Yesterday I spent some time perusing the washer / dryer options at Home Depot. I guess I have never stopped to take notice of advertisements or TV commercials touting the latest & greatest. Home appliances have gone from simple to featured bloated. What happened to loading clothes, setting the temperature and pressing start? That’s too simple. If your machine doesn’t require a minimum of three knob twists and two push buttons, your clothes are going to stay dirty. Right? It’s all about the miniature dry cleaner in your laundry room, delicate clothing awareness and smart temperature water settings.
As simple as it gets – what your washer and dryer used to look like. You won’t see this unit unless you’re shopping for the bare bones machine tucked away in the back.
Single button too simple? How about this missile control dashboard? It’s too bad floor units weren’t powered. I was hoping the light sequence was color coded from green to red. DEFCON 1 Extra Hot water!
This one was interesting. The manufacturer included hidden functionality enabled by pressing and holding each button individually. Check out a few of the other machines:
Which machine would you pick based on the control layout? Any of the above units or something a little simpler? Imagine advanced functionality minus the complexity…
The unfortunate thing is that, at least with washers (more than likely), the more complex they are the more environmentally friendly they will be (steam washing, etc). They’ll use less electricity and water than the cheaper models and thus less drying time in the dryer.
Well, I bought a 30 year old pair and love how simple they are.
design should be more focused on simplicity too! sometimes people just want to view something that’s less straining to the eyes
Love the title of the post. Nice touch.