By Andrew Liszewski
Reliability is an important factor when deciding what brand of washer or dryer to buy, but everything breaks down eventually, and LG has come up with a clever way for their technicians to figure out just what’s wrong with one of their dryers or washers when they do. While internet connected appliances are the more trendy solution, they still tend to overcomplicate things. I mean who wants to punch in a wi-fi code on their dryer? Or run network cable to the laundry room?
LG’s solution, which they call SmartDiagnosis, has the end-user punch in a specific button sequence on the appliance (presumably something they’d never do by accident) which then causes it to play back a series of tones which the technician on the other end of the phone can use to determine what ails it. Kind of like morse code, or whatever the hell language R2-D2 spoke. The advantage is that the end-user doesn’t have to try and explain the ‘funny noise’ the machine is making, describe where exactly all the smoke is coming from or even read out some long complicated part number which can be misread or misheard over the phone.
[ LG Washers & Dryers With SmartDiagnosis ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]
So error codes on the included color LCD can't be conveyed over the phone either? How many different error combinations could this washer have?
I wonder if LG programmed the washer or dryer to break down, or made it with easily worn out parts, so that the end user HAS to use this tone error message system. I think that it will cause a lot of aggravation when the electronics wear out, or the power supply shorts, and it starts making strange dying noises like HAL in space odyssey, and the technician says “I'm sorry that doesn't seem to be a valid code, can you try it again?”