buying a whole new tub assembly (including drum and bearings), at £200, or just buying a whole new machine.
But really, I have little choice in the situation. A new machine won't cost much more but will come with a 3-5 year warranty. As a consumer, I only have one reasonable choice to make - but it's the one that's totally wasteful.