Farewell...

Right at Halloween our microwave died. We've had it since Paul was in college, back in the late 1980s. It's the one appliance that the appliance gods smiled upon in our house.

One Way to Offend the Appliance Gods...

One way to offend the appliance gods is to make the wrong kind of ritual offering to them. So to be more specific, giving the appliance gods the following will actually anger them:

• $3.55 in change
  
• 2 of Sammy's socks
• 1 cap of a pen
  

That's what the service man found in our washing machine drain trap. Apparently they accumulated over the last year and eventually prevented the washing machine from draining water. So if you can imagine how King Kong got very angry when his offering of Ann Darrow was not there...that is close to how angry our washing machine got with the above offering.

Apparently socks clogging the drain in the side loader washing machines is something that tends to happen with baby socks.

The appliance gods are angry! (again!)

We bought a new washing machine earlier this year...and about a week or so ago we noticed water underneath it. It seems our house is the Bermuda Triangle for appliances. What could be wrong? Paul took a gamble on a hunch that it was not the washing machine and called our plumber (he wanted to avoid having to pay the appliance guy for a visit which was found to have not been caused by a part under warranty).

Joe found the leak pretty easily.

Previously we had mentioned how we found these nifty FloodSafe(TM) connectors for our new washer. Supposedly they will prevent you from catastrophic flooding in your basement. Joe quickly found the problem. There was a smaller than a pin sized hole in the fitting of the FloodSafe(TM) connector. The water escaping was not enough to engage the safety mechanism. Paul had felt moisture on the hoses, but erroneously thought it was due to condensation on the lines...missing the ever so thin line of water coming out of it and instead focusing his search nearer to the floor.

Paul will have to go back to Homely Despot to get a refund/replacement. We should also contact the manufacturer to see if he'll pay Joe's bill.

That which we bought to protect us...wet us...

The Washer Works!

Well, the Sears repair guy came today and he was initiially baffled over why no water was getting into the washer. As it turns out, when Paul had the plumber come, he had him replace the old water hoses connecting the washer to our water pipes with ones that would "protect against catastrophic water damage."


Usually you should replace those connectors every 5 years or whatever, or so they say. After recalling how a friend of his father had his hoses burst and flood his basement, Paul went one extra. He bought "FloodSafeTM Connectors...[which] automatically sense the rupture and shuts the water supply off when flow of water exceeds the design rate." These braided, flexible stainless steel beauties Paul bought cost a little over $20.

So what went wrong? Or rather, what went right? When the connectors were attached to the new washer, the service person unknowingly opened up the valve quickly, that caused the safety feature to engage -- and thus no water was allowed to the washer. According to the directions for the hoses, one should "slowly turn on water to full position." Once Paul and the Sears service man (from today) figured that out, everything worked like a charm. On the positive side, we know that our protection "against water damage due to burst, broken or ruptured water supply hoses or fittings" really works!

What the Auto-Shutoff Conector looks like...

The appliance gods are angry...

Yesterday Sears came to install our new washer and dryer (see here). The installers arrived and, well, installed them. And the new washing machine would not work. Everything was plugged in, new hoses, even new faucets installed by a plumber.

We called up Sears and they scheduled for a repair man to come tomorrow. They told us we'd receive a call tonight to schedule tomorrow...which we did. The call was a pre-recorded message saying that the repairman would call tomorrow to schedule his arrival (tomorrow) sometime between 8am and 5pm.

Given all of our appliance woes, we speculate that the appliance gods are angry (see here and here) -- antagonized by our continued use of a manual hand can opener. We are wondering now if we should do a sacrifice of our hand can opener and buy an electric one to appease the offended deities and restore order to our appliances.

What our faucets looked like before we had the plumber replace them...

All washed up!

Our battle with appliances continues. This week our clothes washing machine died. The last time we had it serviced, the service man said we should replace it when it breaks again. So we went out and decided on one of those new-fangled front loading washing machines. And we got the matching dryer to boot...because then we could stack them on top of each other, saving floor space in the tiny basement of our tiny house. We went with GE...partially because we own their stock but more so because we were able to get a good deal on them.

The GE Frontload Washer/Dryer Pair we purchased...at Sears...

Paul bought our old washing machine/dryer off of a relative some years ago. On it was a picture of Jesus (from the Sacred Heart Auto League) which his relative had put on it...back in 1984/1985. We're not sure what the SHAL has to do with appliances, but we can't complain as we got many good years (10+) out of those appliances. When our washing machine died this week, Michele got it to work again briefly...enough to empty out the water left in the tub. Then the picture of Jesus from SHAL fell off the washing machine...the masking tape from 20 years ago gave out. Michele tried to put the picture back on the machine, but the tape would no longer hold it. The washing machine has not worked since. So we took it as a message from a higher authority that it was time to get a new machine.

The Sacred Heart Auto League...they apparently have pull w/appliances too!

The Repairman Returneth...

Our ongoing appliance woes continue with our built in Kitchen Aid oven. After the repairman last came a few weeks ago and repaired the oven, the next day Paul ran the self-clean again. And the thermostat on it blew again. So after waiting almost a week and a half for the replacement part to arrive, the repairman came to our house again. While at our house, he called Kitchen Aid and the tech guy said to put in a thermostat with a different threshold. He didn't have the part, so he put in the standard replacement part for now and will return in a week or so with the newer part. According to the repair guy, there's another person in town who bought the same oven who experienced the same problem with their exact same model oven. Paul is thinking of starting a support group for Kitchen Aid appliance owners. For now, Paul is under strict orders from Michele not to run the self clean until after the Christmas holiday is over.

Will the neighbors wonder if there is something strange going on...
...with the repair truck infront of our house during the day so often?

Gremlins in the machine(s)...

When Sammy's birth neared late last year, we decided it was time to get our first ever dishwasher. So we decided to get a matching Kitchen Aid dishwasher to match the stainless steel refrigerator we bought a couple of years before. Then it was like, uh, the cooktop vent does not match...so we got one from Kitchen Aid. Then it was like, the wall oven did not match...Kitchen Aid yet again. Our house was built in 1960, so the existing cabinet only allowed a 24" wall oven...luckily (so we thought) Kitchen Aid had a matching model. We also bought a new cooktop too...though not Kitchen Aid.

In the past year, we've had the following problems:

• cooktop's ceramic top came chipped. Sears quickly replaced it. Works fine.
  
• dishwasher burnt out while we had 3 children under the age of 2 in the house. Once fixed, has worked fine since.
  
• cooktop vent's "squirrel cage fan" came broken, Sears replaced it. Works fine now.
  
• wall oven keeps burning out a thermostat whenever we run the self clean. This has now happend for a third time. Paul called up Kitchen Aid and they extended the warranty for an additional year to "allow time to fix the problem." We anticipate having to purchase the extended warranty.
  

Here are the lessons we learned:

• A married couple's quality of life improves significantly with the addition of a dishwasher.
  
• Trendy maybe, but stainless steel is a pain. You have to constantly clean it and even then it never really looks clean enough. And if you have kids, get used to the stainless appliances looking like a crime scene from CSI.
  
• Never try to make grilled-cheese sandwiches directly on a ceramic cooktop. (This is an inferred lesson we got from someone else who made toast on a ceramic cooktop)
  
• Buying a decent brand name is no guarantee of trouble-free operation.
• If you buy a self clean oven, make sure you run the self clean multiple times during the warranty period.
  

Paul can hear laughing gremlins inside our wall oven...