This is my first post here. Some time ago when the hatch was first shown a lot of people commented on the fact that everything in the hatch seems 'old' but yet the washer/dryer was new. After last night's episode I can see what happened - last time the magnet was invoked (when the plan went down) the old original ones were damaged by the magnetic attraction - probably smashed it up against a wall (as was the case with the new ones last night). I assume they (whomever that is) dropped some new ones in as they did the food.
This is just an assumption but it would make sense. I really admire the writers - they were way ahead of themselves when we first saw the hatch. They sure thought this thing through....
MasterJack