Asklemmy

43943 readers

103 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Why do washing machines prevent opening the hatch just after the washing cycle ends? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Most washing machines have a timer that prevents you from opening the hatch just after the washing cycle ends. Instad you must wait for the timer to go off, usually a minute or two, before you can open the hatch.

Why? Would letting the user open the hatch immediately after washing ends pose any safety or other issues?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's so that the machine elves have some time to hide!

On a serious note, I found this explanation here:

Washing machines must have some way in which you can lock the door closing mechanism when the machine is started up and then unlock them with a certain delay (normally two minutes) after the current has switched off via the program or on/off switch, in order to ensure that the door cannot be opened while some of the components are still rotating initially (in particular the motor and the drum of the spin-dryer).

Washing machines have a bi-metal strip inside the door lock which is heated by PTC Heater (resister) when live and neutral are activated on to the pcts it heats up and bends the bi-metal strip which then moves the arm to activate the common terminal and push a pin into the closed door to lock it in place. Once this has happened (usually a second or so see video) the power then can flow through to the common wire, and therefore on to the rest of the machine allowing it to start.