Are New Appliances Always Doomed? Why A Grass Roots Movement Could Change Things

[henene4]

I did some quick research, and both me and my typical AI assistants are not capable to find a specific phrasing that would require manufacturers in the EU to provide cycle counters.
I am somewhat certain to have read that it is actually a requirement - either operating hour or cycle counters.

What is certain though is that in the period from 2024 to 2026 several directives and requirements for repairability, parts availability, circular economy stuff and warranty coverage have changed/will change.
Given that even some rather price orientated manufacturers have those counters now, I wouldn't be surprised it's just some way to cover some requirements under those regulations.

 

[DADoES]

My DishDrawer records the accumulated cycle count, separately for each drawer. I've not found a reference that the washers and dryers do so.

 

[michaelz08]

You seem to maintain your own clearly biased opinions and speculate on things, which you are free to do.
However, I've got decades of experience in my field of professional servicing, and you sound like you know more than me - which you are also free to do.
Also, I'm certainly not prone to paranoia as you imply.
I state the facts, I don't mince words, and I believe in stating honestly from experience what I know, what I've seen, and what others in my field have dealt with.
So you can chew on and debate all of us techs, because we've heard it all.

Biased opinions? I focused on factual points on why such an approach is either practically/technically not viable or not feasible as a method of designing products.

You have your service experience, which is credible and valuable, but are making assertions in the technical realm- with no support whatsoever to your claims- and the technical realm is my area of work.

The reason identifying marks are removed from IC chips (which has been happening since the 80's) is so that people/manufacturers can't reverse engineer the product, or do home repairs. It's also done in high end audio, so the end user doesn't realize his "audiophile" equipment uses common off the shelf chips found in mainstream brands, and is nothing special.

I'd love a link to these secret tech sites, even if we can't access them. Or is the whole site invisible?

This is absolutely correct. This has been the common practice for decades now.

What are you expecting to see if you scraped off the goop? A chip marked "APPLIANCE_DISABLER_M011 MANUFACTURED BY TSMC"?

Such a bomb would be in the CODE of the system, highly unlikely to be a dedicated chip. If you don't know that, you don't know enough to be making such a claim.