Finally, and appliance company concerned about relationships...

Enjoy:

http://www.dealerscope.com/article/bosch-appliance-infographic-details-dishwashing-spouses-fighting/1?b=2009&e=twurzburg%40earthlink.net#utm_source=housewares-retailing-weekly&utm_medium=enewsletter_headline_story2&utm_campaign=2012-10-16

Dishwasher Update

A lot has been going on in the dishwasher segment that's worth noting. Consumer Reports has a good writeup which is worth checking out. As I have mentioned before, I am generally a fan./ They do make the point that you don't need a stainless steel tub. While I agree in part - you don't need one - they do aid in drying in two ways:

1. Stainless tubs retain the heat from a high temperature rinse longer, and,
2. They capture most of the moisture condensation during drying and allow it to run to the bottom of the unit.

This is a big help with dishwashers that don't use heated drying. Bosch, for example. Heated drying uses lots of electricity and it's worth avoiding if possible. You should always use rinse aid.

Also, our friends at Affresh (of laundry fame) now make a dishwasher cleaner. Early reports are in and indicate that it is superior to the other ones out there. You might want to grab a bag and give it a try.

It's Been a While

A lot has been going on since I last posted. I won't bore you with details, other than the fact that I have had to go back and forth to New York quite a bit since mid July which hasn't left me with a lot of posting time.

Anyway, I'm back.

Applianced Protection Agreements Yes? No? Maybe?

This write-up appeared in Yahoo Voices a few years ago and has a lot of good stuff in it, not that I agree with everything it says. (I never do, do I?) There is a lot of confusion surrounding these agreements, and every retailer offers them differently. This article "Appliance Agreements, A Necessary Evil" goes a long way towards dispelling some of the confusion. In a future post, I will weigh in with my views, but many of them largely mirror the author's.

It's Not the Heat, It's the...

Humidity, of course. Where I work, we are selling dehumidifiers and A/Cs like beer at Fenway. Here's a great buying guide for dehums from our friends t Consumer Reports.

Portable Air Conditioners for Casement Windows

I get a lot of questions on how to install portable A/Cs in casement windows. Good news, it can be done, and it's not expensive. It will require some basic fabrication skills. Here's the article.

You Want It When??? Some Musings on Appliance Deliveries

Summer has descended upon us in force here on the Cape, and 2 million people are crossing the Bourne and Sagamore bridges. Many of these people are headed for their summer homes, fully expecting everything to be shipshape so that they may enjoy a tranquil summer here in our popular paradise. Not a few of these people will discover that their refrigerator/dishwasher/washing machine/dryer/water heater has decided to punish you for abandoning it during the winter by ceasing to function. Appliances appear to have feelings, too.

At Sears, where I escape the ennui of Cape Cod life by occasionally selling appliances, I have met a lot of these people in the past several weeks. I feel their pain...sometimes. Not so much because they might have to hand wash their dishes for a few days, but you can get pretty tired of pizza and restaurant food,  trips to the laundromat, or cold showers due to a broken fridge, washer/dryer, or water heater. Sears (and our competitors) maintain warehouses here on the Cape. We try to keep a small but representative inventory of appliances on hand for these sorts of situations, but none of us could afford to keep a large inventory here. Large inventories are kept in warehouses that are central to multiple stores where real estate costs are relatively low. Hyannis isn't central to anything except Barnstable and Dukes counties. It is also very expensive real estate. It is also, essentially, an island, especially in the summer when even the bears swim the canal rather than deal with bridge traffic. Try to imagine a warehouse on Wianno Ave in Osterville. Remember, we're essentially an island.

As a result, it's fairly unlikely that the lovely $3000 Samsung french door double drawer fridge that you want is sitting around in our local warehouse (unless we happened to get one that was returned - you never know. Ask, we'll check). And no, I can't sell you the floor model. Why, you ask? Well, it's the floor model. If I sell it to you (of course, you're going to demand a discount because it's the floor model, aren't you?) I have to replace it with a new one, which instantly becomes another floor model. Do the math.

We do have clearance items on the floor, frequently in the cartons, and those can be sold directly. Unfortunately, we can't deliver them... yet. You have to pick them up. All our deliveries are from our regional warehouse in Westwood. We are working on potential ways to implement store deliveries that still meet our delivery standards, but we haven't settled on anything as of this writing.

As I mentioned earlier, we also have some items in our warehouse available for pickup, but, for reasons explained earlier, this is a limited list. We can have an installer (ours or yours) pick up an item from the warehouse for installation, and this gets done on occasion for emergency installations such as water heaters. If an emergency installation is required, we will try to accommodate you.

If you read the fine print in ads which talk about same-day delivery, they will also say "of items in stock." Unless you get lucky or your needs are extremely flexible, this may not have a whole lot of value.

There is a saying that goes "don't dig your well when you're thirsty." You don't always have a lot of choice when you have to replace an appliance. (Hopefully, you are following some of the maintenance suggestions in the blog.) That's why Hyannis and Falmouth have so many laundromats and good restaurants. Too bad the ice houses are either gone or converted to condos...

Buying a New Fridge? Here's Help...

Our old friend Consumer Reports has put together a refrigerator buying guide which looks really useful. To get refrigerator ratings, you have to be a subscriber, but the rest is helpful nonetheless.

OK, All You Kitchen Remodelers...

I know you're out there. (You're reading this blog, right?) A pretty good write-up on Remodeling Your Kitchen for Less in Consumer Reports.

We're going to be doing this at our home in the reasonably near future, so it literally hits close to home for me.

Going Green in the Kitchen...It's not just the Fridge.

For those of us who are concerned about energy usage (shouldn't that be ALL of us?) HD Living has an excellent article on making your kitchen greener. Back in 1990, when we first moved back to Massachusetts, my wife and I rented a house in Andover with avocado appliances. That's not what I'm talking about. Did look nice with the burnt orange countertops, though...

It Won't Help You Select an Appliance, But...

For 15 years,we Americans have been pummeled with the loss of manufacturing jobs to lower-cost countries, primarily China, although Malaysia, India, Vietnam, and other play a part as well. (Korea and Japan are no longer considered low-cost labor markets.) Well, appliance fans, that's all starting to change. There's a great article in Appliance Magazine that discusses the turning of the tide.

When you combine this with the long term economic advantage that the US will gain with the rapidly declining cost of natural gas (which powers a lot of manufacturing processes), we could be looking at a resurgent manufacturing sector. Big Time. Wonder if those Whirlpool and Maytag plants in Ohio are hiring???

Maybe a Fridge for Households with Teens...

Austrian Design Student Wins Electrolux Design Lab 2008Oct. 13, 2008. Stefan Buchberger, from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria, won the Electrolux Design Lab 2008 competition for inventing Flatshare, a modular fridge with individual compartments for people who live with several roommates. Flatshare consists of a base station and up to four stackable modules. The modules allow each user to have his or her own refrigerator space and can be customized with various colorful skins as well as with add-ons like a bottle opener. Handles mounted on the side make it easy to transport the modules. "I got the idea to create the Flatshare fridge because in many shared flats there is a problem with the refrigerator," says Buchberger. "It gets filthy because no one person feels responsible for cleaning it." The Design Lab 2008 award is a prize of approximately US$7,000 and a six-month internship at one of Electrolux global design centers.

Consumer Reports on Refrigerators

When I'm working in the store, quite a few folks ask me to personally recommend an appliance or to tell them what Consumer Reports says. Regarding the first, I am always somewhat reluctant to endorse (or pan) one product/brand vs another ( although I DO have opinions) because of the element of subjectivity. I happen to like French Door units, but that's because I don't bend as well as I used to. Not real important to a 28 year old couple. Regarding the second, Consumer Reports is very protective of their brand and absolutely prohibits any commercial use of their name. This includes store signs or store employees referring to them in any way. I can tell people that I have a lot of respect for their ratings (although I don't agree with them 100%) but I can tell you how they rate a unit.

Since my blog is completely non-commercial, I don't have that restriction. They recently wrote an excellent article about refrigerators which will be of interest to those looking for high end features at reasonable prices. Some of the ratings info may only be available to subscribers (and why aren't you subscribing?) but there is plenty of useful information as well.

Energy Efficient Water Heaters - Part Deux

I found a really good comparison study of various water heater choices when it comes time to replace yours. There are a number of things to think about including capacity, demand, venting, and the like, and this article lays it out pretty well.

They also have some additional sections on other appliance choices, although they approach them purely from the perspective of energy efficiency, which, when you think about it, is not a bad way to approach them...

Dishwasher Replacement - A WTF Update

In my previous post, I said that I would try to get a definitive answer on the code requirement for a dishwasher disconnect capability. Well, I spoke to an electrician who works for the town I live in (Barnstable) and he assures me that the requirement applies to replacements as well as new builds, although he says it is sometimes up to the inspector (which I don't find particularly comforting).

To summarize the relevant part of the code:

"All dishwashers must be supplied with a disconnect within sight of the unit... This disconnect can be via  a switch or a grounded 3 wire plug and outlet." A circuit breaker in another room, such as the basement, does not meet this requirement.

The switch or outlet may be in a cabinet (under the sink is typical). If an outlet is used under counter, it does not need to be GFCI, since the outlet is not serving the countertops. At Sears in Hyannis, we are talking to our installers to try to get to a minimum cost to add this basic capability at installation time, and the number we are arriving at is about $75 (1 hour labor and parts). Again, if you are doing it yourself under the homeowner's exemption (of course, you obtained the permits and will have the work inspected),  your cost will be parts only. Some people see an advantage to installing a 3 prong pigtail and using an outlet to make it easier for servicing, but that's up to you. Either is acceptable.

Dishwasher Replacement 201 - A WTF Moment

OK. Your 20 year old Kitchenaid sounds like a garbage disposal with rocks in it, so it's time for a new one. Here's the good news: You get a lot more cleaning capability (and energy efficiency) for your buck. (See earlier post: Dishwashers 101.) Here's the not-so-good news: Installation can cost as much as the dishwasher. WTF, you may well say. Although a dishwasher can be replaced by a competent handyman in an hour (or two), your local building departments have a say as well.

There's actually a good reason for it: code compliance. Replacing a dishwasher requires both electrical and plumbing work. Granted, it's pretty trivial electrical and plumbing work but, nonetheless, building departments and, more importantly, your homeowner's insurance carrier, want to be sure that the job wasn't performed by Moe, Larry, and Curly and that they are not likely to have to settle a claim because a leak destroyed your hardwood floor or a ground fault electrocuted your cat (or worse). Thus, building codes.

In our new-age economy (in Massachusetts) , this generally means that you will have to have the work performed by a licensed electrician and plumber (usually two people). You will also need two separate permits. In towns on the Cape, the permit cost varies from town to town, but figure on $30 each and you'll be close.

At Sears, we charge $229 to deliver and install a dishwasher, including disconnect and haul-away of the old one, which I believe is pretty competitive. Add around $60 for permits and you're approaching $300. There's another potential wrinkle, which I will explore in more detail after some additional research that involves changes to the electrical code requiring a dishwasher disconnect within reach of the dishwasher. There is some ambiguity in the language regarding direct replacement an I am trying to get a definitive answer for a future post. This can cost $100 - $150 depending. I used the switch and the circuit from my old garbage disposal, which I had to remove when my shiny new $28,000 Title V septic system was installed. (Subject of a future post).

There is a possible workaround, however. If you are a homeowner (and why are you replacing the dishwasher if you aren't?) there is a loophole called the homeowner's exemption. I'm not sure all towns have it, but Barnstable does. It allows a homeowner to act as a contractor on his or her own property and building and shifts all the responsibility for code compliance to the owner. The Massachusetts building code states:

 “Any homeowner performing work for which a building permit is required shall be exempt from the provisions of this section (Section 109.1.1 - Licensing of construction Supervisors); provided that if the homeowner engages a person(s) for hire to do such work, that such Homeowner shall act as supervisor.”

The Barnstable Exemption application goes on to state:

Many homeowners who use this exemption are unaware that they are assuming the responsibilities of a supervisor (see Appendix Q, Rules & Regulations for Licensing Construction Supervisors, Section 2.15) This lack of awareness often results in serious problems, particularly when the homeowner hires unlicensed persons. In this case, our Board cannot proceed against the unlicensed person as it would with a licensed Supervisor. The homeowner acting as Supervisor is ultimately responsible.

To ensure that the homeowner is fully aware of his/her responsibilities, many communities require, as part of the permit application, that the homeowner certify that he/she understands the responsibilities of a Supervisor. On the last page of this issue is a form currently used by several towns. You may care t amend and adopt such a form/certification for use in your community.

This does not eliminate the need to obtain permits. Remember, you are certifying that you are familiar with the codes and will comply with them. If you do this, you need to get the work inspected and signed off on. Check with your town. This is not a place for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" home improvement. If you are unsure whether you can wire or plumb to code, you probably can't. 

More tips for the appliance DIY crowd in future posts.

Be careful out there...

The Ghost in the Machine

"The Smiths can't come to the phone right now, and the answering machine is broken. This is the refrigerator. You can leave me a message at the tone and I'll keep it on ice until they return..." Could this be coming to a kitchen near you? Check out this article.

Dishwashers 101, A Primer

I thought it would be useful to explain how modern dishwashers work in general and then add some thoughts after the jump. There is a pretty good description in Repair Clinic, but it doesn't cover everything.

There are a few things that are omitted from the write-up:

• Food Disposer - Medium to higher end units generally come with a built-in grinders (disposers) for  pulverizing larger pieces of food and the like that are rinsed off dishes, pots & pans. These actually do a pretty good job. For those of us on Cape Cod who have to worry about Title V septic systems, these are the only kind of disposers we can use. (There are "septic friendly" garbage disposers which mix bacteria with the particles, but I don't believe they are allowed under Title V.) As I said, these grinders do a reasonably good job and are relatively reliable. They will not, however, grind things like glass, metal, bone, or gristle. Don't ask me how I know this. If you start to hear grinding noises, this could be the problem. (It could also be the pump or pump motor.) Getting at the grinder to clean it involves some disassembly - removing the lower spray arm, filter/drain gate, and plate - and takes about an hour including reassembly if you're handy.
• Filter - A dishwasher recycles the hot, sudsy water to get the dishes clean. Obviously, recycling food particles is counterproductive so various filter setups are used to divert the chunky stuff, either to a grinder or the drain system. There are several types of filter systems and I'm not going to cover them all here except to say that it needs to be cleaned periodically. Your manual should explain the correct procedure.
• Soil Sensor - Medium to high end units have photoelectric soil sensors that can keep a wash cycle going until it judges that all soil has been removed. These actually work fairly well, and, if you have one and don't know it, it may be the reason that some loads seem to take longer, even with the same settings.
• Noise - Modern dishwashers are generally quieter than the units of 20 years ago. This is achieved through a variety of techniques including better sound insulation and quieter motors and mechanicals. Sound volume is measure in decibels (db). The decibel scale is logarithmic, so every 3 db equates to a 2X increase or decrease in volume. 55 db is twice as loud as 52 db. Normal conversation is usually 55 - 60 db. A reasonably quiet dishwasher is 52 db, so you can have conversations in the kitchen while it's running. Keep shelling money out, and they get even quieter. Bosch and Kitchenaid have dishwashers rated at 42 db, in case you have one installed in your bedroom.

Modern, high-end dishwashers can indeed be complex machines, with a fair amount of intelligence and flexibility. The should use less energy and water, and get your dishes cleaner, than that dinosaur under your counter with two buttons and a knob.

More on dishwashers in a future post...

Getting Pumped About Water Heaters - Do the Math

Pop Quiz: What do air conditioners, refrigerators, and high-efficiency water heaters have in common?

Answer: They all contain heat pumps. OK, what's a heat pump? The simple definition is that is an electromechanical device for moving heat from one environment (the source) to another (the sink). When this happens, the source becomes cooler and the sink, warmer. In a refrigerator or air conditioner, the source is the interior (or room) and the sink is on the outside. In a heat pump-based water heater  (or hot air furnace), this is reversed. There is a good YouTube video that does a pretty good job of illustrating this. The is also a pretty good explanation in Wikipedia if you want to dive into the details.

A well-designed heat pump with a high Coefficient of Performance (heat pump people don't like to use the word "efficient") is a cost-effective way to heat and cool stuff. Some are designed to do both. A heat pump-based water heater uses environmental warmth (source) to stored water (sink). In fact, geothermal heating systems are just heat pumps on steroids (the steroids being underground warmth).

A number of companies have developed heat pump-based water heaters. The one I am most familiar with, by General Electric, is called the GeoSpring™ which will save on average $325/Year over a conventional water heater. Here on Cape Cod, it should save nearly $540/Year given the high cost of electricity. Other brands should offer comparable savings. They also contain a conventional heating coil to supplement the pump when demand is high. Now, these guys aren't cheap - close to $1,500 plus installation. I have seen them on sale for $1,000. This still is a fair amount of money up front, even with the fast payback.

But the real incentive here (at least in Massachusetts) is the $1,000 mass save rebate. This means, with a little judicious shopping, you can knock a huge chunk off your electric bill for the cost of the installation only. This is not a DIY job - it must be performed by a licensed and certified plumber to be eligible. On a related note, I generally tell people that it is not cost-effective to replace an electric water heater with a gas one, even though gas water heaters are more energy efficient, because the payback is way to long. However, replacing an electric or gas water heater with a heat pump-based unit should generally be an economic no-brainer.

Do the math...

High Efficiency Washing Machines - Taking the Myths Out

With washing machines, the term "High-Efficiency" actually means two things:

1. Reduced water usage, and,
2. Reduced energy consumption.

We'll take each of these in order.

Water Usage: A conventional top loading washer uses upwards of 45 gallons of water per cycle. It does this because of the fact that an agitator is used to turn the clothes in a corkscrew motion through the water, which requires that the water level be high enough to permit this. A front loading washer is inherently more efficient because it effectively tumbles the clothes into the water. A good front load washer can get clothes extremely clean using only 15 gallons of water.

The new kid on the block is the HE top loader. This looks like a conventional top loader minus the tall agitator. There is typically a very small agitator with straight (not spiral) blades. These washers wash clothes in very shallow pools of water utilizing various combinations of gentle back and forth agitation, spraying of recirculated water/detergent mix, and up-and-down agitator movements, depending on brand and model. An HE top loader will spend 30 - 60 seconds at the beginning of the cycle "measuring" and balancing the load, and will typically force the water/detergent mixture into the load from perforations in the tub. A typical HE top loader uses about 22 gallons of water per cycle - half of what an conventional agitator washer uses.

Reduced Energy Consumption: HE washers reduce energy usage in two ways. The washer itself used less energy because the agitation method requires somewhat less (although cycle times can be longer) and there isn't as much water to heat. More importantly, however, is the fact that the very high spin speeds (>600RPM) force a lot more water out of the clothes, which means the dryer doesn't have to work as hard. It is not uncommon for new users of HE top loaders to think that their clothes have not been completely submerged or washed  because there are dry spots when they come out of the wash. Not to worry. They're clean.

We care about water consumption for two reasons. If you have town water, you are paying for it, and, if you have well water, you probably have a septic system. The less laundry gray water with detergent and bleach you pump into a septic system, the better off it will be.

All HE washers require HE detergent (and, often, bleach and fabric softener). HE detergent is very low sudsing. Actually, years ago, detergent manufacturers added sudsing emollients to detergents because people didn't think they were doing their jobs if there were no suds. We've come full circle. A couple of tablespoons is all that's required. Because they are, in effect, agitator-less, you really can't add items after the water is in. Most of them have locking lids to force you to pause or reset the washer to open the lid. Just put that dropped sock in the next load. Most HE washers will heat water to at least

A top load HE washer will generally be less expensive than at front loader for a variety of reasons, and are probably preferable in second floor laundries where vibration may be problematic. There is a front load/top load comparison in an earlier post, so I won't repeat it here. Some higher-end top load models have glass lids. I have no idea why anyone thinks this is a necessary feature although I could see it being very entertaining for cats. Maybe it's just because front loaders have always had them.

My personal opinion is that there is really no reason not to buy an HE washer. The price difference for a top loader is small, and you'll make it back over time.

The Cleaning Institute has a pretty useful handout. You can find it here.

Some Refrigerator Advice From Mother....

This article from Mother Earth News is actually from the mid-80s, but it still makes some points that, if anything, are more valid today. Remember, Mother knows best... Some comments after the jump...

Triple Your Refrigerator's Life Span

Perform these quick, once-a-year home-maintenance tasks to add life to your cooling kitchen appliance.

According to Leroy Richter, former director of THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS Eco-Village and refrigeration and heating instructor at a local technical school, proper maintenance of a modern refrigerator can extend its life from barely longer than the 5 year warranty period to 15 or even 20 years. But wait. You say you have an old one out in the garage that's gone 30 years without a bit of attention? Why shouldn't your new fridge—the convenient side-by-side with ice maker—last at least that long?

Read more:


In Ted's opinion:


Modern appliances generally have a useful design life of 5 - 8 years. In addition to some of the issues raised in the article, modern designs emphasize energy efficiency and useful interior capacity. When I was growing up, my parents had a refrigerator with evaporator coils on the to and a compressor motor about the size of the motor in a Prius. Modern compressor motors are about the size of 3 hockey pucks stacked and use about 30% of the electricity. They also have a 1 year warranty instead of a 5 year warranty. 


In addition to keeping the compressor coils clean, it is important to make sure that the door seals are flexible and flat. You should be able to feel the suction when you open a refrigerator or freezer door. Compressors aren't designed for continuous operation. In fact, they should run no more than 5 - 15% of the time, depending on usage. If it is cycling on and off frequently, you probably have a leak. If it stays on for long periods, your coils are clogged or you have lost refrigerant, hopefully the former.


If you service your reefer regularly (especially if you have pets) you should be able to double this. Tripling it seems optimistic to me...

Front Load or Top Load? It's a Wash...

There is a great deal of confusion and misinformation with respect to the pros and cons of front-load vs. top load washers. Although, at the end of the day (or whenever you do your laundry), it's largely a personal decision, this write-up from Ask.Com does  reasonable job of laying out the issues. We'll have more on this after the jump, but, in the mean time, you be the judge...

Top-Loading vs Front-Loading Washers - Which is Better?

Helping You Choose the Right Washer for Your Home

If you're in the market to buy a new washer, one of the first decisions you'll want to make is whether to buy a top-loading or a front-loading washing machine.

Until a few years ago, front-loading washers were seen almost exclusively in laundromats, but these days, you can find them in more and more conservation-minded homes as manufacturers begin offering a broader array of choices.

Read More

The article discusses the need to bend down to load a front-load washer (we've always had to do it with dryers). For people of a certain age, this becomes increasingly annoying. The article does not mention the fact that there are pedestals available which relieve this problem. Obviously, you can't use this in a stacked configuration, but if you require a stacked configuration, the choice has already been made for you. Side-by-side front loaders on pedestals are quite ergonomic. And, you can store stuff in the pedestal drawers.Pedestals generally run from $200 - $250, but some people make them themselves out of plywood for a lot less. Hey, it's in the basement or a closet, isn't it?

DIY Appliance Repair Part Deux...

So, you want to do it anyway? It can still be worth it. If you don't have a service plan and the appliance is less than 8 - 10 years old, or you have bonded with it in some way and really don't want to see it go, fixing it yourself might be worth it, as long as you can diagnose the problem properly. Generally, if you can repair it for less than half the cost of a replacement, and the unit is in otherwise good condition, go ahead. Have a big time, as they say. Since your labor is free (this is a hobby, right?) you only have to worry about the parts cost (see: Johnny Cash song in earlier blog post).

You need a couple of things:

1. A repair manual or other source of repair information, and,
2. A source of parts.

There is a reasonably good source of both called RepairClinic. There are others as well (See, I surf the net so you don't have to). A lot of newer appliances with electronic controls with LCD displays (if you don't know what these are, maybe you shouldn't try repairing them) have self diagnostic capabilities. Sometimes, these are even explained briefly in the installation manuals that accompany the unit. Usually, it involves holding down two or three buttons while powering the unit on with your foot or or your nose, at which point it will display a code of some sort which, with many years of study (or a cheat sheet) you can interpret. Kind of like cars, except that you don't have to buy a code reader.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can reset the offending condition and hope for the best. If this happens during the warranty period, don't do this! The next time you get the problem, it will probably be out of warranty, and you will be toast. At any rate, these diagnostic codes can be very useful. They must be - the service guys use 'em. Once you are sure of the diagnosis, you can price the cost of repair part(s). You want to be reasonably sure of yourself at this point. Trying one part after another is going to be really hard on your wallet. For you financial types, this is called a "Stupidity Tax." Unless, of course, you think of it as a hobby expense.

Although modern appliances are considerably more complicated than they were 20 years ago, they don't approach automobiles on the complexity scale. You can fix them without really expensive diagnostic equipment. Also, fixing them (or trying to) will make you a more educated consumer the next time you need to buy one, and that's what this blog is all about.

DIY Appliance Repair - Is It Worth It?

Let me answer this with an unqualified "Maybe." "It depends" also works.

First, a personal story. About 6 years ago, long before I went to work at Sears selling these beasts, I bought a Kenmore dishwasher (made by LG) at a Sears where I lived in Western New York. Being the macho appliance geek, I declined the 5 year service coverage, assuming (correctly) that I could fix most anything that went wrong.

Sure enough, about 2 years later, the pump motor started to go, so, after trying a couple of things, I popped the hood and pulled out the defective pump motor. Took about an hour. I perused the on-line discount appliance parts site on the net. The least expensive replacement cost $241 with shipping. That was only about $60 more than 5 years coverage would have cost me. I calculated that to build the dishwasher from aftermarket parts would cost about 3 times what the dishwasher would have cost new. Plus my labor, of course (which, according to my wife, is free and worth nearly every penny).

Johnny Cash more or less summed this up in a song quite a few years ago.... You can watch it here. (Sorry about the ad)

Steam Part Deux...Laundry Edition

There is an article in eHow below about the value of steam in laundries. FWIW, I think that the value is completely different for washers and dryers: it allows washers to do a better job on delicates and dryers to do a good job on 'fluffing" or wrinkle removal. Anyhow, here's what eHow sez:

Is a Steam Washer Worth the Money?

By Jonathan McLelland, eHow Contributor

While steam washers provide multiple benefits, are they worth your money?

If you have stepped into an appliance retail store looking for a new washing machine, you probably have seen a steam washer. These advanced washing machines are typically front-load units and are significantly more expensive than their top-load counterparts. Steam washers might provide some benefits, but you have to decide if they are worth the extra money.

Read More...

More on Refrigeration from the Energy Star Folks

Refrigeration Innovation

What makes a refrigerator energy efficient?

Refrigerator technology has improved significantly in the past 40 years. Three key improvements add up to greater efficiency:

These advances are just the most recent progress in the long history of refrigeration. We've come a long way since the early days of refrigeration to today's highly efficient ENERGY STAR qualified models!

Want a brief history of refrigeration? Get a magnet and stick it on your 'fridge. 

The Hog in Your Kitchen

An interesting article on energy-efficient refrigerators...


THE NEW WAVE OF
ENERGY EFFICIENT REFRIGERATORS 

Swelling Energy Use

Refrigerators didn't get to be energy hogs on purpose. It's just that energy conservation ranked far below appearance and convenience on the list of design considerations in the '50s and '60s.

Energy guru Amory Lovins has often used the homely fridge as an example of how this approach affected energy use in the industrialized world. The motor was hidden underneath the appliance, where it radiated its heat right up into the food compartment. Manufacturers cut back on insulation so that they could increase the amount of usable space without making the appliance bigger -- not in itself a bad goal, but without high-performance insulators, this strategy allowed heat to stream right back into the cold box.

With little insulation, the refrigerator's metal skin got so cool that it tended to "sweat" -- to condense moisture from the air. So designers installed heaters on the outside of the fridge to evaporate the dew. The result was that a typical refrigerator in 1976 used an average of 1800 kilowatt-hours per year -- way more than any other appliance in the home. This was nearly four times the consumption of 1950-vintage models, which used about 500 kilowatt-hours a year and had their motors on top. By 1981, US models consumed twice the energy of Japanese models, according to Natural Resources Defense Council scientist David Goldstein.

The potential for conservation was not lost on energy-efficiency activists like Goldstein and Arthur Rosenfeld, formerly of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and now a senior adviser at the Department of Energy. The obstacle, as they saw it, was that the free market wasn't going to encourage the efficiency gains that technology allowed and society needed.

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The Second Age of Steam, Dishwasher Chapter

If you are worried about Ebola on your stemware, steam may be for you. Otherwise, well, maybe...

This from "How Stuff Works":

Believe it or not, the modern world largely runs on steam. Most people associate steam power with antiquated steam boats and the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, but the truth is, many of today's power plants still rely on it. Whether it's a fossil-fueled or nuclear power plant, its process involves heating water to its gaseous state -- steam -- to turn a turbine and create electric power. But simple steam also has more hands-on modern uses.
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Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

From Consumer Reports:

Repair or replace it?

CR's guide to having products fixed–or not

THE TEMPTATION TO TOSS  Frustrated by cost and inconvenience, and lured by new products, fewer readers are repairing.

You're hosting Thanksgiving but it's your range that's taking a holiday. Do you call for repair or scramble for a replacement? To help you make the right decision, as part of the Annual Product Reliability Survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, we asked 13,477 subscribers to share their experiences with 20,613 broken products.

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