Revisiting Open Source Washing Machines (in Theory)

A number of years ago I wrote a post about the idea of Free Software washing machines, using it as an allegory to point out how silly it might be to attack people for using products with closed-source firmware, when no alternative is readily available. At the time, the idea of wanting an open source washing machine was fairly ludicrous, despite me pointing out that it would have some interesting side effect with programmability.

Well, in 2020 I would actually suggest that I really wish we had more Open Source washing machines, and actually wish we had, in general, more hackable home appliances (or “white goods” as they are called over here), particularly nowadays that it seems like connected appliances are both trendy and the butt of many jokes.

It’s not just because having access to the firmware of everything is an interesting exercise, but because most appliances are lasting for years — which means they are “left behind” by technology moving on, including user interfaces.

Let’s take for instance washing machines — despite being older than the one in my apartment, my mother’s LG washing machine has a significantly more modern user interface. The Zanussi one we have here in London has one big knob to select the program – which is mostly vestigial from the time it would be spring-loaded and moving to select the various phases – and then a ton of buttons to select things like drying mode (it’s a washer/dryer combo), drying time, and the delay start (awesome feature). You can tell that the buttons were addition to an interface, and that the knob is designed to be as similar to the previous interface as possible. And turns out the buttons are not handy: both drying time and delay have only one button each — which means you can only increase those values: if you miss your target, you need to go back to zero and up again.

On the other hand, my mother’s LG also has a knob — but the knob is just a free-spinning rotary encoder connected to a digital controller. While her model is not a dryer, I’m reasonably sure that the machine has a delay start feature, which is configured by pressing one button and then rotating the wheel. A more flexible interface, with a display a bit more flexible than the two multi-segments that our current machine has, would do wonder to usability, and that’s without going into any of the possible features of a “connected appliance”. Observe-only, that is — I would still love seeing a notification on our phones when the washing machine completed, so that we don’t forget that we have clean clothes that need to be hanged to dry. Yes we actually forget sometimes, particularly before the pandemic if we left them to delay-run from the morning.

Replacing a washing machine just because the user interface is bad is a horrible thing to do for the planet. And in particular when living in rented accommodation, you own the white goods, and even when they are defective, you don’t get to choose them — you end up most of the time with whichever is the cheapest one in the shop, power efficiency be damned, since rarely the landlords are paying for electricity. So having hackable, modular washing machines would be just awesome: I could ask our landlord “Hey can I get a smartmodule installed for the washing machine? I’ll pay the £50 it costs!” (seriously, if it costs more than that, it would be a rip-off — most of the controls you need for this can be hardly more complicated than a Feather M4!)

Oh yeah and even if I just had access to the firmware of this washer/dryer I might be able to fix the bug where the “program finished” beeper does not wait for the door’s lock magnet to disengage before starting. The amount of times I need to set a timer to remind myself to go and take the towels out in five minutes is annoying as heck.

But it’s not just washing machines that would be awesome to be hackable and programmable. We have a smallish microwave and convection oven combo. I got it in Dublin, and I chose this model because it was recommended by an acquaintance for its insistent beeping when the timer completes. If you have ever experience hyperfocus at any degree, you probably understand why such a feature is useful.

But in addition to the useful feature, the oven comes with a bunch of pretty much useless ones. There’s a number of “pre-programmed” options for defrosting, or making pop-corns and other things like that, that we would never use. Not just because we don’t eat them, but also because they are rarely recommended — if you ever watch cooking channels such as How To Cook That, you find that professionals usually suggest specific way to use the microwave — including Ann Reardon’s “signature” «put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir, put it back for 30 seconds, stir, …».

And again in term of user interfaces, the way you configure the convection temperature is by clicking the “Convection” button to go from full power (200W) down — and if you got it wrong, oops! And then if you turn the knob (this time a free-spinning one, at least), you’re setting the timer, without pre-heating. If you want to pre-heat you need to cancel it all, and resume the thing, and… you see my point.

This is a very simple appliance, and it works perfectly fine. But if I could just open it and replace the control panel with something nicer, I would love to. I think that I would like to have something I can connect to a computer (or maybe connect an USB thumbdrive to), and configure my own saved parameters, selecting for instance “fish fingers” and “melted butter”, which are the more likely uses of the oven for us at home.

But again, this would require a significant change in the design of appliances, which I don’t think is going to happen any year now. It would be lovely, and I think that there might be a chance for Open Source and Open Hardware amateurs to at least show the possibility for it — but it’s the kind of project that I can only with for, with no hope to get to work on myself, not just for the lack of time but for the lack of space — if you wanted to try hacking on a washing machine, you definitely need a more spacious and populated workshop. My limit is still acrylic lamps.