A DIY Control Panel for a Maytag with a $33 Price Tag

When Simon Funk's Maytag Quiet Series 300 dishwasher “died in a way that seemed to be the control board,” he ordered a used one on eBay for $30. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the control board. Instead, it was the control panel, a part that runs for around $150. Since he’d already taken the unit apart a few times, he decided to forgo getting a new panel and made his own for around $33.

The plug-in replacement is now controlled by a NodeMCU, along with a bank of relays. The main user interface is ingeniously simple: you close the door and it washes the dishes. Of course, given the NodeMCU’s wireless interface capabilities, he couldn’t quite leave it at that. The new panel also sends messages over Telegram to show what stage of washing it’s in, time remaining, nd current water temperature. This interface even allows him to abort the cycle straight to draining, or put it in a test mode which cycles through the hardware options.

The build took roughly a month of intermittent work, or about a week in “real time.” While one could argue that ordering a panel would have been easier, Funk saw this as a way to hone his hardware hacking skills, which he hadn’t practiced in over 30 years. Between the fun/learning of working on it and an upgrade that means the dishes don't have to be manually rinsed per residual soap, it looks like a worthy hack! According to Funk, it's definitely functioning better than it ever did before, though he’s quick to point out the risks of this kind of water/mains power hacking.