Spare parts are our world; it’s a subject that we know incredibly well, and so, when we started exploring the topic of smart, connected appliances, it was of course something that we carefully considered and thought about.
Primarily, we wondered what the implications of these connected machines would have for spare parts.
All Change: No Change
The title of this says the bulk of what goes into most machines.
You see, appliances are and always have been electromechanical devices, and whilst you will get changes and enhancements to both elements of that, electrical and mechanical, you don’t really get any substantial change as, after all, the machines still have components to perform the same function as they always have.
A drum, motor, pump, heater, suspension and so on whilst they change, sometimes a fair bit, they still all are there and still all do the same job. Washing machines need to physically clean laundry, dryers dry them, cookers cooker stuff, fridges cool stuff and so on, it’s all physical.
So, mechanically, there’s been very, very little change or advancement in the past three or four decades, perhaps longer.
Sure, there have been changes with better design or, more effective components and suchlike but not really any changes to the fundamental mechanical technologies used.
Which is why when we see a lot of the marketing claims that get made we scratch our heads in bemusement, wondering what the blazes they’re on about, as most of it is bunkum. The basics haven’t changed, and nobody’s come up with anything radical in decades.
Electronics and control systems have changed. But not so much as you might think.
Electronic models have been in use for about three decades at this point in 2025, they’re well established, widely used and fairly well known. Although often attributed with almost magical properties when it comes to faults, as they are often misdiagnosed, that’s another topic entirely.
There have been motor speed controllers, inverter cards to go from AC to DC voltage for smaller, more efficient motors and of course, a replacement for an old timer to control the programs and what works when etc.
They’re not a new thing, and they’re not doing anything wildly different from what went before, going back to the 1950s.
Our point is, the basic principles for any appliance haven’t fundamentally changed.
New Stuff
After that, you might be wondering, “What’s changed then and what’s all this new stuff?”
Good question. Think on it this way…
If you task a team of designers and engineers to build a new appliance, it doesn’t matter what it is, they can’t change the fundamentals of what it does, as they all clean, cook or cool stuff in broad terms and for each, there are defined parameters they have to work to in order to perform those tasks.
So, what can they change?
Not a lot is the answer, they can try to make them more efficient, change up programs and such, make the manufacturing process easier, cheaper or both. That’s about it and there are limits to what can or can’t be done, hard limits defined by standards, space, physics and so forth.
What they can do, is mess with design and the control systems.
When we entered into this age of IoT (Internet of Things) some makers leaned right into that and started to offer connected appliances. We’re convinced a lot of them didn’t know why but, they did it anyway.
The benefits it offered to consumers seemed marginal, if any use at all.
But at the time we started to see machines that came with blank modules that needed programming and, to do that you needed special equipment, software or often as not, both.
In turn, this meant that DIY repairs were nigh impossible and independent repairs not easy and not so cheap.
One maker touted that blank boards would make them cheaper and you could use one in any number of machines. The reality (in our view) was exactly the opposite on all counts and they weren’t the only ones to do this or similar.
Now, layered on top of all this we have the often spurious claims of “AI” built in. But when you start asking about it and just how, specifically, that AI is being used you will get fluffy answers or, none at all. You can make your own mind up on why that might be; however, as (if you read all the above) you can see, the basic functions of any large kitchen appliance haven’t changed, there’s really no call for AI or connected functionality in most cases.
The exception to this is where they plonk a tablet on a fridge door (effectively) or on an oven/cooker although, the point of this still eludes us. Perhaps the designers were bored that day or, it’s all they could come up with to differentiate their machines from everyone else’s.
Looks pretty, but adds no real functional value to the user.
Ramping Costs
All these extra gizmos and gadgets that are seemingly tacked onto the basic machine you buy to do the job it was intended to do, in our opinion, serve little purpose but do increase the costs of electronic components and the cost of them.
When you layer on top of that the often nigh impossible task of getting test sequences, let alone diagnostic information or more for these expensive electronics, it can get expensive if they break and, you’ll often have no option but to use the manufacturer’s service. That severely limits your choices.
When, of people we’ve asked, hardly any use the extra features that these fancy electronics bring.
Same Old
The good news is however, that fault diagnosis and the parts that fail are all largely the same, it’s only the electronics that alter very much for the most part.
There’s no reason to be scared of these types of machines in that regard but, we do think that makers should consider their customers and give details on test sequences and fault code meanings so that people who want to repair their own machines can do so if they wish.
Not an unfamiliar ask to regular readers of this site.
But in respect of spare parts, smart, connected appliances don’t really have much of an impact. They’re largely just the same as they have been for many years.