Actually no - I forgot about my Bosch dishwasher that uses capacitive touch buttons. Great idea for something that is often touched with wet fingers…
Capacitive touch buttons are #1 on my hate list for "inventions". They have all the downsides of touchscreens with none of the upsides, and they're imitating a control device so perfect that it basically hasn't been changed since its invention (the button).
Agreed - I hate captouch buttons, and would rather have physical controls every time. But in case you're curious why they're so common:
1. They're cheaper than mechanical buttons.
2. They're more space-efficient inside of the product.
3. They are easy to waterproof.
4. They have no wear-out mechanism.Thanks, I intuited (1) and (2) but I hadn't thought about (3) or (4). I think waterproof mechanisms are about the only time I've encountered them where I haven't immediately despised them for total lack of haptic feedback and lag time between button input and device function--although that probably has more to do with poor system design rather than the limits of the captouch button technology.
My guess is that I associate them with lag because any control interface that cut corners on buttons probably cut corners on everything else, too.
Arguably speaking, physical buttons and wet fingers seem to be a way worse combination.
Sidetrack, maybe a silly question: Under what circumstances are you touching your dishwasher with wet fingers? Plates are dry when they go in and dry when they come out if you have a decent dishwasher.
Capacitive buttons suck, but they are no worse in dishwashers than in any other appliance, in my usage at least
I like to rinse the plates off to remove larger food debris prior to putting them into the dishwasher. It’s not always necessary though.