Steve Jobs Spent 2 Weeks Debating Washers and Dryers At Dinner Table — ‘I Got More Thrill Out of Them Than I Have Out of Any Piece of High Tech in Years’

Before the iPhone, before the iPod, and before Apple’s comeback became business legend, Steve Jobs found himself captivated by something far less glamorous: laundry.

Not laundry in the abstract. Laundry machines.

In a 1996 interview with Wired, Jobs was leading NeXT, the computer company he founded after leaving Apple (AAPL). The internet already existed and the World Wide Web was rapidly gaining attention, though dial-up modems, desktop PCs, and bulky monitors still defined much of everyday technology. Jobs himself was talking up the web’s potential in that very interview.

Yet when Wired asked what well-designed product inspired him, Jobs did not name a computer, a piece of software, or some futuristic gadget. He talked about a washer and dryer.

Here's the story — and what investors can learn from it.

The Dinner Table Became Appliance Central

In the 1996 interview, Jobs told Wired contributing editor Gary Wolf that his family needed a new set of laundry machines and the search quickly became a discussion about design, efficiency, and what mattered over the long haul.

“We didn’t have a very good one so we spent a little time looking at them,” Jobs said. “It turns out that the Americans make washers and dryers all wrong. The Europeans make them much better — but they take twice as long to do clothes!”

Jobs praised European machines for using less water and detergent while treating clothes more gently. “Most important, they don’t trash your clothes,” he said. “They use a lot less soap, a lot less water, but they come out much cleaner, much softer, and they last a lot longer.”

The trade-off was time. A faster wash cycle meant less time waiting around, while the European option promised softer clothes, lower water use, and fewer garments sacrificed to the spin cycle.

Jobs said his family did not settle the question in a quick trip down an appliance-store aisle. They discussed it for about two weeks at dinner.

“We spent some time in our family talking about what’s the trade-off we want to make,” he said. “We ended up talking a lot about design, but also about the values of our family.”

A German Washer Won the Argument

The family chose Miele appliances made in Germany. Jobs acknowledged they cost more, then delivered a line that still lands with some force coming from one of tech’s most famous product minds.

“I got more thrill out of them than I have out of any piece of high tech in years,” Jobs said.

He called the machines “really wonderfully made” and said their designers had “really thought the process through.”

That was not faint praise from a man whose career was built on pushing computers toward cleaner, simpler, and more useful forms. Jobs did not see design as decoration. In the same interview, he said good design was ultimately about how something works.

The washer-and-dryer story shows that philosophy in its most domestic form. The machines did not need a glossy launch event or a dramatic keynote. They needed to clean clothes well, use less water, and keep doing their job for years.

The Investor’s Version of the Laundry Lesson

For investors, this story carries a useful reminder: The next big thing is not always the flashiest thing.

In 1996, attention was turning toward the web, software, and the companies trying to build the digital future. Jobs saw that shift clearly. He said the web was exciting because it was becoming widespread and could create room for innovation beyond the dominant desktop-computing players.

Still, he was also impressed by a company that had made a better washer.

That is a handy filter for anyone scanning markets for future winners. A company does not need to sell a sci-fi product to have a compelling business. Sometimes the opportunity sits inside a familiar category where a company improves quality, lowers waste, solves an irritating problem, or gives customers a reason to pay more.

Finding those businesses is not as easy as spotting a shiny new gadget. It takes patience, research, and a willingness to look past the loudest story in the room.

Jobs’ dinner-table debate was unusually thorough for a household appliance purchase. But the underlying question was practical: Is the faster option actually the better option, or does the higher-quality choice create more value over time?

For a man who helped shape the modern tech era, the answer came with cleaner clothes and a German washer that had clearly earned its applause.