Every washing machine I've ever used has had a plethora of buttons and settings.
Every wash I've ever done has been on the same setting, and at the same temperature.
Logical progression - remove all the buttons and just have one "on/off" button.
Cheaper to buy, Simpler to use, Less things to go wrong.-- jtp, Dec 31 2006 Myself and a friend trying to get a washing machine to work http://www.crystali.../monolith2001br.jpg [fridge duck, Jan 02 2007] what's the button for?-- po, Dec 31 2006 To tell it to start.-- jtp, Dec 31 2006 How do you know when it's stopped? (Perhaps the start button pops out again)-- Ling, Dec 31 2006 [Ling] Yes, that would be the best solution. You could have a light, but the idea is to keep it as simple as possible.-- jtp, Dec 31 2006 maybe it never stops.... it just keeps washing until your clothes turn to clear liquid. //very wash I've ever done has been on the same setting, and at the same temperature// - likewise so +-- xenzag, Dec 31 2006 what you need (bless you, a simple soul) is a bucket and a stick.-- po, Dec 31 2006 ..or a flat rock, a stream and a handful of soaproot...-- gnomethang, Dec 31 2006 ...or a perforated sack that you fill up with your clothes and hang in the bath like a large tea-bag.-- xenzag, Dec 31 2006 put some clothes on [gnomethang] for gawd's sake.-- po, Dec 31 2006 After you set the washing machine the first time, the price includes a technician who comes to visit you and removes all the buttons other than the one you used.-- phundug, Jan 01 2007 One button is one too many, I say! Make it so it turns on as soon as you close the lid, and pops the lid slightly open when it's done. Honestly, why over-complicate things? *grin* +-- imaginality, Jan 01 2007 I don't wish to be the scrooge of 2007, but how is this an invention? Just duck/duct tape the buttons you don't use, and there ya go?-- blissmiss, Jan 01 2007 BB, I don't think that is the intention of the author - just one heat setting and one simple cycle regardless of the contents of the drum.-- po, Jan 02 2007 Spot on, [po].-- jtp, Jan 02 2007 it might start criticising your fashion style and heaven forbid make remarks about losing weight..-- po, Jan 02 2007 Great idea! British washing machines are the worst I've ever encountered. In my first experience with one a Ph.D. and an electrical engineer working together with the manual could not find the right setting and ended up shrinking some trousers into doll's clothes. Sheesh. I think the clothing industry is in on it, the more stuff you ruin in the washer, the more you have to buy.-- esperance, Jan 02 2007 It's not just about one button operation. I appreciate that your machine can be programmed for one button use, but I bet there's an awful lot of technology inside there. This idea is for the manufacture of extremely simple washing machines with minimal technology inside. No custom programs, no computers, nothing. Just a motor with a non-modifiable cycle, and a set temperature (40 deg is my choice).-- jtp, Jan 03 2007 In that case, I bun you.-- wagster, Jan 03 2007 Why not forget all the controls. Have a top-loading machine (no door), with a weight sensor in it. The moment anything is dropped by anyone into it, it madly starts up and continues washing it permanently, or until you use the specially designed fishing rod to fish it out of the soapy, twirling water below.
No buttons or even doors to open or shut -- and a kind of cool fishing type game -- all in one!-- britboy, Jan 03 2007 It's all fun and games until someone shrinks their underwear. Just so long as the normal washers are still available for that tiny handful of us who DO use all the settings offered.-- jenifemeral, Jan 04 2007 //who DO use all the settings offered.//
Surely you mean *most* of the settings offered? I refuse to believe that there's a single person on the planet who uses *every* setting on their washing machine!-- jtp, Jan 04 2007 I have a neighbour (garden backs on to mine) who I haven't exchanged more than 6 words with in 20 years, who has a lineful or two of washing out every day come rain, shine, snow, hail, thunder, hurricane (I jest).
she seems to have made it her lifetime achievement to wash for england. I bet she has used every setting on her machine and probably gets through 3 machines a year.-- po, Jan 04 2007 What can i say?.. simple yet sophisticated.. i like-- deoxyribonucleic, Jan 04 2007 nothing gets out a set-in stain like a good hurricane-- jenifemeral, Jan 04 2007 Steve Jobs presents: the iWash.
The problem here is perhaps you need to wash a small bathroom carpet or you need to wash some "dainties"...it can't just wash it like it would a pair of jeans and some t-shirts, could it?-- Abusementpark, Jan 07 2007 po, get the garden off your back. Not good while on scooter.
My new houseperson just shelled out oodles to buy new washing and drying appliances. Ouch. There are more buttons and blinkers, buzzers and thingies than I have ever seen. Too lazy to read booklets, we have finally mastered the newbies.
Kick em in the head, where it hurts.-- blissmiss, Jan 07 2007 Ok, ok, I have done an inventory in the last few days. And no, I don't in fact use ALL of the buttons and settings available to me. It seems that I don't launder clothes that are sufficiently fragile to require the "delicate" setting. I do, however, use all the others! Think what you will of me!-- jenifemeral, Jan 10 2007 you seem to be a very very nice clean and methodical person.
:)-- po, Jan 10 2007 oh! if only! oh yay! oh how unfortunate that it's not true. i can talk the talk, but when it comes to anything other than laundry, i can't walk at all! in all fairness, i'd estimate that more than 50% of the people i know would LOVE this idea.-- jenifemeral, Jan 13 2007 ...and the other 50%?-- po, Jan 13 2007 random, halfbakery