iFixit wants to fix McDonald’s ice cream machines for good.

iFixit wants Congress to let it hack McDonald’s ice cream machines::McDonald’s ice cream machines are notorious for breaking all the time, so iFixit wants to help people repair them without the help of the manufacturer.

  • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I very much suspect that the ones that have their machines down more often are just struggling/refusing to pay the repair fees.

    One near me that rakes in more than almost any other in the country always has their machines working. Yet the one that’s always empty about 20 miles away almost never has their’s working.

    • nous@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4 suggests it is far more than that. Rather the machines are intentionally designed to be hard to debug and just give cryptic errors rather than useful information. So simple things like the hopper is too full and could get get up to temperature during a cleaning cycle that an worker could fix or prevent if they knew instead have no idea what is wrong and need to call out a repair technician to diagnose and fix. There have been devices designed and sold a few years ago that can give this information to the workers - but where banned by McDonalds and are now in a lawsuit with them. The whole thing smells of a conspiracy far more than just bad franchise owners.

      And the problem - with similar machines made by the same company - does not happen to other restaurant chains, only the McDonald’s ones.