Yes sir, I cant event go one day on the job without interacting with one control board or another. Even some 20 year old machines have the first gen boards on them. Yes the appliance tech of today is basically becoming a computer tech but that's a good thing for those who step up our game and learn it. This fact basically scares away a lot of the competition and keeps mr fix it from diddling with the Idk what this dohickey is there. Better call the man maw!! 

Glad that I worked at a computer repair shop for a few years before doing this! But honestly, MST had given me way more usable information for appliance repair than any sort of computer repair place would.

What I have been concerned about for some time is the decisions made by these companies to make their boards NLA.  Whirlpool for instance gave a stern warning at the last service meeting about using remanufactured boards on their products.  It's been claimed that there have been some sent in for repair that bypassed the safety features incorporated into the board.  They seem to be one of the  more prolific vendors that have decided to discontinue producing these parts.  Some of these decisions can be very expensive for the customer.  An 8 to 10 year old Jenn-air with a control NLA has the makings for a home equity loan because there are no answers in the market to replace the range without going through an extensive rework of the installation. 

The last of the Maytag built coin-drop coin op washers have also fallen to the same fate(MAT10 and 12 series laundry.  Boards are nla.  We have a customer with a Whirlpool CHW8990XW  coin washer that we can't get a board.  It was purchased in 2011.  I'll tell you, sometimes I just want to take my ball and go home.  That's no way to run a railroad and expect customers to ever buy the brand again. 

Matt