It’s hard to characterize in a single sentence, so I’ll just break it down into its constituent parts.
The Beep
When the laundry cycle finishes it does the following:
- It beeps super loudly for 5 seconds
- If you don’t run to switch it off, it will wait 30 more seconds and then continue to beep super loudly for 5 seconds
- If you switch it off whilst it’s beeping, it will continue to finish its beeping
- There is no volume setting nor any way to switch this off.
The Door
When it’s finished. It does not release. That beeping sound from earlier to tell you to come get your laundry? No no no, that was just the “come and watch me drain” alarm.
- Switching it off has no effect on the door release.
- It releases whenever it wants. It could be 5 minutes, it could be 20.
- When it does release, all you will get is a <clunk> sound, so you better be around to hear it.
- If you miss this sound, it will lock itself again 10-15 minutes later and rotate your clothes.
- It will then repeat the release process.
HELP ME. HE-ELP ME.
LOL, WTF. That machine is too “helpful” for its own good.
My previous washing machine, a Samsung front-loader, did not operate in an annoying way but was much more of an asshole by the fact that it was designed with blatant planned obsolescence. Shortly out of warranty, it failed catastrophically and I decided to take it apart to figure out why. Every metal part inside was in pristine condition, including all the ones exposed to water, except one. The “spider arm,” which was what connected the rotating drum to its bearing, was so severely corroded that it literally broke into pieces:
(Note: not my picture, but mine looked the same.)
Samsung 100% used a corrosion-prone metal on that part on purpose.
Unfortunately, I had already replaced the machine at that point and I didn’t take particular care when disassembling, so I wasn’t prepared to replace the spider arm and scrapped it instead. At least I’ve still got the drive motor to use for some project, eventually. I sure as Hell won’t buy a Samsung again, though!
(In fact, considering the DRM on their phones, ads on their smart TVs, and other enshittification of the rest of their products, I will never buy anything from Samsung ever again in my life, and I recommend that nobody else does either.)
My current washing machine is a Bosch front-loader that I bought used for very cheap. No idea how old it is in total, but I think I’ve probably had it for longer than the Samsung at this point and it has continued to work without problems.
Wow, my parents had a Samsung and it also broke on the exact same part. No replacement parts available except from a third party seller and it was way too expensive to justify fixing.