I finally figured out how to remove that annoying plastic guard on my Whirlpool washer timer dial

[ryner1988]

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

 

[gizmo]

Hi Ryne

 

Well done! That is a good solution.

 

Can I suggest you also contact Whirlpool, request that they take the needs of blind and vision impaired people into account in appliance design, explain what you had to do to your machine to make it usable for you, and that you shouldn't really have to modify a machine like that.

 

As a kid, in the 1970s and 80s, I had a great-uncle (my grandmother's brother) who was blind. We got on well and I was always impressed with the simple but ingenious solutions he had. He had a bead on a hook that he put into a tea cup, he placed the finger over the hook and when the bead floated up to his finger, the cup was full.

 

He kept only 10 and 1 dollar bills in his wallet. In Australia we have different sizes for each denomination of bill, back then we had 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 dollar notes (bills). The 1 and 10 were different enough in size so he could feel the difference, keeping only those two made it simpler.

 

Once I did a little job for him, installed an FM radio antenna so he got better reception for his favorite classical music radio station. When I finished, he gave me a $10 note and said thanks for helping. I thanked him, said he was very generous giving me $10. Although he was completely blind, he managed to snatch back the $10 bill from my fingers immediately, and replace it with the $1 bill he had intended.

 

 

 

[gelaundry4ever]

engineering for the blind

It just enrages me how appliance manufacturers don't take into consideration of the blind. I am so sick and tired of it.

 

[aquarius1984]

Can I just clarify here?

This is a machine with a mechanical timer?

A mechanical timer that has been difficult to set?

 

[ryner1988]

Reply #3

Yes, the washer I am referring to has a mechanical timer dial. Let me try to explain what the problem was a little better.

I am totally blind, and therefore use touch and audio feedback to do most things, including set the controls on appliances. Most older style mechanical controls are designed in a way that makes it very easy for me to do this, because the feedback I get with clicks and whatnot as the controls are manipulated is often (but not always) more reliable for me than the touch screens and beeps on electronically-controlled machines. On a washer's mechanical cycle dial, for instance, in most cases the pointer used to make the cycle selection can easily be felt by touch, or it's very easy to place a tactile mark on the dial where the pointer is, therefore making it accessible to me, i.e., easy to line up the tactile pointer with the cycle I want to use and pull out the knob.

On most Whirlpool/Kenmore direct drive top loader machines, however, the process is made a bit more complicated because the dial skirt, where the pointer is located, is protected by a clear plastic cover held in place by three plastic tabs. The purpose of this, I have read, is to keep people from being able to grab hold of the dial skirt and move the timer while the machine is running, as that could damage the machine if done too often. With this design, one is forced to shut off the machine by pushing in the dial, make a new selection, and then pull out the dial to resume the cycle. The plastic cover slips around when touched, so it makes putting tactile marks on the pointer underneath very difficult, but most sighted people don't even realize the guard is there, because it is clear therefore they can see the pointer underneath -- their way of setting a cycle on the washer visually is completely unimpeded.

When I bought the washer used last summer, I put some double-sided tape underneath the plastic guard so it would adhere to the dial skirt and move with it as one unit. I was then able to put a tactile mark on the guard itself exactly where the pointer is underneath, so I could once again set cycles by touch. This worked very well when it worked, but occasionally the double sided tape came off and I would have to start over. I also learned that it's just a bit less than three-fourths of a turn around the dial to get to the beginning of the regular cycle, but very occasionally I use other cycles, so knowing this doesn't help me in all cases. So, that is why I cut off the plastic guard -- it makes it so I can feel the timer skirt properly and therefore set wash cycles by touch accordingly.

I hope all that made sense LOL

Ryne