Really Poor Design

By James the Wanderer

“Last week our stove died, in a tragic egg-boiling accident.” That kind of line perhaps deserves a little explanation.

I put ten eggs in a pan with some baking soda and water and turned it up to high. You boil them for twelve minutes and dunk them in ice water; after a while you take them out and put them back in the refrigerator. Not exactly rocket science, and easy to do. I was just starting to grill pork chops, so I asked my wife that when the timer went off could she finish up, which she agreed to do. I went out to the grill in the backyard.

My eldest came running out to advise me that “Mom needs you right now!” I went back in to find her mildly upset; she had been in the living room and saw sudden flashes of light, electrical-discharge variety. Upon investigation, she found the eggs had boiled over and shorted out the stove. I pulled the oven breaker and we began the cleanup.

This was the stove in question. I’m not trying to chastise the manufacturer so I won’t name them, but I hope someone points this article out to them.

(The camera date and time were not set). Notice the rectangular panel on the front between the dials. This is where the PCB that controls the oven and timer are. Here’s another, with the top propped open with a stick:

Now for some history. We bought this oven second hand from Habitat for Humanity store. They get all sorts of items from all sorts of folks: distributors with six extra cases of floor tile no one else would ever want, DIY flippers tearing out the old to put in new for a fast buck, everything from electrical parts and controls to plumbing bits to – kitchen appliances. As far as we could tell, this one had never been used. It was meant to be built into a kitchen island, but there was no reason it could not be a stand alone. We certainly got a good five years out of it before this happened. New ones can cost $500 or more (it was fairly upscale [read: more expensive than that retail] when we got it, but the scale has changed endpoints). We only paid $175 for something that lasted five years and should have lasted a dozen (at least). Why did it die?

That rectangular panel on the front is LOWER than the cooktop. The cooktop has a lip on it that SHOULD have caused the water to flow over the edge and onto the floor (a little bit did). Some water ran back under the lip before it dripped – right on top of the non-sealed, sheet-metal housing (un)protected PCB. It easily evaded the housing and ran inside, frying the controls and disturbing my wife’s equilibrium (she has this thing about electricity and water; poor woman, she’ll never be an electrician).

Now had this happened due to a flood like Texas is having, I’d have no complaint, things happen and floods are beyond ordinary stove design. But it didn’t, and boiling things is a part of cooking so water on top of the stove can be expected. The pan only holds about three quarts at max, so it wasn’t a lot of water to begin with and nowhere near that much escaped (I think between a pint and a quart did this). But did the manufacturer never cook anything on this design to test it? Did they never suspect water might fall upon the ceramic cooktop and have to drain? Why are the electronics LOWER than the cooktop, do kitchen islands demand that structure? And if so, why weren’t the electronics better protected?

This model is apparently obsolete now (I wonder why!) because we are unable to locate parts to replace the PCB anywhere, even online. For the moment, we are using alternate equipment to provide the needed functions: a pressure cooker, electric wok and toaster over (total investment about $50 at thrift shops). Here they are, along with the deceased range oven:

Again, I’m not naming names because there’s no reason to: the slightly-out-of-focus is because my camera was unsteadily held by an amateur photographer (me). But look at these three items: if water gets to the pressure cooker controls, it would be due to a total failure of the vessel holding it, which is part of the equipment (and EXTREMELY unlikely!) If water gets to the toaster oven controls, it would be a miracle since they are above the lowest part of the unit. If water got to the electric wok controls, it would be because you overfilled that unit (and would probably be ignored, they are fairly well sealed). Why didn’t this (originally expensive) stove have those design features found on fairly cheap appliances? Would you design a houseboat with the portholes below the water line?

What design flaws have you found in your everyday items? How would you fix them? How would you test your products to find flaws like this one before they reached your customers? Do you care enough to do so?

In an age of planned obsolescence, downsourcing and minimal design, we had better get it right if we want to stay in business. Poor design leads to poor sales, and unhappy non-repeat customers. “Get it right the first time” isn’t just for airplanes anymore.