I think it depends on which accident you are talking about. Yes, there were drums that split open (mostly frontloaders, I think). And there were some HE TL machines where the failure mode seems to have been one of the suspension rods broke.
And then there are the machines where the weight shifted during high-speed spin -- some of those machines self-destructed and some of them banged until one or more of the suspension rods broke and then they self destructed.
For people who don't know here, yes, it is true that as a general rule one can do more damage by suddenly braking a tub at high speed than by controlling the speed, particularly as it passes thru the resonance speed(s).
On the other hand, computers now are way past millions of calculations per second, and catching emergency situations is not hard to do if you have the right sensors and software, which some of those machines seem lacking.
Just to give you an idea, this is not exactly what ABS, Traction Control or Electronic Stability Control systems do, but it is similar: you are monitoring the speed of several parts and if they are not within what's expected, you can use the motor and computer (if the systems are working and the defect is say, a broken suspension part or a faulty bearing) to slow down the speed safely, avoiding the resonance speeds as much as possible (that is, spending the minimum delta time in there). I've seen very large machine tools with way more inertia and speed brought down to zero movement in less than a quarter second using the motor as an electric brake.
The problem here is not engineering. It's cost and what market it's aimed at.
An engineer at Maytag many years ago was talking to a technician I know and the tech guy was giving the engineer grief. The engineer said, basically "we design the fridge so it won't break for over 50 years, but then the bean counters come and say, 'no I do not think you can sell a 10,000 bucks fridge, make it fit into 500' until lots of parts are cheapened and essential systems are designed to last less than 10 years."
Like I said, a very cheap system can simply monitor the motor speed/electric current. A little more expensive (not exactly extravagant, current cell phones and video game players have several of these) would have one or more gyroscopes and other cheaper sensors. And if you do want something that ignores unleveled machines or bouncy wood floors and just measures *directly* how close the tub is to hitting the machine walls, lasers, mirrors and laser sensors are basically a dime a dozen.
And in any case, there are plenty of wash baskets still being made with one, two and sometimes three balance rings, and some of the systems have very sophisticated balance rings at that.
A combination of those systems can make quite a smooth running machine.
Then again, so can a good cycle chart -- a lot of the vertical-axis washers from our past that ran at high speed with very little or no problem seemed to start spinning and pumping the water out, instead of pumping out and then spinning, thus giving time at progressively higher speeds to make the water weight shift out of waterproof items (who has never washed a plastic shower liner curtain before?) until it can spin at high speed. Front loading washers that tumbled both ways for a couple of minutes and then slowly sped up also seem to have very little if any problems, and they can always stop and try again in case it's not balanced enough.
I don't think the problem is technical. The problem is people who have never done laundry before with undue influence in the design that then gets either *no* testing or minimal testing.
And honestly, I'm tired of the "blame the user" attitude. If you were visiting someone who has been sick and unable to keep house, and you see their clothing or shower curtains etc, yeah, you too will be tempted to put them in the heavy soil cycle and move on with your life helping the person or cleaning their home. We are not talking about silk negligees here, most current washable stuff is plenty strong for a normal hot wash and high spin. The thing that makes the biggest difference is some stuff benefits from a cool-down phase so they won't get excessively wrinkled.
Anyway, if anyone wants to know why current customers are dissatisfied with some of their washers, just remember that no matter how cool a washer looks, it can't just sit there looking cool to justify the over 1,000 bucks price. It has to wash, rinse and spin at least as well as the 250 bucks washers of 20 years ago.
Cheers,
-- Paulo.
