Washing machines are scary. Seriously, of all the machines I use on a daily basis, doing the laundry ranks among the scariest of all. I regularly get into lifts and get shot up to a height that could kill me if everything in the lift and back-up mechanisms failed and I fell. Yet I don’t even think twice about stepping into the box-on-string and hitting the button marked 23. But you must trust me here, I am not lying, washing machines are the spawn of the devil. Just the thought of having to wash clothes brings me out in a sweat…
Compare Indesit’s or Hotpoint’s latest offering to Apple’s iPod Nano (2nd generation), for example. Apple have produced a gadget that will play music with only a few simple touches of the thumb or finger. It can randomly play tracks from it’s memory and features other functions like games and calendars. You can use it in conjunction with your laptop and even download podcasts to one. It is a simple design with very few obstacles for the common user. Aside from the hold switch, it has a static circular control that is clickable at certain points, and one more button positioned in the middle of the circle. It is relatively straight forward.
The common washing machine on the other hand is an entirely different beast. In order to effectively wash my clothes, I have to know what they’re made of, how old they are, whether or not they are ‘worn in’ or ‘colour-fast’, what they’re being washed with, how heavy the load is and whether or not I want a variety of different types of ’spin’. On top of that, there is the temperature to consider, along with the time factor and the cleaning agent used. Powder, liquid, tabs, conditioner (which apparently goes in partway through)…
Honestly, why is washing clothes so bloody hard? I’m sure it doesn’t have to be this complex.
My television, a rather smart 28 inch LCD that is about 3 years old has very basic controls on the set itself. Admittedly, the remote has more buttons than I’m sure is necessary, but it will do a lot of things with very few clicks. It will also remember my favourite settings making its use even more straight forward. My washing machine on the other hand does not. Each time I want to do the washing, I have to consider everything from scratch - a lot of brain power goes into making these decisions and one small error could lead to shrunken or discoloured clothes.
My father used to ask my elder brother how to program the VCR when they first become a regular household item, and I used to mock him for it. But now, having grown up myself, I understand why some technology is just ridiculously complex. The symbols on the washing machine’s dials are unfathomable and the instruction manual is no better.
What I need is an iWasher. A device that has very few controls. A machine that will tell me how it thinks my clothes should be washed, and will remember certain presets for the future. The controls need to be in plain English and simple enough to not warrant a phone call to the manufacturers helpline, or an hours read through the manual. I mean honestly, have you ever read the instructions to you iPod!?
October 25th, 2008 at 10:41pm
Mine is pretty easy - I do most of my loads on “Economy 30″ or “Economy 40″ (depending on how much time I want to let the load run for - 30 is a lot slower… but is a lot more power/water efficient) - then it’s just a row of buttons to select various things (like “extra rinse” or “slow spin”) - tell it how dry I want the clothes (ready to put out on the line, ready to iron, ready to put away) check the expected end time on the display, and Finally press “go”
It’s pretty much menu driven, and a lot simpler to use than my old machine - or even worse, my parents old machine - which I had to ask my mum every time which programme to use. (apparently, “D” followed by “S” - for no discernable reason)
Of course, in an ideal world, the machine would perform a gas-chromograph anylsis of the clothes to figure out
a) what they’re made of
b) what they’re covered with (e.g. beer, bolognaise sauce, mud…)
c) how much detergent to use
and then present me with a series of simple questions
a) How dry? (wet/ready to iron/ready to put away)
b) When do you want it? (4pm)
and then finally email me to tell me when it’s done.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:55pm
Wow, that does sound easier than mine, but even then, still overly complicated than what I think is really necessary.
Hahaha. Although I’d prefer it to email me once the load has walked itself up the stairs and hung itself on the drying rack.
October 27th, 2008 at 6:53am
My old washing machine had its instructions in Swedish which did make the whole thing somewhat impenetrable. But on the other hand it did make things simpler. My clothes went on a C wash. And that was all I ever did. Seemed to work fine pretty much.
I haven’t used one but the Dyson washing machine panel looks pretty good (page 12) : http://www.dyson.co.uk/customercare/manuals/uk/cr02_manual_uk.pdf
October 27th, 2008 at 6:56am
Here’s a review of the dyson that makes clear the simplicity:
It would seem however that Dyson have stopped making them
October 27th, 2008 at 8:29am
From my perspective (as someone with a white kitchen) the big problem with the Dyson machine was with it’s styling…
Now the vacuum cleaners are pretty much styled by the necessity of the pipes etc - but trying to carry that over to a machine that is traditionally a white box with a hole in the front produced an end result that was, in my opinion, fairly ugly…
I considered one, but my kitchen is otherwise white - and it would have looked terrible (my house is open plan, so it would be visible throughout the ground floor)
It was hideous looking.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:36am
I’m pretty convinced that was what did for it. The second one was toned down a bit but still not enough.
There is also a big difference between a vacuum you bring out from time to time (generally when guests etc aren’t present) and a washing machine which has to be there the whole time.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:29pm
The big proble with washing clothes is that 99.9% of people involved at any level entirely miss the point. This includes 99.9% of washing machine manufacturers and 99.9% of washing powder/liquid manufacturers.
The point of washing clothes is absolutely nothing to do with the clothes. The point of washing clothes is to disolve the stains. Therefore for most purposes you can totlly ignore the type of cloth and all the other hypothetically critical factors. The strange thing is that I have never found another person who considers the staining material when the wash clothes.
My approach is simple and has been since I first got my washing machine. Everything gets chucked in together. I couldn’t care less if it is old or new, white or coloured or any other of the supposedly vital factors. The washing machine gets set to D. To the best of my knowledge I have never tried another setting. In all the years I have used this machine and method I have only once had a problem. Something red caused a white shirt to become pink. I threw the shirt away. End of problem.
Of course this could have been prevented by reading the washing instructions on every item I have ever washed. Reading the manual for the washing machine to find out what all the settings mean and reading the labels on all the various soap solutions in the supermarket. Instead of spend half my life doing all of that I had to throw out a white shirt that had paid for itself anyone.
Forget about everything else and think about the stains because it is the stains you are dissolving. Sweat, food and anything else you are likely to be treating will dissolve at the lowest temperature your washing machine can run at. You may lose a shirt every decade by this method. It is up to you to decide whether this is a risk worth taking.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:31pm
Why do I never spot the spelling mistakes/typos until the second the comment pops up after I have posted it?
November 4th, 2008 at 1:13am
Although I am a little scared of Alex and Tom having a conversation about the aesthetics of washing machines, I must say that you are fast becoming my hero for that comment.
You want the BlogF1 comment editor thingy (that was coded by someone else)? I can implement that if you guys want it…?