Avatar Controls Smart Plug - Cutting the Cloud

Initially I thought that I would be able to reflash the Avatar Controls smart plug that I had repaired with Tasmota using tuyaconvert. But they only work with Espressif ESP32 based boards and once I had access to the internals I found that the microcontroller was a Beken BK7321TQN32 module.

Beken BK7231T sub board

Packed into this tiny 15x20 mm board (marked WB3) is a 32-bit CPU with 2 MB of flash ROM and both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity. Which is all well and good, but how do I get access to and change the firmware of this SoC?

The first decision to make was - which open source firmware system to use on the reflashed device? Broadly speaking there appearred to be two main options, the previously mentioned Tasmota and ESPHome (there are other OS projects, eg EspEasy or ESPurna, but they seem to be somewhat deprecated). Tasmota is based on the MQTT protocol, which is a venerable and widely used communication protocol that should work with any home automation system. ESPHome is a newer project and tailored to integrate with Home Assistant. As I am planning on using the latter, ESPHome seemed the more reasonable choice (though I freely admit that this choice wasn't based on any deep understanding of their relative merits).

The next decision was - how to get the new firmware onto the chip? There is a no soldering option for reflashing Beken chips using tuya-cloudcutter, which uses an over-the-air exploit that has since been patched by Tuya. However the plug was probably old enough that it might have not been patched. The second option required a small amount of soldering - which I was not adverse to - and the use of a USB-to-TTL adapter, but had the advantage of being certain that it would work. However, depending on where the soldering points were this could get a little awkward.

Much rummaging later I couldn't find a Raspberry Pi (the OTA exploit is injected via a networked Raspberry Pi). But after taking another look at the access for soldering (I would have needed to unsolder the whole Beken board) I bit the bullet and ordered a second-hand Pi 4B from eBay along with a case, a 64 GB micro-SD card and a HMDI-to-micro HDMI cable (ouch!).

The instructions from Digiblur's site are given at pace with limited explanation but I found that I could follow them for most of the journey (appended below are some notes on the process). The Avatar plug wasn't on the list of known Manufacturer/Device names so I had to install the Tuya app on a smartphone (fortunately you can use it as a guest) to get the firmware information, which was v1.0.8 for both main and MCU modules. Armed with this info I went down the list of BK7231T 1.0.8 versions until one stuck - 1.0.8 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_rnd_switch. Then opened ltchiptool to get details of the active pins on the device, which gave;

I: UPK: Found BK7231T config!

I: UPK: Switch/plug config

I: UPK: - relay 1: pin P7

I: UPK: - button 1: pin P8

I: UPK: Status LED: pin P1,inverted True

So, one relay, one button and one LED. Ltchiptool will output a starter YAML file that will allow for basic control of the device.

Setting up ESPHome as an Add-on to Home Assistant was straightforward but I did have a hiccough on selecting the device type as, for BK72xx boards, there were two options, WB3S and WB3L. I couldn’t see any easy way of identifying which board I had (it was only marked as WB3). So I had to compare the pinouts for the two chips on LibreTiny and make an educated guess based on the proximity of the SCK and CEN attachment points and plumped for WB3L. I did have to combine the ESPHome and ltchiptool YAML into a single piece of code in order to get it to work (with a bit of assistance from Gemini on correct formatting of the YAML output). But work it did, in the end.

JOB DONE

Time: 1 day (combined over several)

Cost: ~£0.50 materials (£73.96 tools - an investment)

Digiblur - How To Guide - Tuya CloudCutter with ESPHome LibreTiny - No soldering

Step 1 - Building the Raspberry Pi Image

Rather than use a standard Raspberry Pi OS distro the protocol uses a headless Lite version that is stripped down and accessed remotely via SSH. I have no idea whether you could just use the standard Desktop Raspberry Pi OS but I'm guessing that you probably could. However in the absence of any real understanding I just followed the instructions…

The command line instructions are:-

• sudo raspi-config - opens the system settings menu to reset the country localisation

• sudo apt update && sudo apt install network-manager - updates the Pi with a list of relevant upgrades and installs the most recent NetworkManager package to manage local network connections

• sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf alterations - tells your Raspberry Pi to stop managing the wireless network interface, giving the system a static IP address

• sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf alterations - opens the config file for NetworkManager and takes control of the systems network interfaces

Once rebooted Docker is installed, which is a "container" that tuya-cloudcutter will run in (basically a way to ensure that a program will run on all hardware environments).

Step 2 - Install / Update Tuya-CloudCutter

Set up tuya-cloudcutter for use.

The command line instructions are:-

• sudo apt install git - installs Git, which is a versioning software, but will also allow automatic downloading and installation of tuya-cloudcutter from a repository such as GitHub

• git clone https://github.com/tuya-cloudcutter/tuya-cloudcutter - downloads and installs tuya-cloudcutter

Step 3 - Install ESPHome Kickstarter firmware on the Device

Once tuya-cloudcutter is running it will need to know the current firmware version on the device to be cut. I located this via the Tuya app and stepped through the choices for my firmware and Beken chip versions until one stuck. Once tuya-cloudcutter has done its thing, you should see the reflashed device as an open network with the SSID of kickstart-bk7231. Connecting to it and opening the 192.168.4.1 address in a browser will pop up the device control page where you can give it the details of your network for it to connect. Once on your network you will be able to see its local IP number.

Step 4 - LT Chip Tool to configure the device

The next step is to install ltchiptool, which will interrogate the chip and give you a description of which pins are connected to output devices. It will also supply a basic YAML file for the device.

Step 5 - Install ESPHome Add-On or Docker Container

This will allow the move from the basic kickstart firmware to ESPHome firmware. As I am running Home Assistant adding ESPHome as an Add-on was the simplest option for me.

Step 6 - Install ESPHome Firmware and Integrate into Home Assistant

At this point things drifted a little from the protocol. Once the kickstart device is located, you can generate an .uf2 file with the ESPHome firmware and use the device's control page to upload it. After some time the device will reappear in Home Assitant with the new name you have given it. For me the process didn't result in a opportunity to include the YAML file supplied by ltchiptool, but with a bit of judicious copy and paste I could include it from the ESPHome Add-on by editing the device's YAML file there and installing it via the Add-on.

The end point of the protocol should be a reflashed device with basic control over its functions via a page on the Device & services Settings page of Home Assistant.

Avatar Controls Smart Plug - Into the Belly of the Beast

Having convinced myself that the smart plug was not working, it was time for a look inside.

But before that, an external inspection found no obvious charring or melted plastic that might have implied some sort of catastrophic failure.

Avatar Controls AWP14H 10 A UK Smart Plug

On the back of the device were manufacturer and model details and some basic electrical performance data (220-240 V input voltage and 2.3 kW / 10 A resistive load). There was also an IEC 60417 - 5016 symbol for a fuse described as a T10AL240V - which is a T[timed(slow blow)]10A[10 amps]L[low overcurrent rating]240V[mains voltage]. So somewhere inside is a 10 A fuse, which appeared to be a reasonable place to start.

The initial hurdle, then, was to open the case. A job easier said than done, as it is designed not to come apart for obvious reasons. Bigclivedotcom has published a video showing a fix for a similar plug in which he says that the cases are glued or possibly ultrasonically welded [timestamp 12:19]. Some vigorous poking with a blade and jeweller's screwdriver didn't make much progress. But a second YouTuber came up trumps; a bit of asymmetric squeezing from a quick-grip to generate a bit of radial stress resulted in a couple of cracking noises. After which the plug parted quite easily revealing the circuitry for inspection.

Avatar Controls AWP14H Smart Plug - Internal Layout

Again, no obviously burnt out components, but one of the electrolytic caps (arrowed) was suspiciously domed compared to the other two. If you watch Bigclivedotcom's video and another from the Buy it Fix it channel it appears that these caps are particularly susceptible to failing.

While it was open I had a look at some of the other components. From what I could glean I think the plug is organised as follows;

1. The T10AL250V fuse is in a board mounted package with a fusible resistor and a zinc oxide varistor for circuit protection and a single diode to rectify the AC supply into a half-wave DC supply.
2. The mains voltage is then converted to a rough 5 V DC supply by a small buck converter and a couple more electrolytic caps.
3. Our questionable 470 μF 16 V electrolytic cap smooths the output of the converter further.
4. Then a 3.3V voltage regulator supplies the control board on a riser.
5. This is a Beken BK7321 system-on-chip.
6. Finally this controls a 10 A relay that switches the plug.

The screen print on the PCB gives the board's details as HYS-01-127_V1.2 2020-07-17, meaing that the maximum age of the plug is 5 years.

I can check the fused components once the board is free from the plug base, but it looks like the low voltage cap is likely going to be the culprit. So out with the soldering iron it is then.

Most of the kit I already had; soldering iron, solder and soldering bit cleaner; and clamps to hold it steady. What I didn't have (or couldn't find) was any desoldering braid, flux or IPA. So these required a bit of shopping.

The IPA (isopropyl alcohol) for cleaning the board after soldering/desoldering came from Amazon for the low, low price of £6.59. I did have some of this before, but the advent of Covid-19 and the great IPA shortage of 2020 emptied my stocks. Obviously I don't want to be sloshing IPA out from a 1 L bottle onto the workpiece, so I poured a bit into an old screw-cap perfume bottle one of the tykes had discarded. Amazon had no SDS available but the supplier, Trade Chem, were quickly able to send one by e-mail (a sign of a good company). The only issue was the cap liner coming apart but that is what you get for cheap-as-chips.

Next was flux and desoldering wick. I hadn't used an electrical soldering flux before but as this job would rely on desoldering I decided not to try and bodge it. So had a look at a couple of videos on flux (What is this flux stuff anyway? and Which one should I buy?) and decided that the whole topic was too niche to get into for a small job. In the end I bought what I felt was one of the more general purpose no-clean fluxes, MG Chemicals 8341 No Clean Flux Paste, at £7.58 on Amazon. An SDS was sourced from CPC Farnell. Along with a hilarious instruction video showing exactly the wrong way to attach a Luer lock needle.

Needlestick injury incoming

Hint: Use the needle cover to twist the needle onto the syringe, then take the cover off. That way if you slip whilst putting the needle on you don’t end up injecting yourself with rosin (yes I know it is a blunt needle but you can stick yourself with it just the same).

Onto desoldering wick and at this point I was running out of steam so I just bought some MG Chemicals Super Wick No-Clean Fine Desoldering Braid, 2.5 mm x 1.5 m 426-NS for £3.22 from CPC Farnell. Good, bad or indifferent it will have to do.

Now I had the tools and materials to hand it was onto desoldering the board from the 3-pin socket assembly. This wasn't quite as straight forward as I had hoped. As the board's main input pins were connected back to the plug socket pins they sucked heat away really fast so even with the soldering iron up at 400 ^oC and added fresh 60:40 solder it was a bit of a struggle. The wick worked quite well but I couldn't easily part the board from the base and when it did come away it took the tag off the neutral pin. There was also some naughtiness with the 10 A fuse.

Avatar Controls Smart Plug - Board dismounted (left), mains tag issue (top right) and unintended fuse damage (bottom left).

Fortunately the fuse was still OK, just a bit melted, as was the fusible resistor next to it meaning that a blown fuse was not the issue. But now I had to repair the tag before I could get back to the original repair. The tag that had come astray looked like it hadn't been punched on properly as I didn't find any pieces of brass that had come away. I did try to punch it back in but it didn't work, so in the end I flooded it with solder. This might not be a great fix but, as regluing the case will make the plug weaker as well, I am not planning on moving it around a lot. So it will have to do.

The final job was to remove the suspect capacitor, which went without issue.

Failed electrolytic capacitor

As well as the slight doming on the top, the bottom was also deformed. When I brought out the multimeter to check its value I found that its max range was 40 μF meaning the replacement cap I had bought would be over range; however measuring the old cap gave a value of 12 μF which is quite a long way from the 470 μF that it should have been. Definitely the prime suspect.

The faulty cap was from a Chinese manufacturer, Dongguan Zhuo Wang Electronics Technology. The full extent of the specs that I was able to obtain was what was written on the outside of the component's packaging. A search for an identical replacement or a similar 470 μF 16 V cap in the same size format yielded nothing so I plumped for the closest that I could find which was a Panasonic EEUFR1C471. These FR- series caps from Panasonic have low ESR (electrical series resistance) and are designed for long service lives with high ripple currents. So I replaced the duff cap with a new one and resoldered the board back onto the base.

Repair Avatar Controls Smart Plug

Once reassembled and plugged in a blue LED came to life and the socket could be switched on and off at the power button. The plug was also visible on Bluetooth as a Tuya LE device.

So it seems to be functional again. The next step is to deal with the firmware…

P.S.

I did contact both Farnell and MG Chemicals to let them know about the H&S flaw in their video, both of which replied that they "would pass it on to the relevant Dept." But it is still up. So if you have stuck yourself, they have already been warned.

Avatar Controls Smart Plug - ?Dead

What's this?

Well from an external source, a "Smart" plug has come winging my way. A friend gave it to me saying that it was not working.

Ten years ago I might have had to explain what a smart plug was but they are pretty common these days. This one is marked as an Avatar Controls AWP14H 10 A UK 3-pin socket. I have no other provenance on it apart from that. I don't know why it isn't working (or even if it is or is not), how old it is, or where it came from.

A trip to Avatar's website only shows info on its latest model, a 16 A version, for which they have stupidly used the same model number. Their support pages are limited to pushing their control app (more on that later) with no product sheets or even any info for older models.

In an effort to track down some relevant data I had a poke around the Wayback Machine. The company have been on the web since 2016 (but only with a placeholder website initially). Our product pops up sometime between 26/06/2019 and 28/09/2019 but had disappeared two years later by 28/10/2021.

No product datasheet was available, with only the following information available.

AWP14H Smart WiFi Plug UK Socket

AvatarControls' Smart Plug is the world's first minimum size UK smart WiFi plug, which has a small size. It can be connected with your phone to control remotely, and support Amazon Alexa & Google Home and IFTTT protocol, which makes your home appliance more intelligent.

Features

• Minimum size design
• Voice Control Works With Amazon and Google Assistant
• IFTTT Put the internet to work for you
• Real-time Monitoring, Energy Saving
• Remote Control, support 3G/4G network, Free APP
• One button to set time function, Multi-group time setting function
• One button to share device to families and friends
• Max current 10A and Max power supports 2300 Watt

So not much on communication protocols (ie Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) other than which home automation services (ie Amazon Alexa, Google Nest, IFTTT) it will interface with, but at least a set of features to expect from it. Hoping that the support data for the associated app might give me some clues was fruitless as there was nothing present on the web around this time. A general web search over the product's "live" dates provided no further information either.

"But, why not just download the app from Avatar Controls and use that to test it?" I faintly hear you ask. Well, firstly, some plugs from some manufacturers have been caught sending large volumes of data out of network and a relatively recent press release from Nokia (remember them?) claimed that 40% of DDoS attack traffic was coming from IoT devices. Secondly, being reliant on the Avatar Controls app means having your data being sent back to them and potentially not just usage data but also voice data (under terms of use agreements that are notoriously easy to "readjust" after the fact). Finally, being reliant on the Avatar Controls app also means relying on their servers working and continuing to support your device. All in all I would prefer to stay clear of the app if at all possible and keep control of both the plug and its data local.

As it happens this may be possible. The Avatar plug seems to have been designed under licence from another manufacturer, Tuya, which is claimed to be the world's leading IoT cloud platform with 252,000 different types of device. They also provide a control app, Smartlife, but that only replicates the same risks as above. However it appears the industrious hacking community have developed ways to reflash the control chips with an open source firmware, Tasmoto, using tuyaconvert. So although not an easy road, it appears that there may be a way forward to making this plug more secure.

But only if it is working…

Ho hum. Back to first principles then, switch it on and see if it lights up.

No lights, no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth. Pressed and held what I thought might be the pairing button for 5 secs and still nothing. A dead stick. Time for surgery.

P.S.

On the Avatar Controls website I noticed that their UK web store gives a US address as their contact details, but only as a town and Zip code. As I have an enquiring mind I wondered what their offices looked like and it appears that "looked" is the operative word as the industrial unit that they gave as their address is marked as "Permanently closed."

A bit more digging gave an address for their Head Office in China, the very much more impressive Satellite Mansion in Nanshan, Gaugndong province.

Not having a local address and telephone number is a bit of a red flag for dealing with a company. But as I am not buying only repairing/hacking it is not of major importance, to me at least.

'Fridge Door Shelf Repair

Another day, another fix; this time part of the 'fridge has fallen apart. One of the door shelves to be precise, and when I say "fallen apart" I mean a previous fix has failed.

IIRC, at some point in the past I dropped the shelf whilst cleaning it and one of the locating lugs snapped off. But, as I had the materials to hand from the last time I had to repair a SAN (styrene-acrylonitrile resin) fitting from the 'fridge, it wasn't a difficult repair to complete. As you can see the previous repair wasn't a craftsman's job but it had held out for at least a couple of years.

Failed 'fridge door shelf repair

Unfortunately, when I went to make the MEK:DCM 3:1 mix I had used to solvent weld it previously, I found that the dichloromethane had completely evaporated and all I had left was an empty bottle. On inspection it seems that the bottle that it was supplied in wasn't fit for purpose (thanks redoka-chems), next time I'll have to use a better bottle. However, as I learnt previously, "MEK is the required active component and that DCM can be used if a fast drying solvent is required." So I just didn't bother with the dichlor and scrounged up some cloudy MEK that I had been using to solvent weld PVA waste piping (hence the white colour).

Shelf repair in progress

I liberally applied MEK and taped the joint up to secure it in position while it set overnight. The next day everything looked OK, even if the repair was even more bodged than last time. Giving it a bit of a flex to test it under stress seemed fine, but when I tried to refit it there was a sharp crack. Back out with the MEK to reseal the opened joint.

Completed 'fridge door shelf repair

As the part is push to fit I wondered whether the act of gluing the break had caused a bit of shrinkage. So I took out a flat needle file and spent ten minutes opening up the notch in the lug so that it wasn't putting as much stress on the welded joint.

Refitted 'fridge door shelf

This seemed to do the trick and shelf slotted back into place without any more issues. Luckily you can't see the god-awful repair when you open the door so all is good.

JOB DONE

Time: 20 mins in aggregate
Cost: £0.00

New equipment onboarding

What happens when a new piece of equipment, like a washing machine for instance, arrives? Apart from getting it out of its box and, more often than not, plugging it in?

Well, pretty much the same things every time. Whatever the item is, it generally arrives in a box and packaging; along with some paperwork, such as a manual, warranty/service details and an invoice; and occasionally there are parts for installation and, sometimes, spares included. All this needs a home and more often than not these are not all in the same place.

As part of my onboarding process for new equipment (yes, as far as I am concerned they are "people") I have two pages in OneNote that I set up each time something new arrives. A Reference page that holds information that won't change over time and an MRO page (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) to monitor the work that needs to be done to keep that bit of kit functional.

The term MRO originated in the aeronautical industry during or shortly after the First World War and initially stood for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul activities. It really took off (pun intended) in the late 1930s and early '40s due to the next World War and was used for the activities involved in keeping planes in the air, everything from making sure that coolant levels were kept topped up to repairing bullet holes. It was such a useful concept that its use spread into different sectors with the abbreviation often changing to O for Operations rather than Overhaul.

Not one to pass over a good idea I have adopted it for household use. Its use isn't restricted to complex items either, there is nothing to stop you using it for simple inanimate stuff, even a brick wall periodically needs some care and attention after all.

Returning to the first of the two pages, the Reference page (below). Anything in square brackets is to be written over with the specifics for that piece of kit.

Reference OneNote template

Stepping through the page; the title is obvious, for the washing machine Asset Reference Template will be changed to Beko Washing Machine Reference and the [@GTD] is a tag for internal use to denote where the item is located or what project or process it is part of.

The first fields to fill in are a picture of the item (helpful when you are trying to find one laptop or tablet out of a few different choices), where it was bought from and a link to any notes on that purchase task. Then comes the Location of both the kit and anything needed to use it or keep it running. The link to the MRO page we'll come onto later.

Next are the Details of the kit, having things like the model number and warranty details to hand means not having to search around for pieces of paper or drag stuff out to look at the faceplate on the rear of a machine. Knowing the locations of the paper and electronic copies of the manual also saves time. The paper copies are stored in clear A4 wallets, or punched pockets, organised in manila folders labelled by room. Where you put the packing case, if kept, is easier to write down when you are storing it than trying to remember where you stuffed the box for "just in case I need it later" purposes.

For ease of use details of the required Consumables and their resupply are recorded next. Obviously for a washing machine you probably aren't going to do this for the washing powder but you might for a descaler or cleaner that you use only infrequently. Equally, short notes on how and how often they might be used are also useful. The location of any supplied spares or installation parts are noted here and they are kept together in a small box or ziplock bag if they will be needed on an ongoing basis or thrown into the original box for storage if they aren't.

Finally any useful links or information on how to use the item and general information about it can be recorded. The Register Entries section is for links to any lists that the kit might appear on, say home maintenance contracts or an IP table if the kit is Wi-Fi enabled. I have a spreadsheet for tools, mostly to stop me rebuying them when I mislocate them…

The second page is the MRO page. OMR really, but that doesn't roll of the tongue quite as nicely.

MRO OneNote template

This form is laid out slightly differently than the Reference page as is it is a live document. I borrowed the layout from from an on-line template on the Microsoft OneNote support pages that are now long gone (cheers to whoever set up this template initially, jeers to Microsoft for slowly throttling OneNote) and adapted it to fit my needs. As before the title is self-explanatory; the Outcome statement is a hangover from the original template and you can see that the link back to the Reference page combines with the link from the Reference page to this MRO page ensuring that the two are cross-referenced.

The Actions required fall into three groups, Operations, Maintenance and Repair. Operational actions are anything that needs to be performed when the machine is in use. For the washing machine this is really only ensuring that enough cleaning supplies are to hand as power and water supplies are hard-linked. For something else, like a car, for instance, things like periodic checks of tyre pressure, oil, screen wash, etc. would fall into this category. For each task there is an entry for the repeat frequency of the task, ie how often it has to be done, when it was last done and when it is next due. OneNote is quite a nice way to monitor this as the individual rows on the tables can be dragged up and down the table so you can order it by whatever task is due next.

Maintenance actions are those that need to be performed to keep the machine running, ie operational. For the washing machine these are things like, checking the input water filters once a year or descaling the system periodically. For a car it would be annual service visits to the garage, oil changes, etc. Again the table has entries for frequency and dates in the same manner as the Operations section.

The Repair section is laid out slightly differently as these actions are only taken when there is a specific problem to be corrected that, hopefully, should not reoccur. The Task heading is simply a note of the issue to be attended to and Next action is what needs to be done next to remedy it, as most repairs will often take more than one step to fix. If the repair is anything more than a simple 10 min job I will often link out from the task to another OneNote page. For the washing machine it attracted two repair tasks initially, replacing the foot that was missing when it arrived and cleaning the inside of the machine due to a soap overload. For a car you are talking about anything from fixing a blown bulb to body work repairs. Start and Complete dates are the times from when the problem was first noted to when it was resolved.

As each of these types of actions are completed I note the date and what was done in the Actions Taken section and over time this builds up into what is essentially a service history for the piece of kit. Underneath each table in the Actions section there is space to write short notes on how to accomplish routine actions or what the progress of a repair is. If these get too large, for routine actions they can be moved to the Notes & Reference section, for repairs I usually link out to another OneNote page as noted above. At the end of the Actions section there are a few headings for information that is useful to have on the page, even though some of this is replicated on the Reference page. As the information is added they often end up in the Notes & Reference section.

Below are links to the OneNote templates. To use them simply right-click to open them in OneNote. They will appear in your OneNote notebooks list in Open Sections. You can simply move them into an open Notebook and copy-and-paste as required. To save them as a page template choose Insert>Page Templates and select Save current page as a template from the Templates side-bar that opens up. If you find them useful or can suggest improvements let me know.

Reference page

MRO page

JOB DONE

Time: Years of experience.

Cost: Years of experience.

Becos Beko

Our existing washing machine has stopped working (more on that elsewhere). As a fix it was decided to buy a cheap second-hand spare off Facebook Marketplace to fill the gap. For £50 enter a Beko WTL74051W washing machine. Beko is a Turkish brand (the machine was made in Turkey) of Arçelik A.Ş. which also owns Grundig, Indesit, Hotpoint, Arctic, Ariston, Leisure and Blomberg. They aren't great machines, but have a reasonably good reputation for being cheap and cheerful (just not in terms of energy efficiency).

Beko WTL74051W
Washing Machine

This particular one came from under a tarp in someone's back yard, but it didn't look too bad (and was being bought from a friend of the Major's). Unfortunately the whole process was completed in a bit of a rush and I forgot to look at it properly. I didn't even spin the cylinder to make sure the bearings were OK, 😟. Once it was on the van I did notice that underside looked OK, if a bit cobwebby. But, stupidly, the fact that one of the feet was missing passed me by.

Wonky washer

The vendor couldn't find the original foot. So now there are two broken washing machines in the house 😞.

Beko washing machine underside showing
foot placement inside and out (circled)

On inspection the feet are screw-threaded with a plastic lock nut and fit into a press-moulded tapped socket made from the case of the machine. As you can see there is a bit of rust on the case under the front right foot, actually the one that was missing. Hopefully this won't be a problem…

Original and replacement Beko washing machine feet

Fortunately getting a replacement foot wasn't a problem and was only a fiver. I washed the other feet as they were a bit grotty and gave the insides a light vacuuming. After that it was simply a matter of screwing the feet back on and pushing the machine back under the counter after it had been plugged in and connected to the cold water supply. Levelling the machine was straightforward and an empty test run was uneventful.

JOB DO…

Then the Major then came along, after previously expounding on her expert knowledge of washing machines, and put three times the recommended soap powder into it causing it to leak everywhere. Working on the basis that, A) it will be sold at some point in the nearish future and B) the designers should have planned for this misuse case, I've elected to cross my fingers and assume that it will be OK to keep using it as is. However I still think I'll need to extract it from under the counter and give it a once over, but I'll let it dry out properly before attempting that as I don't want tip it and get water into places the machine isn't designed for.

JOB DONE

Time: 10 mins

Cost: £5.29 (or £55.29 inc. washing machine).

Kitchen Scissors

Following in the footsteps of the tin opener, ;the kitchen scissors also broke. At some point one of the handles had gotten too close to the stove and been melted a little. Then someone else seems to have dropped them and the loop of the handle has snapped. Although this is all supposition, I was presented with them as "found like this." On inspection you can see that it is a clean break.

Damaged kitchen scissors

At this point I'd pared back the bubbled plastic so it isn't really visible on the close-up. Ideally I would like to have solvent welded the break but, as I couldn't identify the manufacturer (initially), I couldn't find out what polymer it was made from. Assuming it might be ABS I tried MEK but it didn't touch it at all, with none of the usual tackiness that usually results from interactions between the two. My next guess was nylon, as the bubbling on the handle looked a lot like the same damage you get on a fish slice that has been overheated, which means superglue. In the end it turned out to be polypropylene so superglue was probably not the best choice, but I didn't know that at the time.

So I retrieved the superglue from storage, applied it and it stuck well. However superglue does not do well in water so I needed to protect the joint somehow. I settled on a liberal application of black electricians' tape. The result, whilst not pretty, was functional.

Repaired kitchen scissors

If I'd had my wits about me I would have used heat shrink sleeving instead but I didn't have my good head on that day.

The Wrong Head

Fast forward six months and the repair is still solid, so no complaints, even though now I'm not sure whether it is the superglue or the electrical tape that is holding it together. However one of the tykes has walked off with them and they are not coming back (just the scissors, I think). So I am back into purchasing mode, as with the tin opener 'repair.'

I'm not sure where the scissors originated from. The view is that they are probably from Oxo but no-one really knew. However, they had been a good pair of scissors and were still providing reliable service. Five out of seven review sites recommended Oxo Good Grips Kitchen & Herb Stainless Steel Scissors. These aren't the same design as the earlier scissors (if they were Oxo, that is), but the most important feature is that they come apart for cleaning. It also makes sharpening them a lot easier as well.

In an ideal world an all steel design would be better as there is no risk of the blades parting company with the handles. The downside of this, though, is that it increases their weight and to minimise this manufacturers make the handles smaller and thinner and this impacts on the comfort of using the scissors. I suppose wrapping a stainless steel core with a better grip would ease this, but that is more pennies for the manufacturer to lay out. Another factor against all-steel designs is that they are pretty exorbitant, think £50-100 a pair compared to £17.50 for the Oxo scissors, ouch! You'd have to get a lot of use out of a pair to support that cost and our last pair has lasted over 10 years.

So, Oxo it is.

Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Scissors

Probably.

Not being able to identify the source of the original scissors was irking me. Guessing that they might be from Lakeland or Debenhams a Google search for images identified something similar from Lakeland. Right-clicking the picture and copy image link and it was off to Google image search (which has steadily become more and more useful over the years).

Using Google Image Search to identify the manufacturer

And they were quickly identified as Arcos Prochef Series 195 mm Kitchen Scissors. As I had no complaints about the first pair I dropped the Oxo scissors and rebought the original ones from the Arcos Store on Amazon. Even better they were only £9.86, about half the price of the Oxo scissors.

Their advert could use a bit of work though. I could have had them for £7.20 if I would have picked them up at the local Post Office, but the delivery time, stated as "Usually dispatched within 6 to 7 months," was a little too long to wait. Also the handle material was described variously as polypropylene, polyoxymethylene and wooden all on the same page.

Arcos shonky Amazon product page

Arcos makes a great play of their Spanish heritage but, like everything else, these are made in China. The blades are fashioned of something called Nitrum stainless steel; it turns out that this is a tradename for Arcos' own brand of stainless steel. Its composition is a secret, apparently. A secret to everyone, that is, apart from any other knife manufacturer with access to an XRF analyser who will know the elemental composition. Arcos haven't patented it, so my guess is that this 'secret sauce' is probably more marketing than technical know-how. Not that this really affects my use of the scissors.

Once the scissors arrived they were washed, dried and put into service. One thing I noted when dealing with the packaging was that they come with a 10 year guarantee that isn't even mentioned on their Amazon product page, which is nice.

So for Arcos, 9/10 for their cost and quality but 2/10 for their Marketing Dept.

JOB DONE

Time: A day of research

Cost: £9.86