Samsung does it again

[Nancy OShea]

First with their combusting Galaxy Note7 smartphones.   And now with their exploding top-load washing machines.

Samsung Recalls 2.8 Million Top-Load Washing Machines : The Two-Way : NPR

Can you guess which washing machine I bought 2 months ago ?

Nancy O.

[John T Smith]

Our "just over a year old" LG refrigerator started making a "spinning fan hitting something" sound 3 days ago... service will be here this coming week, so we're just hoping that whatever electric motor is making the noise doesn't stop working so we loose all our food

My thought is that the "arms race" between companies is such that they keep trying to add new features so the sign in the store touting all the new features attracts buyers... but without mentioning that the company was in such a rush to try and beat the other company's new features that that forgot to spend enough time on BASIC ENGINEERING DESIGN to produce a reliable product

[Nancy OShea]

Oh no.  My frig is one year old this month and although it says Kenmore, it was made by LG.  And the water filters come directly from LG.

My thought is that the "arms race" between companies is such that they keep trying to add new features so the sign in the store touting all the new features attracts buyers... but without mentioning that the company was in such a rush to try and beat the other company's new features that that forgot to spend enough time on BASIC ENGINEERING DESIGN to produce a reliable product

Sounds a lot like some software companies we know.

Nancy O.

[Nancy OShea]

UPDATE: After much procrastination, we decided to take Samsung up on their rebate offer & replace our
"Exploder Top Loader" machine with a newer Samsung.  Online reports showed that repaired models were still prone to explode although not in your face.  Wonderful. 

The new & improved machine has everything we wanted -- a steam wash cycle, a pre-soak wash basin & bigger  load capacity.  While the other brands looked nice, they couldn't compete with the $465 loyalty rebate Samsung offered us.  So here we go again, folks.  Fingers crossed.

Nancy

[JR Boulay]

Galaxy Note7 smartphones

I'm waiting for the Galaxy Notes 8.

[Peru Bob]

And then there is the iPhone 8:

Apple investigating reports of new iPhone 8 'bursting open' | The Independent

[John T Smith]

LG, not Samsung, but it took two service calls to fix one (masked) problem

When we discovered water coming out of the left side ice & water door of our LG 'fridge, we called service

The guy who came couldn't find a problem, so explained that the lower freezer drawer had LIKELY been kept from closing all the way OR had closed crooked (he showed me how to fix that, if it was the problem) and the fan that sucked cold air out of the freezer compartment to keep the ice cubes frozen was actually sucking room air, causing the cubes to melt and let water out the bottom of the door

Seemed logical, and he tested everything (well, almost everything) and said all was well when he could not find a problem

About an hour after he left I opened the left door... water everywhere, so pulled the 'frige out to shut the water feed off and called service again

When the next guy got here, he said there was something else to check

Inside the door there is a valve assembly that can crack and leak (not our problem) and a "water hammer" assembly so the water shutting off when the valve closes doesn't cause the "hammer" sound that sometimes happens when water is abruptly shut off... the plastic "water bottle" was not leaking BUT the water feed line going into the bottom of the water bottle had either not been pushed into the fitting correctly, or it had worked loose due to our city water pressure

So, he pushed the feed line back into the compression fitting... and I adjusted the water valve in the wall while he checked the flow so the compression fitting will, we hope, not come loose again

Morale of the story is to have a service tech check everything AFTER the repair is made to be sure everything is working correctly... the first tech did NOT check for a leak by running the water dispenser, since he thought the problem was due to an incorrrectly closed freezer drawer melting the ice cubes, not the actual problem of a feed line that was spewing water every time the valve was opened when the water dispenser was used

I hope the first tech learned his lesson from our feedback... and I now know which inspection cover to take off if we ever again have water leaking out of the bottom of the left side door

[Nancy OShea]

In my experience, warranty technicians are less inclined to spend a lot of time on a problem because they want to meet their quota of house visits that day.  However, if it's on your dime and the meter is running, they take up residence and tear the appliance apart.