SDGX09WF dryer, front view
posted 2023-06-02; updated 2024-10-19
Get inside the service panel somehow; violence is acceptable. Try unscrewing screws, picking locks, or buying keys online. Once inside, look for a trio of red, white, and black wires running into the panel from the coin vault. Short-circuit the red and black wires to make it think you inserted a quarter. Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Your refund has been processed.
CSC ServiceWorks steals small amounts of money from large amounts of people. They provide laundry machines to apartment buildings and condominiums (where the residents have already paid for the rent, water, and electricity) and then charge exorbitant fees to use them. Payment is through a prepaid card, online apps (CSCPay or CSC GO), or quarters. In exchange, CSC is supposed to maintain the machines.
'Cause fuck em, that's why.
Ralph Henderson
Where this goes wrong is, everywhere. All aspects of the process are dark patterns carefully crafted to bilk the residents. My personal list of grievances:
That's just my list. CSC “allegedly” stole the CSCPay and CSC GO apps. They were sued under the RICO act. For online reviews they have 1.05 stars at the Better Business Bureau, 1 star at Yelp, and 1.2 stars at Google. The comments are the place to be if you want to see five hundred people wishing that there was a zero-star rating.
How do they get away with this? Predatory contracts with landlords and condominium associations, for one. But individually, I think what it comes down to is that they know you won't sue them over $2. So let's flip the script. If you think you deserve a refund, you should give yourself a refund. What are they going to do, sue you over $2?
This story features three models of CSC-branded Speed Queen machines supplied by Alliance Laundry Systems. The instructions might work on other models, but I can only make promises about the three that I have. The dryers are Alliance models SDGX09WF and the washers are either Alliance model SFNBCASP113TW01 or Alliance model SFNNCASP113TW01. They take payment through either the CSC GO app or quarters, and the model number can be found on a sticker inside the door:
There are programming manuals available for the base models, but they don't necessarily apply to the CSC-branded versions. You don't have to read them, but I mention them a few times, so here they are:
Before we can do anything useful, we have to get into the service panel where the circuitry lives. On the dryers, this is easy. Here's what the front of the service panel looks like:
It's held on with two stupid screws:
Screws are literally meant to be unscrewed. Go ahead. Now you're in:
The washers are a bit more difficult to penetrate. The button layout on the two washer models is different, but all that matters for now is that tubular lock:
Tubular locks are actually fairly easy to pick. Covert Instruments sells a tubular lockpick and there's a YouTube video that shows you what to do with it. So, uh, that's option 1. The Covert Instruments lockpick remembers the shape of the key, so you only have to pick it once.
Warning: lockpicks are not illegal to possess, but that's not the full story. The Open Organization Of Lockpickers (TOOOL) has a summary of the relevant laws by state.
Aw, you're still hardcore to me bro.
Remember how these machines all have Alliance Laundry Systems stickers on them? Well head on over to the Alliance parts store, and put “alliance washer dryer key” in the search box. The first result that comes up is Alliance #54612 Washer/Dryer KEY GR 800. It's six dollars and worth every penny. Or, now that you know which key it is, you can find a cheap substitute on Amazon.
Warning: according to the manual, these washers keep a record of the last few times the service door was opened. And they're connected to the internet, because that's how the app works. As a result, CSC probably knows that you've opened the service door. My personal stance on that is suck my diiiiiiiick, but feel free to perform your own risk assessment.
Now that we're in, here's a bunch of stuff that does not work on these machines:
The reasoning goes: regardless of what happens inside the coin-drop mechanism, once a quarter is detected, it ultimately has to send a signal to the service panel letting the machine know that a quarter was inserted. In Electronics 101, we do that with two wires and a switch: one wire attached to a power source, and the other attached to a detector. The two wires meet at a switch that allows current to pass from the power source to the detector when something important happens. Like, say, when a quarter is inserted. To trick it, all you have to do is connect the two wires yourself, circumventing the switch. That process is called short-circuiting, or shorting, for short.
But, unless you know which two wires you want, you can't just go around splicing random wires in front of a security camera, can you? That could break the machine.
Just say it wasn't you.
Shaggy
If that's the situation you're in, then one day you might get the idea to search for a replacement Alliance coin-drop mechanism on the web, and, what do you know:
That's exactly what we see running from the coin vault out into the service panel inside the washing machines:
So, that narrows it down: shorting two of those three wires should make the machine think that a quarter was inserted. Hint: it's the red and black wires. In the washers this is comparatively easy. Since the red, white, and black wires all run into a bullet connector, all you have to do is stick something metal down into the corresponding (red and black) holes of the connector, where the wires are exposed.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Your refund has been processed.
The dryers are trickier because there is no convenient bullet connector; the wires run right into a circuit board. But we do still see the same three red, white, and black wires routed in from the coin vault:
Use a voltage tester to convince yourself that you won't get electrocuted, and then… expose the wires yourself, very carefully, with a pocket knife:
Now all you have to do is short-circuit the two exposed wires to register $0.25 (technically, you can just smoosh them together with your fingers):
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Your refund has been processed.
Before you close the service panel, put two little pieces of electrical tape over the exposed wires to prevent unintentional shorts.
