From cars, to washing machines, to coffee makers. Why? Why does the old reliable mechanical device of the past not suffice? Why must we be forced to deal with stupid digital electronics that upon even the slightest power surge or water ingress decide to stop what they're doing and wait for you, inconvenienced and irritated to reset them so they finish drying your clothes?

What is so cost effective about installing digital electronics into things versus using the old tried and true mechanical timer that lasts 40+ years?

F the old tried and true mechanical timer that lasts 40+ years?

There is the problem... it lasts they don't want that to happen .lol.

Partly because in some cases it's actually cheaper to have a microchip do the work instead of a more complex circuit or mechanical device of multiple parts. At one time computer controlled meant something was top of the line "solid state," LED displays, touch pads was the selling point. Now it's more normalized, and just cheaper. Even items that appear to have simple buttons or knobs have a chip in the circuit.

Idk they just do

User experience, accuracy, and range of functions, predominately, but there are dozens of other reasons. Don't like it? Get an older used one. They're cheaper anyway, and no one's stopping you. I do it all the time. Let people enjoy their over-engineered coffee makers if they want to.

Mechanics seems to last longer than electronics, and if you add a computer you can program a device killing, for example sending a high voltage to an important apliance part, so you will need to buy a new one, or the dead part is just too expensive for a replacing. Programated obsolescense.

This is what called planned obsolescence.

Most Companies do it to bloat out the price as and use the "new tech" to bump up the price buy hundreds of dollars. Plus Why would you need facebook on a fridge? My parents got the house im about to move in but the kiched did not have a fridge in it. The chose the one they wanted (which i agreed with in both convenience and efficiency), but did want to get any of fancy touchscreens or internet connectivity because its 700$ more expensive and was useless to us as your better of just using your phone or computer to go online.

Planned obsolescence. Now they can actually program the thing (whatever it is) to fail on cue, like printer cartridges that stop printing when there is still plenty of ink/toner left 

That lead to programmed CFL and L bulbs, that if you are lucky can last a bit more than incandescent, is that really ecologic, generating tons of plastic ( ) to the planet? 

Planned obsolescence. Now they can actually program the thing (whatever it is) to fail on cue, like printer cartridges that stop printing when there is still plenty of ink/toner left 

Didnt a bunch of bulb makers got together to shorten the life of bulbs so people buy more of them?

The 1000 hour life for incandescents came about because it was the best balance between the cost of the lamp and the cost of electricity to run it.

The 1000 hour life for incandescents came about because it was the best balance between the cost of the lamp and the cost of electricity to run it.

Huh thats interesting.   :-/ Thought they shorten lamp life so people will buy more.

The first most reason :

You (a company) design a consumer device that needs some controls. You have option to use mechanical or electronic control. In the end, you will have to manufacture this device in quantities, so want to make the production as cost effective as possible. One place where the difference is big is right there :

Mechanical control must be either hand assembled, or assembled using fairly specialised robots, which will most likely some costly adaptation for the assembly of the specific mechanism. If you use any custom parts, then there is also need to manufacture them, etc

Electronic control is virtually allways made of standard off the shelf part, using standard manufacturing process that needs no adaptation. Feed the drawings and stock of components to the machine and out come the circuit boards



The standard process means also, that if design changes are made later on, they won't require big changes (like new moulds for new parts, new testing of mechanics etc)



Electronics allow to introduce features very easily. This can be taken into many directions :

Sometimes it is actually a useful feature, or even one that makes the device more reliable. For example, a timeout protection to stop running a motor if it takes too long to click the limit switch (such protections werent common with mechanical controls - So for example, a motor could run until it overheats and burns due to a broken belt. Though they dont exist in many electronic controls either)

Sometimes it is just useless features. They may affect reliability to different extents

Sometimes it is plainly malicious features. In here count planned obsolescence, DRM (Digital Restriction Management - typically for media and computer stuff), spying on user, and so on



The use of electronics in itself adds possible points of failure (everything related to power quality such as transients, higher sensitivity to moisture/dirt/foreign object ingress, components with limited lifetime like capacitors), but it also can eliminate mechanical points of failure like parts that are subject to wear

So it is not black and white, but anything that comes with intentional malicious feature or with bad manufeacturing quality is definitely bad



Some things about repairability :

Electronics made with standard components can be easier to repair than broken mechanics with more custom parts

Repairability of electronics is broken when there is some DRM or proprietary firmware involved (so you cannot reflash some microcontroller), when the circuit is too complicated/integrated to be able to efficiently deduce what the fault is, or when particularly nasty component form factors are used which are hard (*FN packages) or even what looks like impossible (microBGA) to solder by hand, even with the specialised tools

Sometimes an electronic device is in fact repairable but needs more specialised tools or knowledge than a comparable mechanical device. In which case it is not repairable by who does not have such tools or knowledge. The tools may be expensive (soldering stations, hot air guns) or the knowledge one that takes experience to build up (how to find a fault in a circuit), so it may be harder than comparable mechanics

Huh thats interesting.   :-/ Thought they shorten lamp life so people will buy more.

There are a lot of factors to take into account. For example, reducing the efficiency of a lamp by 10% doubles the life. Depending on the cost of electricity and the cost of lamp replacement (and labour costs if in a commercial environment) it may or may not be cost effective to do this, it might work out to have a lamp last only 750 hours, as I know some US incandescents did.

There are rather complex formulae to work all these things out, but I'm not that clever, you'll have to ask James if you want more detail