Can confirm. That's also why most appliances are surprisingly repairable today. You can just buy used appliances that aren't working as long as it's something minor like leaking or squeaking of a washer, no heating of a dryer, rumbling like crazy, etc. Inside you usually find many parts from Whirlpool and a few other components like Bosch Motors (which often enough do not actually fail). Those parts have numbers you can find for cheap online. Just get a proper(!) bitset with some generic tools and go watch Youtube repair videos. It's too easy these days.

Heck I even bought a completely dead machine where the description clearly matched a note online that a resistor and a single easy-to-solder chip for 2$ total need to be replaced. That repair worked for 5 years until I sold it for a better machine.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 11 points 1 month ago

It's always a resistor. Planned obsolescence is basically putting a too small resistor somewhere. The parts they make for repair shops are usually better, so if you do take the time to swap a print, you will have a better appliance afterwards for a fraction of the cost of a new shitty machine.

Soldering the specific resistor can be done too, but for anyone who doesn't have a stock of resistors and soldering tools/skill it's usually a easier and just as cheap to get new print if they're available.

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

I got my washer and dryer from the side of the road garbage. Diagnosed the problem, Installed a $25 flow switch or some crap (can't actually recall what it was anymore) and been using it for about 5 years no with zero issues. Nothing wrong with the dryer. I assume they didn't want to have 'mismatching appliances' :/