Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/14

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Subject: [Leica] There's something about German design ...
From: rdandcb at home.netspeed.com.au (Rick Dykstra)
Date: Sun Jan 14 12:11:11 2007
References: <617EDB1E-2D9B-49A5-B256-675A6D20ECFA@home.netspeed.com.au> <6d8cb16ebf98e212fb891cf2ccc2deb5@woh.rr.com>

As much as  I dread that word 'bypass' - recipe for disaster - I'm  
considering doing it in fixing my dishwasher.  Google tells me the  
proper solenoid will be $350 kangabucks.  Say $300 hollywoodbucks.  eek!

Rick.

On 15/01/2007, at 1:43 AM, Rob McClure wrote:

> I dunno.  I love well-engineered things as much as most (BMW,  
> Omega, Mont Blanc, etc.), but sometimes items can be over- 
> engineered.  As an example, our home came with a Clare Megasave  
> furnace.  This is a Canadian unit, quite unique to my Ohio location  
> (the nearest dealer is 80 miles away).  Initially I had trouble  
> with it failing to start and my neighbor, a retired Westinghouse  
> electrical engineer and mechanical genius, came over to help.  The  
> electronic controls were unbelievably complex with all kinds of  
> redundancy built in to meet the high standards dictated by Canada,  
> where severe winters can cause a catastrophe in the case of furnace  
> failure.  Unfortunately one of the backup features was conflicting  
> the circuit and keeping the furnace from consistently starting.  He  
> bypassed the backups and it has worked perfectly these past 15 years.
>
> Rob McClure
>
>
> On Jan 14, 2007, at 6:46 AM, Rick Dykstra wrote:
>
>> I spent today slowly pulling our Miele dishwasher apart, to figure  
>> out why its not filling fully.  I think it's the solenoid.  Not  
>> just any solenoid, but part of a failsafe twin solenoid leak-proof  
>> disaster safe design.  And having seen the insides of this thing  
>> now, by golly what a beautifully designed well made, repairable  
>> bit of gear.  An absolute contrast to the Australian made Vulcan  
>> gas heater I pulled apart last winter (worn out fan).  And the  
>> Miele vacuum cleaner I pulled apart last year was also great to  
>> work on (worn out carbon brushes).
>>
>> So why is it that Germans are such good industrial designers?   
>> It's as if they know their work will be appreciated when customers  
>> finally need to fix the thing.  :-)
>>
>> Impressed I am.
>>
>> Rick.
>>
>
>
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Replies: Reply from bd at bdcolenphoto.com (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] There's something about German design ...)
Reply from philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent) ([Leica] There's something about German design ...)
In reply to: Message from rdandcb at home.netspeed.com.au (Rick Dykstra) ([Leica] There's something about German design ...)
Message from rmcclure2 at woh.rr.com (Rob McClure) ([Leica] There's something about German design ...)