About

Me and my blog


I'm supposed to be retired, but I have three kids in college. Over the years, I have repaired and installed washers, dryers, dishwashers, stoves, air conditioners, and microwaves, so I decided to sell appliances. I picked Sears because, well, they're Sears. Might as well start at the top. In the course of doing just that, I discovered a few things about appliance purchasers:

• Many have not purchased a major appliance in over 10 years,
• Many are unclear about the impacts of energy and water conservation, and
• Many are confused about the use (and value)  of the variety of new features and capabilities that manufacturers have been introducing.

This blog, among other things, will try to deal with some of these points. The more that customers (and by customers, I mean homeowners, landlords, and property managers) understand  about an important investment, the better equipped they will be to make intelligent purchases. Because I am a geek by nature, this blog will focus primarily on how things work, why they work that way, and what this means for you. I collect information from manufacturers, other bloggers and web sites, and my day job and try to put it in a reasonably useful, but not overly technical, form. If there are interesting bits of news, I will post them. If there are blogs or sites that I think are worth your time to visit, I will put up links to them. Please forgive me in advance if I post something a little off-topic because it's interesting or humorous. I sometimes get carried way.

What this isn't

I certainly have my opinions and my biases, we all do. For this reason (among others) I will not attempt to "rate" manufacturers or products. There is an organization that does a stellar job of that, and the blog has a link to their site. I may give my personal opinion on the value of a particular technology or feature, but, since value is always dependent on the perspective of the purchaser's particular wants and needs. A few more points:

• Although I work at Sears, and we cover an enormous number of brands and products, I will not confine myself to those brands and products.
• I am not a licensed appliance repairman, plumber, or electrician, although I have performed all those functions. I will discuss repair, electrical, and plumbing issues, and can point you to sites hosted by individuals with these credentials. 
• We have excellent and highly-rated service and install people where I work, so I am not in a position to endorse or recommend others in that business. I know they're out there. I just can't talk about 'em.
• I will not post ads. This is a non-commercial site. My purpose here is to educate you as a consumer and, hopefully, get you to come into the store and buy appliances from me when the need arises or the mood strikes you. I will post links to interesting or useful sites and they may cross-link back to me (or not).  If you decide to subscribe to the Blog (details on the CONTACT tab), I will not share your email address with anyone. Period.

This blog is, and will continue to be, a work in progress. There is quite a bit of content in the hopper, but it needs to be organized and published. I welcome your feedback and questions. If I can't answer them, I'll try to point to someplace that can.

I hope you will find this useful. I'm having fun doing it.

Ted the Appliance Guy