OT-I HATE APPLIANCES

My coffee grinder , died after 43 years , his last year he was short breathed , hickupped , and got slower ,,, than one day he stopped breathing coffee smells and just made a CLICKY noise ,, and left us for Grinder`s heaven ... mirjam

I just returned from the appliance store where I bought a replacement for the washer and the dryer, both of which have been moaning and groaning and creaking and complaining for the past 6 months.

Tomorrow, the new ones will be delivered and this washer and dryer couple, who have been living together happily for all these 11 years will be put to permanent rest. I figured it wouldn't be nice to separate them after all this time and I just know that dryer would be very unhappy without his mate. Therefore, I decided it would be nicer for them if they were retired together to go to appliance heaven.

I'll tell them to look for your coffee grinder and say hello. It's always nice to have a friend when you get to a new place.

Lucille :^))

"Lucille" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

That's good they can arrive so soon, you do sound a little fickle though, so quick to change horses lol

Do you suppose there is a steel bridge somewhere that old, tired appliances hobble over ?

I'm fickle. You would think that after all these years of TLC and caring for these beasts, they would have been nicer to me and lasted several more years. But no, they thought they would put one over on me. I showed them!!

One of the reasons I go to one particular store to buy this kind of thing is that their prices are usually very competitive and they will match any price from any area store and unless you order something particularly fancy, or unusual, they can generally deliver very quickly.

They also promise that if you should find it cheaper in the next 30 days, they will reimburse you the difference plus a bonus. They get a lot of business by doing good customer service.

Lucille

I can identify with your loss so I will finish where you left off "*HI*"

Our 10 cup coffee maker just but the dust and was replaced with our 6 cup standby unit. The little guy is a real pain because it is always empty. DW and I go through about 2 coffee makers a year so we buy the cheapest ones that we can find. The expensives can't handle the pace anymore than the cheap ones. I have preformed a post mortem on many dead coffee makers and the problem is usually always the same, a burnt out diode worth about .0001¢. It is nearly impossible to find a replacement diode. Manufacture's planning I guess. I suspect that if the glass coffee holder (pot) is not sitting flat on the warmer, the warmer over heats a bit and if this happens TOO OFTEN the diode acts like a fuse and burns out.

Fred

Well, glad you have the new ones coming, and it sounds like a relatively painless transition. Wave goodbye to the old ones. It seems like appliances are the things we're so reluctant to give up on - even when they're not working well and repairing just isn't cost-worthy - we just keep hoping.

We also use a shop that is privately owned, has competitive prices (and we bargain with them a bit, especially if we pay cash). Their service is great, and we've always been happy with them. Plus when we had a little problem with a warranty not showing as registered with Maytag - the shop took care of it with Maytag for us. We were astounded to find that friends who lived a few 'burbs over also used them. (for the locals, it's Maguire's Appliances

- in Falls Church). And the local DC consumer's checkbook gives them great ratings.

So, though they don't really advertize - they stay really busy and the customer service is always good and prompt. But, I will say - I was petrified when the laundry set here was delivered. The delivery/installation service is very competent. However, the senior guy - in his say late 20s - is about the size of a big jockey (5'4"? - maybe 130), and he had with him his younger brother on school break (18, about 5'6", kind of husky - but you can't tell in the baggy teen clothes). We have an upstairs laundry - and our stairs have 2 landings on the way up (they turn twice). We also have a front loader washer - which being the one with the ultra-high spin and sanitizing cycles also has about 200# of counterweight in it (so it doesn't hop around on the extra high spin cycle). Getting that up - well, it was scary. The older guy went up backwards - but when they had to turn on the landing the younger one couldn't fit with the turning radius to lift - so this little guy just got down and heave- jerked that thing up a couple of stairs - without denting anything. I was sure he'd pop a hernia or a knee or a shoulder. We kept offering for DH to help - but they said no. Then when the dryer came up - we have a Maytag drying center

- it's hugely tall because of the upper chamber - doesn't way so much but tipping it to come up - well - that was fun. And when they finally were putting it all in the laundry room - which isn't huge - turns out the wrong electrical socket was in the wall for the dryer (gas appliances, but the upper works on electric). It was supposed to have the new standard higher amperage 110 socket, and instead had a regular one. Fortunately we remembered there was one like that in the garage - so the installer who had the correct box in his truck changed the box, and we stole the faceplate from the garage (can't leave that exposed behind the dryer). When all was done - we actually tipped them. And the nice guy said "I wish she'd (Maguires) told me this was an upstairs delivery - I'd have brought a better helper - and charged more" But, they honored our quote - though I believe the store had to pay them a bit more. And, he even found what was wrong with our brand new dishwasher - which helped when that repair guy came.

ellice

Dishwasher has been fixed, so now I can cook again!

Fortunately, the day after it completely ceased to function, I had loaded up on TV dinners for the nights I was going to be working on rush transcripts, so most nights, I only had to wash a fork.

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My washer and dryer are kind of installed. The washer is perfect but the dryer vent thingie wasn't done right so the dryer can't be pushed back far enough and I can't open and close the door from the laundry room to the garage.

I'm now impatiently waiting for them to return and do the installation correctly and see if they can fix the scratch on the dryer that they caused because the lock on the door hit the corner.

It would be so nice if something would get done correctly in the first place and not always require some aggravation, but that would be a miracle.

Lucille

"Lucille" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

Well now, it is Christmas when reputedly a virgin gave birth, you never know what could happen lol

All sorts of miracles have happened at this time of year. Go sprinkle some olive oil on the dryer and see if you can create one! :)

Naahhh--that would just give me one more thing to clean up, or it would start a fire. A fire is a no-no for the obvious reasons, and I'm just too beat to have to do any more cleaning.

Am I the only one that discovered that the floor under a washer and dryer seems to be a dust and gunk magnet. The two big, strapping guys who did the installation stood comfortably aside while I got on my knees and scrubbed the floor. It would have been nice if they said can we help, but of course they didn't.

I guess that would have been a miracle.

"Lucille" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

No, fortunately when I sold the house Joanna took the washer and dryer so I figured while Cameron and the boys took them out to the truck, it only figured that she washed the floor lol You're right though, I washed over the laundry room floor weekly but beneath both appliances, yuck!

Haven't had my washer/dryer replaced, but did notice that the area under the stove was a disaster when they took the old one out. I gave it a once-over in the time it took them to take the old one to the truck and bring in the new one, but they didn't want to wait any longer.

Fortunately, then I had to swap the new electric-ignition one for a pilot light model, and had no stove at all for a day, which gave me enough time to do it right.

I hesitate to see what's under the fridge when the time comes to retire that.

Surprisingly, even though the dishwasher is sealed with a kickplate in front, there was even dirt and gunk in that enclosure. Of course, I don't know whether the prior owner cleaned up when it was put in, or whether that was two generations of gunk.

My sympathies to everyone dealing with appliance loss. We are in need of a new washer, but just can't afford one right now. I think that, after 2 years outdoors (we lived in Panama, and the hookup was on the back, covered patio), 5 years in upstate NY, and a year in Va, it has just gotten worn out and tired. ALthough, it does seem much happier in the new home (when we first moved into the house, it had to be in the kitchen!! Now it is in the lovely, repainted alcove that leads to the downstairs bathroom). The dryer is only 6 years old, so it better not go any time soon,

We would replace the washer, but deer season is NOT the time....this is the second year in a row that either DH (last year) or I (this year) have gotten wrecked cars thanks to deer. Mine is STILL in the shop (accident was 11/11), but the body work has been done, and it is in the paint area...plus there is a short that needs to be taken care of. All this time, we've had to pay for a rental car (insurance only pays for $900)....so.....a couple thousand later, and still no car...we took the rental car back Wednesday so that we could have a little of a financial break, have another reservation for pickup on the 29th if my van isn't ready.

ah well...food is bought, house payment and utilities have been paid, nothing extravagant for Christmas, and not planning on travel, so I guess everything is going to be fine in the end.

Larisa, who still can't get to my needlework stuff because all the presents have been shoved into the craft closet!

Electric appliances have a static electricity that serves as magnet for little dust thingies , which over time grow to biggere dust things, Also under machines that wash something there might be some mist droplets that eventually marry the dust thingies ,,,, and provide that DIRT ,,,, most of our machines are on mooveable platforms ,,, those that aren`t get cleaned with some feather like object or a long bottle cleaner like object ,,, mirjam

My dishwasher has been broken for about a year. We use a lot of paper plates etc. and don't miss it too much. Some day...

Alison

We are old-fashioned, we fill the sink with hot water and washing-up liquid, wash the plates, rinse them in clean hot water and leave them to dry on the draining board. And we don't have enough crockery to fill a dishwasher. I've heard people talk of children arguing not about whose turn it was to wash-up but about whose turn it was to fill the dish-washer.

My kids were very glad when we got a dishwasher back in the early 70s, so was I. The main reason I was glad was that if one of the five of us had a cold, the other four did not automatically contract it. No doubt about it, dishwashers wash the crocks and knives etc far more hygienically.

Plus they use far less water per day and that was mainly why we got it, because we were on well water and during a long, hot, dry summer the water was iffy, we did actually run out once.

So they definitely are not necessarily just a desirable item. Besides which, I find it such a dumb, repetitive job and can find a hundred better things to do with the time. If I had to do without an appliance, I would send back the clothes washer before the dishwasher.

Darn you! Now I have this strange visual in my mind of you sitting in the weeds beating your clothes against the rocks. What a sad picture that makes. ;^))