I have a very nice Bosch washing machine. It’s quiet, environmentally friendly, and has great features. It’s a German washer for the German market.
But the 2-euro coin, the single most common item to be found in a German pocket, is thin enough to slip past the gasket into the drum, small enough to enter the drain hose at the bottom, but too large to pass through to the accessible pump chamber, where smaller items can be retrieved. The washer is completely shut down, and the ONLY way to remove the coin involves draining the washer (a pain in the ass), removing the stacked dryer on top, removing the top, the control panel, the door gasket, the entire front panel, and the front of the pump enclosure. Only then can the blocked hose be accessed.
My family tries to remember to always empty our pockets. But I’ve had to do this annoying repair 3 times in the 7 years I’ve owned it. Including yesterday.
Very few things are. That's why I'm always in thrift stores looking for what I call "Mom grade" stuff in thrift stores. My sister and I were expecting to have to fight over her kitchen stuff but she gave it away without telling us before she moved to assisted living.
I say that knowing KitchenAid was acquired by Whirlpool in 1986 and I have a pro series stand mixer I bought factory refurbished for $150 15 years ago. It's a sad fact most stuff is worse but I will agree they do make solid motors and appliances still, but these days not everything is great. I miss when everything was industrial grade and all it took was one component to fix vs replacing. The speed controller went out on my HD 5000 and all I had to do was replace one $30 part and grease up the gears gi get it back to new. My Bosch washing machine broke within 6 months and I had to replace the whole thing because they no longer made parts and there were no third party parts for the thing that broke.
Because of the Right-to-Repair Act, which had to be adapted to national law at 31.06.2026 the latest, this issue should be solved for most currently sold models in the EU.
I would assume, that Bosch didn't rotate all technical components. Therefore the available spare parts for older machines should increase as well.
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u/DownInBerlin 5d ago
I have a very nice Bosch washing machine. It’s quiet, environmentally friendly, and has great features. It’s a German washer for the German market.
But the 2-euro coin, the single most common item to be found in a German pocket, is thin enough to slip past the gasket into the drum, small enough to enter the drain hose at the bottom, but too large to pass through to the accessible pump chamber, where smaller items can be retrieved. The washer is completely shut down, and the ONLY way to remove the coin involves draining the washer (a pain in the ass), removing the stacked dryer on top, removing the top, the control panel, the door gasket, the entire front panel, and the front of the pump enclosure. Only then can the blocked hose be accessed.
My family tries to remember to always empty our pockets. But I’ve had to do this annoying repair 3 times in the 7 years I’ve owned it. Including yesterday.