Front Load Washer Power Lock - V1

thingiverse

I have a set of the front load washer/dryer that many families have, and I have 2 small children that like buttons. The units are stacked, and the washer does have a child lock that we use. However, the child lock locks out everything except the power button. So the kids can go in and push all of the buttons and not get anywhere, but then they press the power button and shut the machine off mid-cycle. There's no way to resume the cycle, and no way to see where it was or how much time was remaining. What to do?I found a few solutions that others have come up with, but all of them seem to be able to only prevent small children that are only able to just reach the button; they block access to the button except from above. Both my kids are more than tall enough to thwart this method.So I came up with a cover plate with holes and a pattern that will allow you to press the button if you have the key, and little kid fingers can't press the button. For the key, I have just a small little disc, and I glued a magnet onto the back and and store the magnetic key on the side of the dryer above. And for attaching the cover plate over the power button, I just used some of that 3M wall hanging material cut to size.This solution has worked very well for me so far.