Do mandated efficiency standards make appliances less durable?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just had a repair guy in to fix our 20+ year old washing machine. It needs a new water pump and will be good as new.

I had been thinking we might need to buy a new washer, and although the newer models have nice features, and look cool, I wasn’t looking forward to spending a couple grand on a new matching washer/dryer set.

The tech said that with the repair, this unit will keep working for at least another five years, whereas if we bought a brand new one, it might not last much more than five or six years.

He went on to say that government efficiency standards are the culprit: washing machines are like cement mixers or tractors. They have to be heavy and solid to keep working a long time. Making them energy efficient necessarily compromises their durability.

My first reaction was that end-stage capitalism (making things as cheaply as possible) and the disposable society are also to blame.

It’s probably all of the above to some extent, but is there significant validity to the point he made, that making it efficient makes it not last as long?

2

I think part of the problem is the amount of electronics in most modern appliances. Repairing or replacing those parts, even if they remain available, is expensive. As a kid, I helped my father replace the electromechanical controls on the washing machine. We got the replacement from a local appliance repair shop, which asked us to return the old one to them, so it could be refurbished and resold. That sort of thing is less practical with a circuit board.

3

Good point. AFAIK, there’s no electronics in the washer at all, just electro-mechanical switches and controls.

Meanwhile, the only problem we had with the new fridge we bought a couple of years ago was the control panel went bad (shortly after the warranty period, of course) and needed replacing.

4

Yep.

We purchased a Maytag Performa washer & dryer in the early 1990s. Washer is a top loader. Both have old-style dial controls; no electronics.

Both are still going strong. For the washer I once had to replace the water inlet filter screens. A 5 minute job.

On the dryer, I once had to replace the impeller fan. And one of the thermal fuses goes out about every four years, which is easy to replace.

Anecdotal, I know. But I don’t hear about this kind of reliability with new washers & dryers.

5

FYI, if you want a washer/dryer with mechanical controls, I think Speed Queen still manufactures and sells them, though when I last looked into this, their models sold for 2-3 times the price of a typical big-box store model.

6

Those are identical to our units!

7

The E.U. did some research on these topics: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paolo-Tecchio-2/publication/322977471_Analysis_of_durability_reusability_and_reparability_-_Application_to_washing_machines_and_dishwashers/links/5a7c04500f7e9b55f65b11dc/Analysis-of-durability-reusability-and-reparability-Application-to-washing-machines-and-dishwashers.pdf#page=122.09 (see Chapter 3)

It backs up the electronics issue:

In order to repair washing machines it is sometimes necessary to attach them to a laptop using special diagnosis software. This software, the training and the technical documentation needed to diagnose the failure are sometimes only available to the after-sales service providers of the manufacturers, which makes repairs difficult for other technicians (see Section 2.6.3.4).

And also the overall reasons to NOT repair them:

The main reasons not to repair a WM were divided into three
categories, as follows.
 Consumer choice: the repair was technically possible but considered too
expensive by the customer (considering the overall repair cost, including the cost of the labour and the cost of the spare part(s)).
 Economically non-viable: the repair was technically possible but considered economically infeasible by the technician; economically non-viable repairs were affected by the price of spare parts and/or by the excessive amount of working time required.
 Technically infeasible: the repair was not technically possible. Repairs were impossible for various reasons, mainly because spare parts were not available or because of an ineffective design for disassembly (e.g. fragile plastic clamp connections, sealed bearings to single part plastic tub, bearings and tubs separable only by destructive dismantling). Technically infeasible repairs are connected to the unavailability of spare parts or spare parts no longer being available and to parts that were built in such a way that they cannot be repaired due to design issues such as clinched, bonded or fused parts. Also the lack of access to software for diagnosis often led to repairs being impossible, as there was no tool to detect the failure, to test the device or, in a few cases, to delete the failure codes.

It seems like all of these things can be true at once. Big, old, simple steel machines built by local factories were replaced by complex electronics with a long yet short-lived global supply chain, as weaker plastics became more commonplace, Asian manufacturers competed for dominance and many went bankrupt, in a global race to the bottom, as labor prices in first-world countries went up… all while environmental standards were getting more stringent too and manufacturers used whatever methods they could (Iighter materials, electronic control, more precise parts with tighter tolerances) to meet them.

I think it might be worth looking at these from a lifecycle analysis perspective, though, like a big ol’ hunk of steel may be more “repairable” from a consumer’s perspective, but the overall materials (even repaired) may still be more than if you just bought another new modern washer. And the moder ones are a lot cheaper too, even adjusted for inflation… random cite: 7 Things That Are Much Cheaper Now Than They Used To Be — History Facts. The modern supply chain has made consumer products much cheaper for many, and yes, often repairability suffers, but many consumers choose not to repair anyway because it just makes no economic sense. Kinda like computers and TVs these days. Arguably a modern washing machine is already more computer than simple machine anyway…

8

Yep.

When our daughter purchased a house a couple years ago, I wanted to buy her a new washing machine. I was very tempted to purchase a Speed Queen with mechanical controls. But she has a water bill. (Unlike us - we’re on a well.) So I decided to get her this Electrolux front-loader. It was quite a bit more expensive than similar units made by other manufacturers, but I didn’t care, because it’s much more reliable than cheaper ones.

9

Hang on to them as long as you can!

I’m sure you already know this, but here are a couple tips on making them last longer:

For the washing machine, use it. Don’t let it sit for long periods of time unused.

For the dryer, remove the drum every couple of years and perform a thorough cleaning. (If you haven’t been doing this, PM me and I’ll provide some instructions.) Also purchase some thermal fuses on line. They’re cheap. Have them on hand when the fuse blows.

10

Of all the electronics they’ve added to appliances over the years, WiFi, electronic interfaces, etc., etc., how many have anything to do with mandated efficiency standards? I’m still using an old washer and dryer my wife purchased sometime in the late 1990s before we were married. I’ve replaced a few parts of the dryer over the years to keep in running, but it still works just fine. Nothing is digital, the controls are very simple, but I can’t imagine it’s as energy efficient as something produced in 2023.

I suspect the culprit are manufacturers who use cheaper materials in the construction of appliances.

11

My guess? The bits that monitor the dirt and water levels in the clothes and try to minimize water usage. Similar, the sensors that measure humidity in the dryers so they stop running once the clothes are dry.

12

BTW, if it helps, something like a washer or a dryer is mostly recyclable steel and any new one you buy is probably more efficient, so perhaps a replacement is justifiable?

13

And to answer the OP:

There’s no free lunch. Generally speaking, if you make something more efficient, then something else has to “give”: either the price goes up, or the reliability goes down, or the performance decreases.

14

My dishwasher has an integrated pump system (fill pump, circulation pump, drain pump.) When we had a problem with our dishes not getting clean the repair technician said, “it’s a good thing you have a service contract, because replacing the pump will cost as much as a new dishwasher.”

15

The “disposable society” is largely an emergent property of products that are not designed to be durable or enduring. And as companies have tried to comply with efficiency mandates which complicate the design and require more investment and innovation, they’ve cut corners on quality and durability (which requires design effort and testing to assure) in order to offset the additional costs. It doesn’t help that appliance manufacturers have going through the same consolidation process via mergers, acquisitions, ‘corporate raiders’, et cetera which have undercut any focus on a reputation for quality in favor of pumping up stock and showing “good quarterlies”. When every brand on the market sucks and all you care about is making as much profit as possible, the impetus to produce quality products that can be easily maintained and repaired for decades of service virtually disappears.

Stranger

16

As a side note, one of my favorite YT channels is Technology Connections. He does an excellent job of explaining how appliances work, misconceptions, and how to get the most from them.

17

That’s the newer version of our washing machine. It has a cycle or two I don’t have. The wife uses the heck out of it. She puts blankets down when little grandkids are here and tends to cover chairs and couches also. So she washes blankets and comforters every few days and they can produce off center loads. I hear the machine thumping until it balances things out. I relly like the high speed spin as clothes come out just barely damp.

It has been a great machine for 5 years. Twice small thin items have jammed the drain pump. Easy to get to after you pop off the front panel. The motor and rotor come out without having to unhook any water hoses so it was easy to clean out the rubber band and get back in action.

18

If the repair person has ties to a retailer is there a greater chance the customer will be told that replacement will be cheaper than repair?

19

For any major repair it is probably true that replacement is more cost effective because most components are integrated into larger assemblies, and between that and cost of labor it is often literally cheaper to buy a new unit than replace a busted pump or leaking seal.

Stranger

20

“Anecdote” is not “data”, but the last two appliances we had fail were refrigeration devices where the electroncs remained fine but the compressors gave out.

What makes appliances less durable is rampant profit motive.