Life in France

Buying a washing machine

When we made the big move across the Atlantic, we sold our house in the US completely furnished. That was a practical choice for several reasons: it wasn’t necessary to have a huge garage sale to get rid of the furnishings of a 4000 ft² (371 m²) house; we didn’t have to ship all of that across the ocean and try to squeeze it into a 1000 ft² (93 m²) house here; and all of those electrical appliances weren’t going to work in France anyway. What that did mean, however, was that once we had decided on a maison to buy we then had to fill it with living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture plus the all-important kitchen. That was 8 years ago and if you’ve had experience with household machinery, you know what’s coming next.

Last year we wrote a post about where we shop in France compared to where we might have gone in the US. In downtown Carcassonne there’s a branch of the national chain Pulsat (remember Western Auto or Goodyear Service stores?) where it feels as if we bought one of every electrical appliance they had. Recently our washing machine displayed the “Blue Screen of Death” and could only be coaxed partially back into life to at least empty the water out of the tub. Bill checked the online catalog of our in-town store and compared that with another national chain, Darty, that’s located at one of the big shopping centers (une grande surface) on the outskirts of the city. The latter lists 1,058 items when you type in “lave-linge” that we would call a washing machine.

Diligently, Bill scrolled through page after page trying to find a similar machine to the one that had served us well over the last 8 years. We would have been delighted with a manual control for water level and temperature, speed, time, and a simple on/off button, but that wasn’t meant to be. Those warnings that we see about the threat of artificial intelligence taking over are too late for the laundry room. Thanks to “AI Direct Drive™” I think that the only human action needed is to put the clothes into the drum and close the door. They are then weighed, analyzed as to the type of fabric, filled with water (and maybe steam as well), with the 6 possible movements of the drum adjusted depending upon the needs of the clothes. Meet the Jetsons!

So we didn’t find an exact match but we now have a combination washer/dryer with an 11 kg/6 kg capacity. Normally we dry clothes outside or on the rack in the attic but softening the towels is easier with a dryer. In hindsight, if the AI wash cycle does all that it’s supposed to do, maybe we got our simple on/off button after all 🤔

Photo note: All photos, except for the featured photo across the top, are from the Pulsat website, thank you!

16 thoughts on “Buying a washing machine”

    2. In the States we had a GPS/Satnav that would do exactly that regarding our driving. After not following the spoken directions, the voice would say, “You obviously know where you’re going so I’m going to shut up now!” 🤣

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  3. I have a tumble dryer to go with my washing machine (it’s 13 years old but still running, bought, like you, with a number of other appliances when we moved here). Unfortunately, it is an electricity guzzler and so I use it sparingly. The original washing machine made it to age 7 before needing replacing. Planned obsolescence, I believe. The “blue screen of death” gave me a good chuckle.

    PS there’s a lovely community here and I always like everyone’s replies but for some reason, the “likes” don’t usually show. Just to say, I enjoy everyone’s comments.

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    1. Hi Katherine! Yes, it seems that the software has some “undocumented features” regarding comments and likes. Sometimes it doubles the likes and sometimes doesn’t show them at all. At least you’ve persuaded the software to finally allow your comments to appear. 🌟🤩

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  4. Imagine my bleary-eyed surprise when I did my first load of washing in 2025 and the machine wished me “Happy New Year!”

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  5. Hear, hear! The world is already full of stuff nobody asked for – or needs. For instance, Microsoft Word in 2000 had a feature set that would satisfy all but a tiny fraction of users, even today. Why couldn’t Microsoft have frozen the feature set at that point and just worked on bug fixes and support? Money; they don’t make money from fixing bugs, and customer support is a loser even when they charge for it. No, the software industry learned that in order to remain in business they needed to keep churning their products and inducing customers to upgrade to entirely new versions, made more complex with entirely new menu systems, chock full of functionality most users would never use, forcing existing customers to wade through all this junk just to accomplish familiar tasks. Evidently this cycle must have become too much even for the software companies. So, now they offer their software as a “hosted solution” where instead of purchasing a product, users pay a subscription fee indefinitely. The problem needing to be solved for software manufacturers is that unlike cars and washing machines, software is not physical, so it never wears out. In order to sell new product, you have to MAKE IT wear out. This is by definition “planned obsolescence”.
    Ever escalating security concerns are one thing, but that could be addressed without forcing users to buy or subscribe to completely new versions of product every couple of years.

    I’m sure many would see me as a troglodyte, but I’m clinging to my old/simple/familiar computer with its installed software as long as I’m able. Next October my hand will be forced as the STILL excellent laptop I’ve been using for 7 years cannot be upgraded to Microsoft’s newer operating system, and (security) support for the one I’m running is ending. I’m sure we’ve all been through this – probably several times already. I don’t envy your lack of choice in washing machines. Before long, I’ll face the same no-option scenario. PHYSICALLY there’s no reason a washing machine couldn’t last 20 years or more – the old ones did. But manufacturers have learned that if you imbue it with sophisticated electronics – which nobody needs – not only can you charge more, but you’ve given it an Achilles heel, and you can cut its useable lifetime in half. Ka-ching!

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  6. With all this technology and AI, I think one day it will all collapse and we will be fighting for a spot and a rock by the river. Hey it could happen. I do love my top loader with no agitator in the middle though. And yes it weighs and adjusts water level also. It’s my trusty Maytag.

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  7. It’s possible that we never figured out the correct settings on the combination washer-dryers when we were in Spain last year. The “dryer” only partially dried the clothes. A hanging rack was still necessary. I have no problem with hanging clothes to dry…it’s only when you’re heading to your next destination after 2/3 days. It seemed complicated to figure out. The “Pause” button was key to operation!! Why pause??? It was by accident that we learned that really meant “start”!!

    But…this was not nearly as complicated as the induction cook tops or ovens!! We never did figure out how to operate the oven. I have an induction cook top at home, the biggest difference is that my knobs are labeled with symbols and words that I understand!!!

    Appliances or not, we survived! We learned to do laundry on day 1 of our new arrivals and to either eat out or stir fry every meal! Here’s to adapting!!

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  8. I just wanted to report a bad formatting …issue. It might only be on my screen, but because your big picture is not the full page, I have text running down the side of the picture. It is hard to read.

    My friends who moved to Carcassonne told me that for water softening, they have to load salt tablets into each machine separately. An interesting alternative.

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    1. Hi Anthony, Thanks for the alert but we can’t see an issue on android mobile, tablets or on Windows devices. Could you let us know what you are using to view the site?
      We don’t have an issue with needing water softening salt except in the dishwasher and it is is normal to add the crystals and not tablets for that. We haven’t heard anyone else say anything about needing water treatment and our neighbors are certainly vocal about any issues they have with utility services.

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      1. Sorry, this was an issue with how WordPress showed it to me in a reading panel. It isn’t like that when I read the post on the site. Sorry.
        As for the tablets, I might be mistaken. It was an offhand comment while we were eating and I might have not remembered it correctly.

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      2. We did notice that when viewing sites in WordPress Reader that it changes the formatting for some of them. You would think that the company would create an app to work with the formatting that they provide and sell!

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