Samsung’s ‘exploding’ washers raise serious questions about its quality control

Samsung, still recovering from the messy recall of its premium Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, has disclosed that products from another major category are also prone to exploding — its washing machines. Consumers reported at least six models of its top-loading washing machines — some of which have operated without problems for years — have been known to explode, spin violently and levitate during the spin cycle, turning them into dangerous projectiles.

Well, exploding would be the wrong word, more like violently disintegrating. It´s the top loaders that have this problems. You can check your Samsung washer here with the serial number on the backside of the machine.

What Should You Do In the Meantime?
If you have an affected washing machine, we encourage you to wash all bedding, waterproof, and bulky items on the delicate cycle until a solution is announced. Please check this website for the latest information. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Your safety is our top concern.

This is interesting. Seems the hinges and buffers on the drums are the problem! Toploaders are much more easy to construct than frontloaders so I go out on a limb and call it cost reduction. Or Skynet brings it´s plan to fruitition. I happen to have bought a Samsung microwave oven, I hope the safety circuit isn´t another victim of cost reduction. Imagine the thing turning on when the door is open.

See what happens with your washing machine if you throw a brick in it:

Goto 3:00 for best part.

Samsun gs ‘exploding’ washers raise serious questions about its quality control

That video reminded me of Skoda auto I bought 30 odd years ago, the engine in the trunk ended up just like the washer did. Lol

How's Samsungs stock doing?

Just got a Samsung UHD Bluray player, and the UI on it is like something written by freshman college students.

Got into a long question with their support about it, the gist of which was "Why can I not program the top few items on my supposedly programmable home screen, to reflect the three things I most often watch?" (i.e. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu).

Their reply "We select the favorites, you have to live with the order in which we rank them. However, if it's something offbeat, you can pick THOSE as single click choices."

My reply "So, it's ok with you that if I want to watch something on Amazon Video, I have to go to 'other', scroll down and select 'Amazon', but if it's the Tilapia Channel, I can put that on my home screen? That makes sense to you?"

Samsung: "How dare you question our judgement?"

I had a very similar call with Sky, over night they updated their receivers so you can´t watch HD anymore on older plasma (fullhd) TVs without the HDCP chip. They said I can still use SCART. What a joke. So fast forward three months later, we get strange noises in the middle of a night. Thought it´s a marten or dormouses.

Then we found out it´s the receiver (probably a condesator). So I called them to replace it. What´s the error code? I told her. Then she wanted me to install it again (I had an old receiver hooked up then) and go through the menu. Simple things like DISEQC settings. The outcome was: the problem could be on my side. A technician has to visit me to check it out. I said I´m not going to pay for this. She said, yes if the fault is on my side, I´m going to pay. He never came, a week later the receiver died completely. The other non-sky receiver worked at both TVs...

So I called again. This time they sent me a new receiver and the next day an admonition letter came in. If I do not resend the old hardware until next week, they´re going to charge me 140€ for the receiver that I paid upfront 199€ just to get it.
WTF? So I sent it back, everything was fine, and last week (over 6 months later), they sent me a bill. I asked them for what? She said, well the receiver never came in. I said I have a recipt for the sent receiver so I´m not going to pay. Then she got unfriendly. I said get your stuff together... Turns out the guy that unboxed the dead receiver was not able to read the serial number correctly and I ended up having 0 receivers in their system. Then I said, well sent me one (:devil. Then she wanted to send a technician to install it.

I already sent a letter to quit the contract via mail. I expect them to behave like they never got it. But I have a sheet of paper to proof that I sent the letter...

Long story short, don´t trust the support.

Ok, to be fair, they have a large rock in that machine. My washer would probably dance across the room if I did that and it's not a Samsung.

originally posted by: DAVID64
Ok, to be fair, they have a large rock in that machine. My washer would probably dance across the room if I did that and it's not a Samsung.

Yeah, I thought pretty much the same, who would WANT to put a rock on a Spin Cycle, seems like a crazy idea to me, I mean, the rock wasn't even wet!!!

By the way, the machine in the video was not even a Samsung, it was a Miele

a reply to: verschickter

"The machine jumped forward about two feet and turned 90 degrees,"

Sounds like it needs an exorcist, not a repairman. Yikes!

Really have to be careful about quality control nowadays. Some things are no good out the gate, while others, like these machines operate a few years before failing. Cheap parts, I suspect. Years ago the breaks on our new pickup truck started heating up coming down the mountain, something that had never happened before. Turned out they had replaced a former metal part with plastic.

Family member had an expensive Samsung fridge go out the day after warranty expired. Products today can look good on the outside, yet main components be so cheaply built.

Have had Samsung products in past. No problem. They need to get their act together now.

a reply to: DAVID64
The vid I posted, yes they threw a rock in it. Not to test anything, just for giggles and demonstration. The samsung washers do this with clothes in it.

a reply to: desert

I recently had to buy a new washer because my AEG Lavamat from 1999 had some error messages I could not reset. First it was the coals so I changed them, then the heater stopped working after two weeks. It worked for 17 years, not bad. Probably one of the last durable washers. Regardless I bought another AEG, in the hopes it will last as long as the old one.

Well in the UK they have been covering the Indesit/Hotpoint/Whirpool brands of tumble dryers catching fire for about a year now and no recall.

originally posted by: desert
a reply to: verschickter

"The machine jumped forward about two feet and turned 90 degrees,"

Sounds like it needs an exorcist, not a repairman. Yikes!

Really have to be careful about quality control nowadays. Some things are no good out the gate, while others, like these machines operate a few years before failing. Cheap parts, I suspect. Years ago the breaks on our new pickup truck started heating up coming down the mountain, something that had never happened before. Turned out they had replaced a former metal part with plastic.

Family member had an expensive Samsung fridge go out the day after warranty expired. Products today can look good on the outside, yet main components be so cheaply built.

Have had Samsung products in past. No problem. They need to get their act together now.

Not a Quality Control / Quality Assurance problem at all, considering Samsung and all other major "White Goods" manufacturers have the majority of components shipped to them from a supplier base, all Samsung and other manufacturers do is assemble the finished product using bought in components.

Sure, they do finished product audits, at the end of line ..... (from experience with a Major white goods manufacturer) simulating product first use at 3% audit of that days build, first 2 months usage at 2% of that months build and life cycle test which can take up to 15 weeks to perform, these tests are a very low percentage of product built. Any issues identified are thoroughly investigated and countermeasures applied to prevent a repeat

Then there is analysis of "Service Calls" from the end user which can point the finger if there is a potential epidemic issue occurring, again, as above, the issue is investigated and countermeasures applied to prevent re-occurrence if root cause can be identified, sometimes identifying root cause is not easy

I had one machine back from Service to investigate, Service had replaced the machine as a gesture of goodwill, on opening the machine I discovered that the end user had attempted to re-wire the appliance to bypass the safety thermostat ....... why???? its there for a fkn reason, the attempt to re-wire failed miserably and ended up breaking the appliance, my recommendation to Service was .... go get the replacement machine back, they never did.

Another thing to consider is following the Manufacturers Guide on using the machine, like clean the filters etc at the recommended intervals, I can't recall the number of times I had Tumble Dryers returned for "No Heat" only to find out the filters had not been cleaned, guess what Sherlock ....... if the filters are not cleaned it effects the air circulation, the drum gets hotter as a result and finally the safety mechanism ( one shot thermostat ) closes the heater down to prevent fire. Doh!!

Imagine the machine as a Human ...... if you can't breathe properly (say trying to breathe with a towel over your mouth) your body isn't going to function correctly is it, after a while!!!!!

Don't be too quick to diss the manufacturer and their Quality systems, sometimes you just need to read the user manual

ETA: forgot to add regarding the comment of cheap components, just so people are aware ...... the manufacturers are making products to make a PROFIT. To make things LAST FOREVER is counter-productive as you would not get any repeat business ....... this is why REDUNDANCY is built in to the majority of components, they are designed to fail rather than last forever

Cheers

CbG

a reply to: corblimeyguvnor

That may all be correct, still if you bought appliances in 1980 especially kitchen tools, they will last forever. I still have an old coffee grinder, electric knife and a dough mixer... I bought a dough mixer for my niche, was nearly 80€... The quality is not the same anymore, it broke before waranty ended.

Another example are the full automatic coffee machines. Someone asked me if I can take a look at it because it died one week after waranty ended. He took it into his car but at that day I was not at home so he left it in the car for two nights. It was winter and freezing cold. After he brought it to me, I first plugged it in to see what the display says. No error. So I went into the service menu and see there, all counters (like how much cups, how often the cleaning function was used) were set to zero. Hm.. what could be the reason? The electronic reseted somehow. I know that -5 - -10°C is not enough to damage electronics, still you have to ask yourself what happened...

Another example is vacuum cleaners. Everytime something breaks in my over 20 year old Miele vacuum cleaner, I just go to the scrapeyard into the electronics container and search for a smililar model. They are very popular and that model did not change for a good amount of time so the parts fit together. Then I give the guy 5€ and I take it home. My vaccum cleaner has three different colors now, but IDK, it works! Other people bought two new ones in that timeframe.

LG plasma TVs... if they fail, in 90% of the cases it´s three electrolyte condensators on the power supply. They come for under 2€. My father accidently bought a failed LG 50" plasma some years ago on ebay. there was only a small line of text that the TV would not start and he oversaw that. So I informed myself and voila, superb working plasma TV for 50€, instead of 800-1000€. The only hassle was the lead free solder.

I fix all my electonical stuff.
so I have seen inside many washers.
the old ones had good suspension
and a big Black of concrete as ballast.
the news ones dont make them as big.

25 years ago a washer I was useing had a blanket in it.
it was wet and in a ball. this hapend in the washer.
this made it ROCK all over. I was there to stop it!
this was a Old one!

do the make All new electronics to kill you?
or smash up your home? all of it.
if your home smashes it self up.
who would belive you did not do it?

Can they burn down you home, with you in it.
and othere things with all this hight tec chips in it.
just maybe we DO need tin foil hats and more.

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: corblimeyguvnor

That may all be correct, still if you bought appliances in 1980 especially kitchen tools, they will last forever. I still have an old coffee grinder, electric knife and a dough mixer... I bought a dough mixer for my niche, was nearly 80€... The quality is not the same anymore, it broke before waranty ended.

Another example are the full automatic coffee machines. Someone asked me if I can take a look at it because it died one week after waranty ended. He took it into his car but at that day I was not at home so he left it in the car for two nights. It was winter and freezing cold. After he brought it to me, I first plugged it in to see what the display says. No error. So I went into the service menu and see there, all counters (like how much cups, how often the cleaning function was used) were set to zero. Hm.. what could the reason be...

I would agree with you there regarding the 60's, 70's and 80's ...... products did last forever, that was before actual redundancy was designed and built in ...... as said before, there is no profit from making something that will last forever, again, and unfortunately it is rife in this day and age ...... PROFIT ..... making a quick buck, that's why companies are in business, can't answer your question about the service menu on the coffee machine but suspect it would be something similar to the emission issue with VW cars, if it has a "Chip" it has code and me and you aint writing the code

DP

a reply to: corblimeyguvnor

They only build in the weak parts ("sollburchstelle") in end-consumer products. In industry products, it´s a different thing. If there are weak parts, it´s to protect other much more expensive parts from breaking/overload. If I need something new, I´m always looking for the old fixable stuff first that others do not want because simply it´s old (but working). I do that mostly for power tools. Can´t beat my 30 year old BOSCH impact drill. I´ve fixed the coal holders with the tin from a can of coke over 15 years ago, it´s still working like a charm. However I would never buy an old washing machine for example, out of hygenic reasons. It certainly could be cleaned but yuk.

That way, I saved probably hundreds of Euros/Deutsche Mark already. Often it´s just a minor fix and some cleaning and it looks like brand new. I had one guy that wanted to sell me his VW Golf 4 TDI extremly cheap because the motor was "knocking" so he wanted to sell it before it breaks. That´s what he said to me. I saw the oil refill cap was not screwed in to whole way and instantly knew, that´s why he thinks it´s knocking. I screwed it back in, motor ran smooth again and told him to keep his car for a while. That was 3-4 years ago and he still drives his Golf 4.

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: corblimeyguvnor

They only build in the weak parts ("sollburchstelle") in end-consumer products. In industry products, it´s a different thing. If there are weak parts, it´s to protect other much more expensive parts from breaking/overload. If I need something new, I´m always looking for the old fixable stuff first that others do not want because simply it´s old (but working). I do that mostly for power tools. Can´t beat my 30 year old BOSCH impact drill. I´ve fixed the coal holders with the tin from a can of coke over 15 years ago, it´s still working like a charm. However I would never buy an old washing machine for example, out of hygenic reasons. It certainly could be cleaned but yuk.

That way, I saved probably hundreds of Euros/Deutsche Mark already. Often it´s just a minor fix and some cleaning and it looks like brand new. I had one guy that wanted to sell me his VW Golf 4 TDI extremly cheap because the motor was "knocking" so he wanted to sell it before it breaks. That´s what he said to me. I saw the oil refill cap was not screwed in to whole way and instantly knew, that´s why he thinks it´s knocking. I screwed it back in, motor ran smooth again and told him to keep his car for a while. That was 3-4 years ago and he still drives his Golf 4.

Agreed, the end consumer (public) is the "cash cow". Industry is a different story, especially when it comes down to safety ..... one thing the EU can be thanked for

I've had a lot of bad luck with Samsung products over the years.

The two Galaxy Notes I've owned have been rock solid.

But I've seen LCD TVs flake out, A refrigerator break down, and the glass front on a stove EXPLODE, at which point I was told they didn't make that part anymore so I had to buy a brand new range. I certainly won't be buying any of their appliances anymore.

My 1-1/2 year old Samsung Smart 50" TV lost the picture last night. Sound still works great, but no picture at all. Just glad it didn't blow me outta the house! Thankfully, I purchased the extra warranty so now am waiting for someone to come to the house to look at it. Of course, that was another fight because they wanted me to box it up and carry it to UPS.... I told them no way I can do that! Six months after the manufacture warranty expired, it's now shot. I bought Samsung because I thought their products were supposed to be one of the best, especially the TVs. So, yeah, I'd say their quality control has gone downhill...on all their products.

I have enjoyed reading all the posts.

a reply to: verschickter

I happen to have bought a Samsung microwave oven

This is not about a microwave but a counter top convection oven that I was looking into buying, not a Samsung. I was just about to settle on a certain brand, because they had always had reliable products, but then I ran across glass doors that would explode on the model I wanted. The problem came from the tempered glass made in China.

We're also in the digital age. A family member remodeled her kitchen and installed high end appliances. Her electric oven quit working the first time she used it. She thought maybe she had done something wrong, so she tried again. Nothing. Then she called out the serviceman, who said that it had not been plugged in all the way when installed. She tried again. Continued to malfunction. This time the problem was diagnosed as faulty electronics, repaired, and oven finally works. One counter appliance I had bought three years ago quit working halfway through the first use; electronic part quit.

My best friend can't understand why I won't get new kitchen appliances. I tell her that my 35 year old dishwasher and stove still work (were there when I moved in), as well as my 20 year old fridge I had bought when I moved in. My 20 year old washer and dryer still work, so I won't be replacing them either. I would rather have older working appliances than new ones that break down within a couple years (as happened to my best friend with her new washer....plastic part).