I have a Maytag washer and dryer from 2011. I cannot change the setting without turning them off and back on. For example if I want to change washer from normal to short wash, I have to turn the washer off and on. Is there a reason for this? Or is it a bug?
Do you have the user manual? Does it mention that you need to do this? Obviously, if it does, it’s not a bug.
You should be able to get the manual for your model here - Appliance Manuals and Literature | Maytag
Pretty sure it’s not a bug just curious as to the reason.
Our washer is like that, and while there may be a reason, it bugs the hell out of me.
It only happens when you pause the cycle. you can switch around as long as the cycle has not started.
If it’s the ‘Pull to stop’ ‘Push to start’ thing, every washer I’ve ever owned worked that way. I’ve always assumed that the timer switch is designed that way so as not to cause undue wear/damage to the electrical contacts within. It would prolly cost more to use better quality contacts.
it’s not a push / pull model
Is it auto-sensing “green” model that locks the lid when you start the cycle?
Mine does the same thing and I assumed it was for the same reason it locks the washer lid: so a human won’t mess things up after it does its sensing (weighing the clothes I think?) and calculation to determine the right amount of water to avoid waste.
I think this is the key - the assumption is probably that if you try to change a setting once it has started that you are likely hitting the wrong button(s) by mistake. If you have to press off, then on they trust you know what you are doing.
Why they decided on that bit of human factors engineering is probably lost to the mists of time. And also possibly tied to it has set some values already to control the wash and really doesn’t want to change them so that your clothes don’t catch fire.
Our Samsung washer does this as well.
Here’s the programmer’s point of view:
Imagine program A, a “dirty” wash cycle with “eco warm” water selected (ours is a spindle-less top-loader):
A01. Spin the drum to evaluate amount of clothing.
A02. Fill tub to appropriate level, with eco warm water, including soap.
A03. Do the back-and-forth twist for 8 minutes.
A04. Drain tub.
A05. Fill tub with eco warm water for first rinse.
A06. Do the back-and-forth twist for 8 minutes.
A07. Drain tub and do first spin for 4 minutes.
A08. Fill tub with eco warm water for second rinse.
A09. Do the back-and-forth twist for 6 minutes.
A10. Drain tub and do final spin for 10 minutes.
Total duration: 36 minutes plus 3 X fill time.
Now imagine program B, a “quick wash” cycle with “cold” water selected:
B01. Spin the drum to evaluate amount of clothing.
B02. Fill tub to appropriate level, with cold water, including soap.
B03. Do the back-and-forth twist for 4 minutes.
B04. Drain tub.
B05. Fill tub with cold water for first rinse.
B06. Do the back-and-forth twist for 5 minutes.
B07. Drain tub and do first spin for 4 minutes.
B08. Fill tub with cold water for second rinse.
B09. Do the back-and-forth twist for 4 minutes.
B10. Drain tub and do final spin for 10 minutes.
Total duration: 27 minutes plus 3 X fill time.
So you’ve started program A, and near the end of the first rinse (step A06, elapsed time 15 minutes + 2 X fill time), you pause the machine and fiddle with the dials for a “quick wash” with “cold” water (which is program B).
What’s the machine supposed to do? We’re (15 minutes + 2 X fill time) in, so in program B’s timeline we should be half-way into the second rinse (B08). Do we do that, or do we continue the first rinse at B06, with 7 minutes elapsed in that 5-minute step? What does that even mean? And what about the water temperature? Should we drain the “eco warm” water and fill with cold?
So that was the programmer’s point of view.
Then there’s the engineer who’s worried you may have put in a comforter and selected “bedding” the first time around, which only allows “moderate spin”, but then you press Pause and select “ultra-fast spin” instead, so you’re going to have a comforter soaked with 20 pounds of water spinning too fast, beyond the auto-centerer’s specs, and your washer will self-destruct.
There are also the customer service folks who will have to explain what happened to your favourite sweater under not the 75 different programs the machine offers, but the 6432 different combinations of half-done spins and rinses with random temperatures you could select by fiddling with the controls while drunk.
And then the lawyers get involved. They decide it’s safer, liability-wise, to have just the 75 programs and avoid having people improvise anything else. So they tell the programmers do disallow any changes except for full cancellation. Customers will learn soon enough not to do a change of cycles frivolously, since they’ll have to start over (and lose precious minutes of their time) when they do it.
Oh, as a corollary: kids love to play with pushbuttons that go beep-beep. They could press Pause, make any arbitrary changes (beep-beep-beep) and press Go. So all the problems described above can happen without the machine’s owner being aware of the cause. However, if the kid’s only options are to press Go again or to turn off the machine, it’s much less fun, so they’ll avoid doing it in the future.