[zkms]

> The idea sounds pretty neat but I wonder about longevity of the piezeoelectric transducers.

If they'll wear out fast it's entirely feasible to design the dryer around user-replaceable piezos.

It may end up like with inkjet printers -- where the dryer itself is just a boring spinning drum with a fan and a moisture collector and a powerful piezo driver, and you end up buying consumable cassettes with the actual transducers inside.

[lt_kernel_panic]

But then you won't be able to dry your white clothes because your color piezo needs replacement.

[nickpeterson]

You know what I want? A lemon law that states that major appliances need to run forever. Literally something that says, "This device must run without professional service for 25 years." Forget energy star stuff, 100Kwh saved a year is meaningless because we can always optimize powerplants. Stop building disposable 100LB metal boxes that have to get scrapped and thrown in a landfill. If the device fails earlier than that, the company has to replace it and pay a large fine for producing faulty equipment (larger than the profit from the device by an order of magnitude).

Then just allow people to rent the devices (which would obviously cost more) rather that have to buy them outright.

[DKnoll]

First you need engineers that can design appliances that, even if warrantied, do not need service within 25 years 100% of the time.

Perhaps they can be legislated into existence... ;)

[nickpeterson]

There is a rover on Mars that had been running by itself for quite a bit and it contends with far more than a dryer.

[DKnoll]

I assume you don't mean Beagle 2.

A Mars rover is a bad example here because it's not an item that is, or will ever be, mass-produced.

[blibble]

how much did the rover cost?

[nickpeterson]

Hard to know, looking at the 600 page NASA PDF, but Google says 400 million. But that's for a object that had to be transported to mars first. I bet transporting a dishwasher to mars intact to sit and not work is a similar amount of money.

Guess I just need to start an appliance company and fail to become enlightened as to why my desire of quality and serviceability are unattainable ideals.

Incidentally, your comment on price is a weak argument, because the product doesn't even exist. Even the luxury appliances have tremendously low longevity now. So luxury at this point basically means it looks really good while it works and you can afford to buy another when it doesn't.

[chemmail]

Or just buy my grandmas fridge from the 60s that still running strong.