Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Appliances

Maximum laundry, minimum space

exceptinsects — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:22:13 -0800

What are your experiences using a combination washer/dryer? I am thinking of buying one for my very tiny new house, but somehow it seems too good to be true! Do they really work? Is there a brand you've tried that you like?

It would have to fit in a space that's 23"X25". (Can face either direction)

Need recommendations for kitchen appliances

gfroese — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:19:22 -0800

Need a full new suite of kitchen appliances, would like some recommendations. Got some prices on some Electrolux models today that looked great, but some quick research on the web doesn't leave me so confident. Is this a case of the squeaky wheel complaining online and they're actually a solid product? Or should I be worried. I'm looking for all stainless steel appliances: fridge with ice-maker, slide-in stove, dishwasher, and range-hood microwave. Specifically I'm looking for a large fridge and electric stove I'm in Canada if that makes a difference.

What's up with my gas stove?

zembla3 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:07:43 -0800

What's the deal with my gas stove? When I turn on the left rear burner, it seems to ignite normally, but the right rear burner also sparks. The right rear burner continues make a clicking noise and spark, but doesn't ignite, and noise/sparking doesn't stop when I adjust the flame on the left burner. What's going on? Is this dangerous? When I turn on the right rear burner, everything seems perfectly normal. The front burners seem fine too. I turned all the burners off and I don't smell any gas or hear hissing, but I'm a bit nervous. This is the make/model of the stove.

How do I fix my friends kitchen stove issue?

abdulf — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:31:45 -0800

Kitchen appliances: What remedies do you have when an appliance purchase and installation goes wrong? I'm asking this for a friend. He bought a gas Electrolux cooktop stove from a local dealer 2 or 3 weeks ago (this is the model http://www.electroluxappliances.com/node30.aspx?categoryid=1184)

He has 2 problems with the appliance:
1. The knobs look like they are metal, but they're actually plastic, and have melted. They're still usable, but not as aesthetically pleasing. I'm assuming the reason you pay extra for a stove like this is for design and appearance.
2. Half of the burners- whatever - won't light automatically. Seems like a lighter problem. He has to use matches.

Here's what he's tried

1. Working with the dealer/installer (http://www.choiceappliances.net/)

Dealer won't refund or exchange. It's a small business, so no corporate person to write to. Sent a person to his home on a service call. Service repair person concluded nothing is wrong with the stove and suggests contacting the manufacturer

2. Manufacturer (Electrolux)
Says to deal with the dealer since the issue appears to be related to installation. Also, warranty does not cover knobs because it is not a defect - the knobs were designed to be plastic.

3. Credit card company (Chase)
Cannot dispute because it was a face-to-face transaction and buyer had an opportunity to inspect the merchandise.

So how do I help my friend without sinking a great deal of my own time into this?

I think the right customer service person at the manufacturer or credit card company might do it. If not, what legal cause of action exists for a consumer in his position (in Texas)? (I guess something could be done in small claims court, I'm just not sure under what basis)

Bringin' home the seltzer

sio42 — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:52:48 -0800

DIY Seltzer: We love seltzer/sparkling water at my house. We buy lots of it from the store. This seems wasteful. I've seen other questions asking about CO2 etc, but I'm interested in knowing what your experience has been with certain vendors/equipment. I've heard of soda stream usa and soda club. Please tell me about others if they exist.

Have you used them? Have you instead made your own contraption? Do you use glass or plastic bottles? Big or small?

How did you flavor them if you just like the berry/citrus flavors? We're not interested in it tasting like coke or sprite.

Did you save money by DIY or was it just making you feel better about less trash?

Thanks!

RIP Coffee Maker, you will be missed

burntflowers — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:29:12 -0800

Help keep my household grumpy-free: recommend a coffee maker that won't give up the ghost after a handful of months. In the two 1/2 years that my husband and I have shared a home, we've gone through 4 coffee makers. The latest one just died this morning.

Each one seems to die the same death: the pump just stops working, usually part way through brewing the first pot of the day.

Do you have a coffee maker that's lasted for years and years? Who made it?

Alternatively, is there something we might be doing or not doing that's killing our poor coffee makers?

Need some help replacing electric cooktop with gas

jluce50 — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:57:48 -0800

As I've become more and more interested in cooking my satisfaction with my electric inductive cooktop has gone proportionately down. I scored an awesome deal on a used gas cooktop on Craigslist and now I need to hook it up. I'm fairly handy, if not very experienced, but my brother-in-law will be helping and he's very competent. Please, no advice to hire a professional. I've researched the safety aspect of this and I'm confident that we can handle this safely. On to my questions...

1) The cooktop didn't come with a pressure regulator and I'm not sure if I need one. Some people say that natural gas is regulated at the meter and so it's unnecessary, while others insist it is necessary. If it is, do I have to pay $75 for the OEM part or can I get a generic replacement at HomeDepot? I did come across this part for $23 that is supposedly for my model, but it doesn't give any info and it's the only non-OEM part I've found anywhere which makes me nervous. Any thoughts?

2) As far as running the pipe, I understand that HomeDepot will thread pipe for me, but what about where I tap into the existing pipe to add the tee? Do I need to thread the pipe for that or are there non-threaded fittings for stuff like that? If threaded, how do I tee into the existing pipe without having to reconnect every junction downline from the tee? I would be teeing in right after the main shutoff valve where the pipe comes out of the ground and into the house, so it would be a major bummer to have to reconnect everything.

Old Amazing Mixer Broke--Help

Household Tipster — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:18:33 -0800

I have a 1950s KitchenAid mixer (model-3A), and the motor's dead. It's a great mixer. Is it worth it to get it fixed? How would I do that?

Appliance review site suggestions

crookedgrin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:33:30 -0800

Looking to replace an old refrigerator - where can I find reliable ratings / reviews online (that I don't need a subscription for)? I'm basically looking for a free alternative to Consumer Reports, perhaps with a combination of user ratings and expert reviews. I am always a bit leery of purely customer-rated rankings because it's so easy to cheat. Do I need to pay to get good info?

Microwave vs motion detector

ClarissaWAM — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:50:53 -0800

Why would my mum's (inside) microwave set off her (outside) motion detector? My mum had a light with motion detector installed in her back yard a while back. For practical reasons [easy access to electricity at security-light-level] this was installed within a foot or so of her microwave . Obviously with a wall in between (microwave inside, motion detector outside).

But now, whenever she uses the microwave, the light comes on [only during darkness, i.e. when the motion detector is on]. So basically it interprets this as "motion". [after the microwave is done, the light remains on for the customary 30secs]

What could be the reason for this?
(NB I'm not so much looking for "how can we fix this" - she's had a switch installed to disable the light while she uses the microwave. tho if there's sth really obvious please do share)

Thanks!

A fixer for my mixer

staboo — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:50:02 -0800

Know anyone who does small appliance repair in Baltimore? My parents gave me a Cuisinart food processor and stand mixer. The catch? They're broken... somehow. They worked as of a year ago, but now when they're plugged in, nothing happens. The only appliance repair places I can find here in Baltimore do only big stuff (fridges, etc).

Also: any idea how much this might cost? I know it's hard to say without knowing what the problem is, but any estimates would be appreciated.

ToasterOvenFilter

Danf — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:21:29 -0800

What constitutes a commercial-grade toaster oven, as opposed to a household grade one? I should know this but I am blanking out drawing on my own knowledge, and the knowledge of the local fire authority. I am looking for construction, and also for any signifying markings.

Backstory: There is no code against appliances in classrooms, but I can mandate that they can be over and above what would be found in a home, and I think it's a good idea to do so.

Rub a dub dub and so on.

santojulieta — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:14:38 -0800

We have laundry maladies. It seems like my washer might not be draining properly, and it's lint central in my dryer. What can I do about this? First Question:
We have an old stacked washer and dryer in our rental apartment. In the last week or so, it seems like laundry smells like stale water when it comes out of the washer. When I moved the agitator to reach some back laundry, I could hear (but not see) water sloshing around somewhere. Also, when it drains before the spin cycle, it backs up into our bathtub (and the water that backs up appears to have... um... dirty laundry residue in it, like lint, gritty dirt, etc.) It seems like there's some sort of clog somewhere within the washer. What could I run through a wash cycle to help clear some of that out?

Second Question:
Our dryer works just fine, but it's awfully linty in there. I clean the lint screen between every load, but it seems like lint builds up in the door (it's hollow with holes in it that lets the lint out to settle in our lint screen.) This horrifies me for two reasons. First, it seems terribly dangerous to have lint in various places in the dryer. Second, it gives me the heebie-jeebies to touch lint. Anything I could toss in a dryer cycle that will magically attract all the errant lint?

I know this is my landlord's responsiblity, but if I can just do something simple and safe myself, I'd rather do that.

Indian mixers: the shocking true story!

dilettante — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:19:11 -0800

Do I want an Indian mixer? It looks like Indian mixer-grinders (mixies?) can do much more than American blenders, and maybe more than food processors. Is this right? Do I want one? Are they useful? What do you do with yours? How do they work with, say, hummus? (And tips on where to get one in the U.S. for not too much are also welcomed).

need help picking appliances!

femmme — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:47:37 -0800

I'm redoing my kitchen. Looking to buy an oven and dishwasher and not sure what to look for & what is good...ideas? Im looking at doing my kitchen over. I'm going to buy one appliance at a time. I have read that you need to pick a brand(ie. Frigidaire etc) and buy all three appliances in the same brand or the stainless won't match. Can anyone give me pointers on good ovens? Im not sure what to look for and my research hasn't uncovered much thus far. Oh Hive Mind I need appliance help!

You spin me right round baby right round

spicynuts — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:18:04 -0800

Recommendations needed for stackable, energy saver, low water washing machine/dryer combo Looking to buy one of this sweet front loader, stackable washer dryer thingamabobs and I would like to know if anyone has input on which might be considered the most reliable. Considerations for me:

1. Needs to be 24 inches wide or less
2. Needs to use 15 gallons of water or less per cycle
3. Gas powered dryer
4. Stackable to less than 97"
5. It would be nice if it can steam clothes as well

I've been looking at LG because in a drunken picnic conversation one of my good friends was talking about LG - problem is I can't remember if they were raving or criticizing and she is in labor right now so can't call her.

Previous Ask post on this was in 2005 so I'd like some updated info

Dryer cut clothing. Dryer folk not helpful.

kmennie — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:19:58 -0800

Clothes dryer [new] slashed clothing. "Repaired," dryer snags clothes, makes unsettling noise. Visited store 4x; sent registered mail to manufacturer 2x, nothing. Now what? A bit over a year ago I bought a new high-efficiency Frigidaire front-loader and matching dryer from a small local appliance shop. The washer is lousy, but no mind. The dryer made the same 1cm J-shaped cut in most of our knit clothing.

It took a while to figure out where these cuts were coming from, of course. When we finally did, we contacted the store, who sent out Local Repair Dude. LRD scratched his head and asked if I was using HE detergent. (Yes.) LRD said he'd put in a call to Frigidaire. Came back, gave me a hard time about the detergent despite standing under many bottles marked "HE," and did something to the dryer that he thought would maybe solve my problem, and if it didn't, it was Frigidaire's problem, not his.

The "repaired" dryer started snagging a lot of stuff -- drawstrings and snaps on baby clothes get sucked in to a rim around the door and don't come out without ripping -- and making a "Hi I'm a broken dryer" sort of ka-thump noise, intermittently. One knit top came out with a terrible slash; the status of the J-cuts is unclear because our old clothes are already too cut up for us to notice new cuts, and good knits now get hung to dry.

The local shop is nearby, so I went in person. At this point I went in at least three times. Oh, they'd get right on it. Had nobody called me back? Goodness! Be sure to get right on that, yes'm! Same deal each time; never heard a peep.

I sent Frigidaire a letter, via registered mail, enclosing a onesie covered in the J-cuts and missing a snap and a plastic bib that accidentally got in the dryer for a few minutes and came out looking like it'd been in a fight with an X-acto knife. Nothing. I sent a second letter, summarized: "WTF? No response to this one, and it's court. Just in case, here is a copy of the letter I sent." Nothing.

Is small claims court the appropriate/best place to pursue this? At this point I would be happy to return the washer and dryer pair for a full refund and never think of Frigidaire or the shop again; I'm not sure what's realistic, though.

Help my refrigerator remember its purpose in life.

grapefruitmoon — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:14:12 -0800

Appliance Repair For Dummies Filter: Is there anything we can do to get our fridge to, y'know, refrigerate things? Our fridge is stuck at 50F. (You may or may not know that 40F is optimal for keeping food, y'know, COLD.) No matter what we do with the little fiddly-knob, this is the coldest we can get it. Our landlord has been contacted, but this seems to be pretty low on his priorities list.

Unfortunately, bugging the landlord is pretty low on 'moonMan's priority list as he has a paper deadline looming this week. I would happily bug the landlord myself, except that he has displayed a lot of "pat-on-the-head oh, you're a cute girl, here just hit this button, pat-pat" dismissive behavior. I'll continue bugging him anyway, but in this aspect of the situation, it's going to take some prodding from 'moonMan for anything to get done.

So. My question. Until we can wrangle our landlord into doing something other than turning the volume up to 11, is there anything we can do to make the fridge COLDER? It's just cold enough to keep milk from spoiling (we go through milk pretty quickly, but I've noticed milk that's been opened for 2 days being just fine), but the ice-cream in the freezer is melting and I would really like to be able to have perishable food in the house without worrying that it's going to be spoiled the next day. (We've had a lot of fancy cheese turn green with alarming speed.)

THNX!

We don't want our cooking to be electrifying

mrbula — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:20:09 -0800

Our Proctor Silex crock pot made an unexpected visit to the sink--not just the internal cooking bowl, which is made to be washed, but the electric heating dish, and we're trying to decide whether it's safe to use it again. To our knowledge it wasn't fully submerged, but it did have water running over it now and then for well over a day. Do we need to throw it out? Has anyone else done this, and not been electrocuted when trying to use it later?

The safe answer is to throw it out, but we're really poor right now and would rather not have to replace it.

Are Elmira stoves good stoves, or do they just look good?

fiercecupcake — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:22:44 -0800

Is anyone familiar with Elmira stoves, especially the Northstar? My mother wants to know if they are anything special besides the obvious retro-charm appeal. My instinct is to tell her if she is going to spend this much to buy a Wolf, which is a fraction of the price. I think if the Elmiras are as well-performing as Wolfs or Vikings she might want one regardless of the cost. (I found this, but it's not quite what I'm looking for.) She wants a gas range and I think she is OK with a gas oven. The Elmiras just seem ridiculously expensive to me, and I used to love the Wolf ranges in professional kitchens. I just talked to her and she said the Elmiras sound too expensive to her, too. But she doesn't like stainless and finds that it tends to rust in their beachfront home.

Suggestions?

Where can I buy dryer components in New York City?

idledebonair — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:56:18 -0800

Where can I buy dryer components in New York City? I need new solenoids for my Whirlpool Dryer, where can I buy them in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens, today?

I like my coffee HOT-help me find my maker.

neilkod — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:35:36 -0800

Looking for a coffee maker with one important characteristic - the coffee must be HOT. Just hot won't cut it. The coffee needs to come out HOT. Help me find my maker. I've been through numerous coffee makers and none seem to brew/keep the coffee hot enough for our tastes. Mrs. neilkod and I love the 'so-hot-you-have-to-sip-it' coffee. Help us find the right coffee maker.

Bonus points for a pot that keeps the coffee super-hot for a little while, up to about 90 mins.

Microwave oven that doesn't beep?

flutable — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:26:53 -0800

Hi MeFi, does anyone know a brand/model of microwave oven that doesn't beep if you leave the food in it after the cooking is finished? Manufacturers' web sites never mention little, but important, things like this. It's for an office, and I don't want people driven insane if someone forgets to take their food out. There's nothing I hate more than nagging appliances!

My appliances are junk. My agent isn't helping. My head hurts.

kmennie — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:00:03 -0800

Bought house, with appliances. Dishwasher broken from get-go. Dryer quickly broke. Washer never worked well. Agent not particularly helpful. Long. The purchase agreement mentions all the appliances, and includes a note re.

"The SELLER represents and warrants that the fixtures and Chattels as included in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale will be in good working order and free from all liens and encumbrances on completion. The Parties agree that this representation and warranty shall survive and not merge on completion of this transaction, but apply only to the state of the property at completion of this transaction."

(Note: this is in Canada.) We knew the dishwasher was broken before we moved in; the seller was supposed to get it fixed. Didn't. She's a bit whiny; thinks she got taken advantage of by including the appliances (she had some thoroughly unrealistic opinions about the state of her house...), rang real early in the morning to tell me she wouldn't spend more than C$150, etc. The dishwasher is a 20-year-old rusty write-off, and we're in an area where it's $70 to get somebody out to just look at an appliance. $150 is not going to cover a working dishwasher, installation, and removal of the old one. I said she was welcome to get it repaired, get a decent used one installed, get a new one; whatever, just: do it, please. Nothing; it's been 2 mths.

The agent, who -- forgive me, here -- is also the seller's step-daughter; dual agency -- was helpful and apologetic at first; now, it's 'take the $150.'

The dryer made horrible noises from the get-go, and the washer has no working cycle beyond rip-yer-clothes-apart ultra-fast. I mentioned to the agent that they were both dodgy pretty soon after moving in; didn't really get a response. It became increasingly clear that the washer was junk, and the dryer finally broke down completely. Neither are in a state to make repairs worthwhile, and -- this not being an area with a laundromat -- we bought a new washer & dryer this weekend.

Agent re. dryer breaking, paraphrased: 'tough.'

I should stress that I don't expect a brand-new dishwasher for free; we did not buy a house with new appliances. I also don't expect to recover the entire cost of the rather nice front-loading washer I bought to replace the top-loading rattletrap. But something would be nice, and I'd rather it not take another two months.

Given less-than-helpful agent at this stage, what's my next step? How can I minimize the hassle? What're realistic expectations here? It seems clear to me that these chattels were NOT in 'good working order,' but does the agent have anything with the 'working when you moved in, so your problem' stance?

Sincere apologies for the length here...

Is voltage/frequency all I need to know to bring my appliances from Brazil to the US?

AnyGuelmann — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:16:39 -0800

Is voltage/frequency all I need to know to use my brazilian appliances in the US? I'm moving from Brazil to NYC. I have brand new appliances down here, including a top-of-the-line dish washer I have yet to use. I'm thinking I should bring them with me... but will I be able to use them?

Provided all the electricity/instalation issues are all right, I'm thinking I can sell the stuff I don't need in the US when I get there.

The appliances I have are: fridge with separate freezer, microwave, clothes washer, dish washer. Also minor stuff like blender, iron, fan, etc.

What do I need to know? This table says both the US and Brazil use 120 V/60 HZ. Is that all? Does this mean I can use my stuff over there?

On a related note, I'm assuming rental apartments in NYC come with microwave/stove/fridge. If that is indeed the case, do you think I will be able to sell mine in the US? Should I sell them down here before I move? Also, do most US fridges have a separate freezer on top?