my mom's samsung (?) "smart washer" (clothes washer + dryer) is not only an expensive scam, and absolutely evil from all of its first principles, but it's not even made for humans - and I can prove it.
first off it has a touchscreen. Bad for me because my hands aren't greasy enough for it to work 80% of the time. More importantly, bad for ANY blind person because you can't 'feel' a touchscreen. But why did they do this? maybe they hate blind people, maybe it's cheaper, maybe it's more expensive so it demands a bigger ticket price - NOPE it's so that robots can do it. It was advertised with "wifi connectivity" so you can "time loads" and "remote control" the machine using your phone (but you still have to put the clothes in manually ???) but the car review guy's video about teslas taught me that the main advantage of having everything electronic is that it can be operated by non-humans.
That's strike one, strike two is the lint filter abomination. This thing has what I can only compare to a Nerf Gun-style magazine for the lint filters. Two of them, of course, although that's not atypical. But they're both housed inside a larger rectangular plastic brick, with tons of plastic flanges and catches and...... no handles! It takes TWO hands to remove the lint filters from the lint filter container after removing the container from the machine (unless you partially leave it sticking in the machine to pry the thing open with leverage). Again, there are no handles, and this routinely hurts my fingers because of HOW MUCH FORCE it takes to undo the plastic tabs. Then you have a half cartridge (with one filter) and ANOTHER piece (with the first filter) to take apart to access it! That part DEFINITELY requires two hands (or a DIY aid or your thighs or something) since it can't be wedged into the machine for leverage.
The lint filter is a 3-part cartridge with no handles and it hurts my fingers to take apart - AND it slots into the machine PERFECTLY SQUARE with NO BEVEL at all! So when you re-insert it it has to be PERFECT!!! It's worse than USB cables!
And here's the worst part, it has popups. it has TWO separate "change lint filter" popups (which open up ~4 seconds AFTER you turn the machine on since it's cheap and slow, so it's more annoying). AND it has a "OH hey did you know you can hit this button to change the (preset) settings for your cycle! :) "popup which COVERS the play button for the cycle! So you turn it on (for me i hit the power button 2-5 times), you EXIT out of the last cycle settings (like if im doing towels), you SCROLL down the menu list of presets to see TOWELS (the second most common thing I wash, why is "AI mode" the top preset ?????) you click on it, you close the lint filter popup, then ANOTHER POPUP blocks the play button and there's NO way to close or dismiss it! You just have to wait like a cuck or try to fat-finger the play button peaking out from below it (about 20% of it is uncovered).
Oh also changing the lint filter doesn't make those popups go away, they still popup.
Oh also it doesn't exhaust the moist air like a normal dryer it actually uses a refrigerator coil (condenser) to A/C all the moisture out of the exhaust air and then dumps it indoors (which actually heats up the inside more since the machine has an even-hotter hot-coil for it's heat pump (like the back of a fridge)).
Oh also the condenser has a filter which clogs with lint because yes of course they take the same air through the lint filters and then into the condenser - that's why it's so anal about cleaning it (I clean it every time and it still clogs once every ~2 months).
You know who needs this? You know who needs dry air? Robots. You know who doesn't mind popups (because they operate the machine remotely)? Robots. You know who doesn't complain about straight 90º angles for inserting and removing lint filter cartridges? With no handles? Robots.
I knew the design was anti-human from day one but it just finally clicked - it was designed for robots.
Also consumerism replaces culture and I can ONLY IMAGINE how uneducated / neglected the children of the owners of smart washers are going to be. Modern people don't even know how to wash dishes or sweep or mop they just use machines and vacuums and swiffers - the clothes washer is just another extension of this loss of cultural knowledge as people like my sister JUMP at the chance to automate anything and I know her kids aren't being taught how to do things the old ways - when they get older they'll just buy glittery swiffers and machines just the same.
