ryner1988
Well-known member
Not sure why anyone would be interested in this, I just thought it was pretty cool that I finally have dealt with an irritating problem I've had since acquiring my Whirlpool direct drive washer, that being the annoying spinning clear plastic guard over the timer dial that prevents me from properly feeling the pointer underneath to set cycles correctly.
Up until today, I had been using some double sided tape underneath the plastic guard to keep it in place, so that it moved in sync with the timer dial as I turned it to set cycles. This allowed me to put a mark on the guard so that I could keep track of where I was when rotating the dial. This worked okay but the double-sided tape frequently came off so the process of putting it back in place had to be repeated. This happened this morning and I'd finally had enough. I wanted a more permanent solution and I didn't trust myself to remove the knob to get the guard off, as it's one of those newer knobs that can't just be unscrewed--there's a long plastic tab that goes all the way to the back to hold the knob on, and I didn't want to break it.
However, I started thinking what the heck does it matter if I break the plastic guard though? After all, I don't want it there to begin with. So I pulled the guard away from its tabs to give myself some room, took some needle-nose pliers and carefully fitted them over the guard, being very mindful not to get the lower jaw underneath the actual dial itself, and cut the plastic in the guard. After doing this in several places, the guard eventually just fell apart. I had a towel in place on top of the machine so little pieces didn't fall into the tub or the innards of the machine through the tiny gaps around the edges of the lid, so I just gathered up the towel and dumped the plastic pieces in the trash.
Now my timer dial is completely unimpeded and I can feel the pointer, and there's no irritating spinning cover over it to frustrate me. I put a piece of tape over the pointer so I could feel it better, and away I went. So easy!
Just wanted to share my little bit of ingenuity as I can't believe I didn't try this ages ago. I just had to take my time with it to make sure I didn't snip any parts on the actual timer or timer knob, but it was worth it to not have to deal with that irritating plastic cover getting in my way. I'll be sharing this tip with other blind people who might still have a machine like mine and just aren't sure what to do about this issue. It's stumped me for a long time, so I imagine others have had the same difficulty.
Ryne
Up until today, I had been using some double sided tape underneath the plastic guard to keep it in place, so that it moved in sync with the timer dial as I turned it to set cycles. This allowed me to put a mark on the guard so that I could keep track of where I was when rotating the dial. This worked okay but the double-sided tape frequently came off so the process of putting it back in place had to be repeated. This happened this morning and I'd finally had enough. I wanted a more permanent solution and I didn't trust myself to remove the knob to get the guard off, as it's one of those newer knobs that can't just be unscrewed--there's a long plastic tab that goes all the way to the back to hold the knob on, and I didn't want to break it.
However, I started thinking what the heck does it matter if I break the plastic guard though? After all, I don't want it there to begin with. So I pulled the guard away from its tabs to give myself some room, took some needle-nose pliers and carefully fitted them over the guard, being very mindful not to get the lower jaw underneath the actual dial itself, and cut the plastic in the guard. After doing this in several places, the guard eventually just fell apart. I had a towel in place on top of the machine so little pieces didn't fall into the tub or the innards of the machine through the tiny gaps around the edges of the lid, so I just gathered up the towel and dumped the plastic pieces in the trash.
Now my timer dial is completely unimpeded and I can feel the pointer, and there's no irritating spinning cover over it to frustrate me. I put a piece of tape over the pointer so I could feel it better, and away I went. So easy!
Just wanted to share my little bit of ingenuity as I can't believe I didn't try this ages ago. I just had to take my time with it to make sure I didn't snip any parts on the actual timer or timer knob, but it was worth it to not have to deal with that irritating plastic cover getting in my way. I'll be sharing this tip with other blind people who might still have a machine like mine and just aren't sure what to do about this issue. It's stumped me for a long time, so I imagine others have had the same difficulty.
Ryne