Washers and Dryers

It looks like I have a couple of options here, of varying degrees of hackiness and expense.

First, the internet is full of videos of people taking apart washers' control panels, so this is very doable, and once I have access to the wires...it's all just a question of figuring out which one does what. Nothing to it, right?

On the other hand, I could still design something that just pushed buttons and turned knobs. This feels dumb, but probably has the least chance of me making a $1,000 mistake by accidentally frying my washing machine.

There's also a third option (well, there may be by the time I'm building things). Samsung is working on a washer and dryer controlled by app. Now, just because this software exists does not mean it will be easy or even possible to integrate it into my grand scheme, and this will almost certainly be the most expensive solution, but it may merit looking into when the time comes.

Also, I'm definitely going to keep the microcontroller outside the laundry shoot. I'll just have a few wires that go into the shoot.