A little over a year ago, the XYL and I bought a new dishwasher from Home Depot. The original one that came with the house finally gave out. It was a simple, dial-it-up and let it run analog type. The GE model that we bought has an array of lights that light up for multiple modes and wash cycles printed in font too small for most villagers to read. Why dishes and utensils need so many options when the object is to just get clean I'll never know.
Not long after it was installed, I noticed that all the LED lights were blinking. No amount of panic pressing the options would reset it. In desperation I reset the breaker in the garage to reset it. This behavior went on for several weeks as my frustration and adjectives grew. A series of calls to Home Depot ("It is not our problem; call GE") and phone tag with GE got us a repairman. He pulled the machine out and replaced a couple of digital boards in it and fired it up. It worked, of course.
Not long after that, the blinking light show popped up. Another visit from GE and more board replacements. The machine behaved itself for a few weeks then it was time for mischief again. After another month or so, GE showed up with a new washer and pulled the old one. (We were now about five months into owning the thing so the warranty was still in place.)
To shorten this story, the new machine was no better, going into the full-blinking mode just like the old one. By now I had a clear path to my breaker panel for resetting the thing. We put up with it even though I had argued with GE that the model we had was defective and could they give us the next one up. Not a chance. By now we were approaching a year of owning it so we opted to buy the extended warranty that GE conveniently sent us. Their idea of customer support.
It finally occurred to me that I was seeing a problem I had experienced years ago with a GCFI socket I had in the garage. It too would trip for no reason so I replaced it since it was inside the garage and its use made no sense to me. After re-reading a post from John, NP2B regarding EATON breakers being sensitive to RFI, I wondered if I was causing the problem with my dishwasher. I run a K3 with a KPA500 amplifier kicked in on occasion. With GE on call once again to come out, I began checking when I was on the air with the amp on and the washer light show. I found that operating CW or SSB with the amp on did not bother it. Operating FT4/FT8 with amp on, however, drove it nuts. I have a 6BTV vertical, a separate 15m vertical dipole and inverted Vs for 12 and 17 meters. Typical high-gain villager antennas.
Today, the GE fellow did his perfunctory board replacement. A few hours later I was on 30 meters running the limit of 200 watts. When I went into the kitchen and cautiously looked at the dishwasher - IT WAS BLINKING! All this time, I was the problem!
The digital age may be wonderful for the smarts machines have. It is sad that a few bypass caps cost way too much in China to be put in a production run. I told the repairman my concerns but I doubt he knows what RF interference means so little chance GE will lean on its suppliers.
73 de Ed