This is just like winning a new appliance in retroactively. All you need to do is register your GE appliance, and you will be automatically entered in a monthly drawing for $2500 from GE. The contest lasts until October 2009 and winners will be awarded a check for the full amount. You can enter the appliances you already own, no new purchases required. Just use the GE online registration or follow the instructions on their website.
Dryers
Haier’s Compact Dryer
Last month we wrote here at appliance.net about Haier’s portable, compact washing machine. For those of you who trek regularly to a laundromat, and have a small space to store one, check out that story. If you’ve already made up your mind that a compact washer is just what you need, Haier has the dryer to go with it.
This compact electric dryer has a 2.6 cubic foot interior and can be mounted to any wall. Just be sure you have an electrical outlet nearby. It has three temperature settings, delicate, heavy and normal along with an air-dry option.
The portable washer and dryer are not stackable, but the washer can be placed beneath the wall mounted dryer to create a similar spacesaving configuration.
This dryer retails for about $270.
Appliances Don’t Last a Lifetime, Neither Does the Warranty
It used to be, back in our parents and grandparents time, that a large appliance was a once in a lifetime purchase. The white, round cornered refrigerator in your great-Aunt’s kitchen was the one she got for Christmas the first year she was married and it was the only one she ever needed.
Boy have times, and appliances changed. Today, you might get nine years out of your dishwasher and microwave, ten from your washer, and if you’re lucky thirteen out of your dryer and refrigerator. We’ve detailed the average lifespan in this article if you’d like find out about a specific appliance.
The other issue today is the reduced warranties that the manufacturers are now providing. Gone are the extended warranties on components. Now one year is all that is being given. Not only that, but the service from these manufacturers has declined as well.
Hometownlife.com reports that a reader called to report that her 12-year-old dishwasher ran all night. Her husband turned it on when they went to bed around 10 p.m., and when she walked into the kitchen at 7 a.m., it was still running. She opened the door and the blast of heat was like opening an oven door. She called the manufacturer who sent out a service technician who couldn’t tell her why the dishwasher didn’t shut off. The manufacturer then told her they couldn’t do a thing for her because it was well out of warranty and besides that, they told her the average life span of the dishwasher was six years. They offered her $50 towards the purchase of a new dishwasher provided it was their brand.
Although the dishwasher was not new, one should expect that it would at the least run safely and that the response from the manufacturer would be more helpful.
Here’s a second situation:
“I am having a problem with my Jenn Air oven. It is a double oven. It is also a convection oven. It was manufactured in 1996. The past two nights the bottom oven has been turning on by itself. This morning the bottom oven broiler was on. I called Jenn Air and a service tech is coming out. Jenn Air will pay for the diagnosis but says that the oven is no longer under warranty.”
A person’s home is their haven; they should feel safe there. Do we have to lie awake at night wondering whether the oven is going to turn itself on and set the house afire? An appliance should enhance and simplify your life, not add to your list of worries and stresses.
DryerMiser Promises to Cut Dryer Energy Use in Half
Here’s an interesting new twist on the clothes dryer:
A device that says it can cut dryer energy use and reduce drying time has passed safety tests and will be available this year.
The DryerMiser, developed by Hydromatic Technologies Corporation, changes the way the air inside dryers gets heated up. By using heated fluid instead of a gas flame or electric heating elements, the DryerMiser halves how much energy a dryer needs and can dry loads in 41 percent less time that typical dryers.
The device has recently passed tests by product safety certification organization Underwriters Laboratory (UL). Although the Underwriters Laboratory mark is not required for equipment put on the market, it shows consumers and companies that a product has met certain standards.
The DryerMiser will first be available as a $300 conversion kit that takes about an hour for a trained service provider to install, and the company says it is in talks with appliance makers to integrate it into new dryers.
Hydromatic Technologies also hopes its device will help put in place Energy Star standards for dryers. Although clothes washers can carry the Energy Star label, Energy Star does not label clothes dryers, it says, “because most dryers use similar amounts of energy, which means there is little difference in the energy use between models.”
This comes from GreenBiz,com if you want to visit them, click here.
Extend the Life of Your Appliances
One of the easiest ways to extend the life of your appliance is with some preventative maintenance. Don’t spend your hard earned money on new appliances when applying some of these simple tips can keep your laundry, kitchen and small appliances running smoothly.
Washing machine – Make sure this is set up on an even flat surface. Unbalanced machines cause uneven distribution of wash loads and may cause the appliance to “walk” or move little by little, which can eventually damage the barrel.
Don’t load your wash to above the maximum capacity. Every six months, check the hose for leaks and kinks, and replace promptly if needed as cracked hoses waste water. Periodically clean the lint screen by turning it inside out and washing it with soap and warm water to eliminate buildups. Check the hose vent for clogs.
Refrigerator – After delivery of a new refrigerator, wait at least eight to 10 hours before plugging in. Let the Freon settle down first. If you live in areas where electricity fluctuates, protect your fridge with an auto-voltage regulator (AVR).
Twice a year, clean the condenser coils located either at the back (for older models) or the front (newer models have grills that cover the coils near the bottom) of your refrigerator.
When defrosting freezers, never scrape ice from the walls to avoid damaging the appliance. Merely it turn off and remove all the food. Clean the refrigerator’s interior while you’re at it. To check the gasket, close the door on a piece of paper and pull. If it easily slides out, it’s time to replace the seal.
Air conditioner – Always follow the rule of starting the unit in fan setting for a minimum of three minutes before turning it up to high-cool to avoid overworking the compressor. Sustain airflow by cleaning the filter monthly with soapy water and a soft toothbrush. Wipe the exterior with a damp cloth and remove all debris from the central air unit to maximize air current.
Electric fan – Once a week, remove and clean the blade and grills. If you are adept at dismantling things, you can remove the shaft and apply industrial grease/oil to postpone wear and tear of the bushing parts. Let the grease dry for about three hours before using the unit again so the oil won’t enter the motor.
Television and DVD player– Avoid placing the TV near a window where splashes of rain could damage the circuits. Wipe the exterior with a damp cloth. Clean DVD players using a commercial disk cleaner once a month and remember to wipe CDs thoroughly with a soft, non-abrasive cloth before playing. Take good care of the remote controls as well.
Microwave – Never put any metals inside and don’t let splattered food stay inside for long. Use only microwavable dishes for heating. Before cleaning, heat a cup of water with a teaspoon of baking soda in a bowl for three minutes. This makes it easy to wipe off all sticky food particles with a sponge or soft cloth right after. Don’t forget to clean the door gasket too.
Rice cooker – Dry the bottom of the pot before putting it over the hot plate every time you cook rice. Position the cooker on a flat, even surface. Clean up any overflow on the sides right after cooking.
Electric air pot – Always boil water at the correct water level. Avert or remove hard water deposits by pouring pure white vinegar just above the water stain. Boil in one cycle, leave overnight, then clean as usual. Remind members of the family to gently press on the controls so as not to damage the pads.
It may take some extra effort, but you’ll find the both savings and the piece of mind of knowing everything is running smoothly are worth it. You can read more here.
Haier’s Portable Washing Machine
If you lack space at home for a full size washer, and are tired of having huge dry cleaning bills, or lugging pounds of washing back and forth to the laundromat, here’s a small product with the answer to big laundry problems. A portable washing machine. These compact units hold less than full size washers, but they do they same job.
Haier makes three styles of portable washing machines. These little numbers claim to do the work of the larger machines while taking up very little space in your home. They are recommended for apartments as well as houses. These units don’t require a dedicated laundry room, they plug into any standard wall unit and the hoses attach to any faucet. The catch is that you must move (drag, tug, maneuver) the unit into place by a sink.
Haier’s three units are sized 1.0 cubic feet, 1.46 cu. ft. and 1.7 cu. ft. and come with up to four water level settings and a variety of wash settings including delicate. Only the 1.7 cu.ft. model has bleach and fabric softener dispensers.
We found them to retail for between $180 to $280.
Haier also makes a matching set of dryers for these models. Look for more on them here at appliance.net.
Appliance Manufacturers are Aiming at Boomers
What’s next? The Baby Boom generation is everywhere. As a child of the 60’s I’ve often had mixed emotions towards them – annoyance at how much attention they get combined with gratitude that they cause so many changes that I will benefit from in the future. One of those changes is happening now in the appliance manufacturing business. As boomers age, they are increasingly staying in their own homes and have the income to modify those homes accordingly. Appliance manufacturers want to get a piece of that. According to the Wall Street Journal, changes are being made.
In the kitchen, General Electric Co. is designing ovens with easier-to-open doors and automatic shut-off burners. A joint venture of Germany’s Bosch and Siemens AG has introduced a glass cook top for its premium Thermador brand designed to prevent boil-overs. Minnesota-based Truth Hardware reports booming sales for its remote-controlled window motors.
“This population is far more demanding and will refocus designers” on individual consumers, says Joe Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab, which studies design and engineering for an aging population.
Among appliance makers, Whirlpool Corp. has long tested products with potential customers who are deaf, blind or arthritic. The testing with arthritis patients helped prod the Benton Harbor, Mich., appliance maker to offer pedestals that raise the height of washing machines and clothes dryers for customers with back problems.
Whirlpool
A pedestal beneath this Whirlpool dryer reduces stooping when removing laundry.
Whirlpool also offers washing machines with large knobs that make louder-than-usual noise when they’re set, for customers with limited vision or arthritis. “It’s not one of those little prissy knobs,” says spokeswoman Audrey Reed-Granger. One model introduced last year plays musical chimes to indicate washing temperature or other features.
At GE’s consumer and industrial headquarters in Louisville, Ky., designers use “empathy sessions” to help develop new refrigerators, stoves and dishwashers. Industrial-design intern Joanie Jochamowitz, 22, wraps her knuckles with athletic tape and wears blue rubber gloves to simulate arthritis. She shoves cotton balls in her ears to simulate hearing loss, dons special glasses to simulate macular degeneration and puts dried corn kernels in her loafers to simulate aches and pains. She grabs a walker. Then she tries to peel potatoes.
“I don’t want to get old,” she says, as she hobbles around the kitchen, fumbling with potato peelers and stove controls, and nearly spilling a pot of boiling water.
GE began the empathy sessions last year so its young designers could better appreciate how consumers use appliances. “When you’ve got designers that are 25 or 30 years old, it’s very hard for them to understand what someone in their 60s or 70s experiences,” says Kim Freeman, a spokeswoman for GE Appliances.
The company also arranges focus groups where consumers cook a meal in a GE model kitchen while staffers watch through cameras and one-way mirrors. And GE videotapes appliance users in their homes. The summaries from these tapes are used in brainstorming sessions about design changes.
“We note what they are doing. We see if those behaviors happen more than once and why,” says Marc Hottenroth, industrial design leader for GE’s Consumer and Industrial unit.
These efforts have prompted several changes in GE product designs, including brighter LED lighting that improves visibility inside new models, such as one with a French-door refrigerator atop a bottom freezer. This year, GE introduced a single-wall oven with two cooking spaces that can operate at different temperatures. Its research shows boomers cook and entertain more frequently and like the two-ovens-in-one concept. Some models can be raised off the ground for easier access. “You don’t have to reach in as far,” says Ms. Freeman. She says it prevents people from stooping awkwardly, losing their balance and burning themselves on the hot stove.
GE has new dishwashers and washing machines that allow users to put in an entire bottle of detergent a few times a year rather than a smaller amount for every load. The machines are designed to reduce confusion and make housework less of a chore, particularly for older consumers.
GE
At an ’empathy session,’ members of a GE product-development team tape their knuckles to simulate impaired dexterity.
Appliance manufacturers hope these design changes will buoy revenue. Sales and profits in the U.S. appliance industry are down this year because of the housing bust, the stock-market slide and the economic slowdown. But for the long term, the appliance industry expects big returns because of baby boomers and hopes of a housing rebound.
Maytag’s “Commercial Grade” Washers and Dryers
Whirlpool, the owner of Maytag is emphasizing the “commercial-grade elements and technology” found in its residential laundry products as it promotes its Performance, Bravos, Centennial and Epic Z series of washers and dryers.
Models in these lines are said to feature a variety of features typically found in commercial-grade laundry products, such as commercial-grade stainless-steel wash baskets, five-rib dryer belts for longer life and quieter operation, and solid-steel base frames and hung suspension systems intended to reduce vibration.
Maytag’s Performance series washers offer a wash-basket capacity of 4.4 cubic feet; the Bravos washer is said to offer the brand’s largest wash-basket capacity of 4.7 cubic feet.
Both platforms feature load sensors that can adjust the water level and temperature, steam technology, a “GentleBreeze” system that dries clothes in the same amount of time it takes to wash them, and an “IntelliDry” feature that senses when clothes are dry to reduce the risk of over-drying and shrinking.
The Epic Z’s standout feature is its space-saving design that allows it to be stacked in tighter spaces. The washer measures just 36 inches high by 27 inches wide and 30.5 inches deep while still providing 3.7 cubic feet of wash-basket space.
Should You Fix the Old Appliance or Buy a New One?
It’s a common question – when your appliance needs repairs is better to fix it or start looking for a new one? Often fixing the broken appliance can take days or even weeks if the parts are not available. A new one can often be purchased and installed within hours. But is buying a new appliance the right choice?
“We surveyed 13-thousand of our subscribers, covering more than 20-thousand broken products, and plenty of them had complaints about the repairs they got,” said Celia Kuperszmid-Lehrman from Consumer Reports.
The biggest problems were with electric cooktops and wall ovens.
“The parts were very difficult to find and the repairs often took two weeks or more to get done,” said Kupersmid-Lehrman.
When it comes to dryers, washers, and other larger appliances, the survey showed people have much better luck using an independent shop once the warranty is up, rather than a factory-authorized service center.
But Consumer Reports says sometimes an appliance just isn’t worth fixing.
“You should replace it if the repair is going to cost more than half the price of a new model.” said Kupersmid-Lehrman.
Additionally, Consumer Reports says that it is not necessary to buy an extended warranty, as the cost for repairs, if needed will likely be about the same as the cost of the warranty.
Energy Star Might Not be Such a Star
Most consumers who are shopping for a new, energy efficient appliance know to look for the Blue EnergyStar label. The Energy Star label alerts shoppers to supposedly very energy efficient appliances. Many appliances also have a yellow energy guide label. That label tells shoppers specifically how much energy they can save by buying that particular appliance.
Buying an efficient appliance really can help save money by saving energy. Over the past five years, the nation has saved over $61 billion according to the Web site EnergyStar.gov. That translates to a reduction of greenhouse gases equal to taking half the country’s vehicles off the roads for one year.
There’s a problem though, according to Business Week, consumer and environmental groups say it’s often too easy for companies to win the right to display the star. According to descriptions from the Department of Energy (DOE), which manages the Energy Star appliance program, the coveted logo should ideally appear on dishwashers, refrigerators, and other appliances that score in the top 25% for energy efficiency in their categories. But in 2007 some 60% of all dishwasher models on the market qualified, the DOE says. The year before, 92% of them hit the mark. “If the DOE gives Energy Star to everyone, eventually it’s worthless,” says David B. Goldstein, a director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
NO INDEPENDENT AUDITS
This past summer the nonprofit Consumers Union complained that some companies were gaming the system. Its testing labs discovered that two refrigerators—one from Samsung and one from LG Electronics—displayed the logos but only measured up if their icemakers were switched off. When the icemakers were on, the machines exceeded the power consumption stated on their Energy Star labels by 65% and by more than 100%, respectively. “Consumers don’t buy a fridge with this sort or feature to leave it off,” says Steven Saltzman, a deputy editor at Consumer Reports. It turned out that when the refrigerator rule was revised in 2001 and 2004, the icemaking feature was rare for this type of model, and there was no requirement to turn it on during the tests. Spokespeople from both LG and Samsung say the companies are in full compliance with DOE standards.
Critics also gripe that there is no independent auditor for appliance testing. The DOE can spot-check products, but it mainly relies on companies to test rivals’ wares and to complain if something looks fishy. Such complaints are rare—and it’s not just consumers who suffer. Federal and state governments require the Energy Star for billions of dollars of purchases each year. Last month, Texas offered a statewide sales-tax-free day for Energy Star goods. If the mark loses credibility, that could weaken official efforts to improve efficiency.
Until this issue is resolved, read those yellow labels carefully, the fact that an appliance carries the Energy Star label no longer seems to mean that it meets the highest standards of efficiency.