[Leica] There's something about German design ...

[rmcclure2 at woh.rr.com (Rob McClure)]

I dunno.  I love well-engineered things as much as most (BMW, Omega, 
Mont Blanc, etc.), but sometimes items can be over-engineered.  As an 
example, our home came with a Clare Megasave furnace.  This is a 
Canadian unit, quite unique to my Ohio location (the nearest dealer is 
80 miles away).  Initially I had trouble with it failing to start and 
my neighbor, a retired Westinghouse electrical engineer and mechanical 
genius, came over to help.  The electronic controls were unbelievably 
complex with all kinds of redundancy built in to meet the high 
standards dictated by Canada, where severe winters can cause a 
catastrophe in the case of furnace failure.  Unfortunately one of the 
backup features was conflicting the circuit and keeping the furnace 
from consistently starting.  He bypassed the backups and it has worked 
perfectly these past 15 years.

Rob McClure


On Jan 14, 2007, at 6:46 AM, Rick Dykstra wrote:

> I spent today slowly pulling our Miele dishwasher apart, to figure out 
> why its not filling fully.  I think it's the solenoid.  Not just any 
> solenoid, but part of a failsafe twin solenoid leak-proof disaster 
> safe design.  And having seen the insides of this thing now, by golly 
> what a beautifully designed well made, repairable bit of gear.  An 
> absolute contrast to the Australian made Vulcan gas heater I pulled 
> apart last winter (worn out fan).  And the Miele vacuum cleaner I 
> pulled apart last year was also great to work on (worn out carbon 
> brushes).
>
> So why is it that Germans are such good industrial designers?  It's as 
> if they know their work will be appreciated when customers finally 
> need to fix the thing.  :-)
>
> Impressed I am.
>
> Rick.
>