Seems to be a lot of confusion about this among Grasshoppers. And lots of people have at least one major appliance on a GFI, usually the refrigerator on the kitchen GFI circuit. But most appliance manufacturers explicitly state that GFIs should not be used on appliances. For more info, see this topic in the Samurai Appliance Repair Forum.

Hello! Mrs. Samurai here to fill you in on a little-known ingredient to maximizing the effectiveness and longevity of your appliances – the right household products. The Samurai has been deep inside the innards of countless appliances over the years, and has seen a difference between those that are used with many of the common-brand detergents and those that are pampered with cleaners like the ones we use in our home. Our cleaners don’t leave any residue or grit in the appliances or piping, whereas a majority of other brands leave varying amounts of residue. The presence of this grit/residue causes excess wear-and-tear on many of the moving parts of washers and dishwashers, causing them to fail more quickly. In the case of washing machines, it’s also hard on your clothes.

There are lots of other advantages to the household products that we use. They are highly concentrated and thus very economical, they are human and pet friendly (hypoallergenic and nontoxic), and they are environmentally sound as well. Bottom line, though – they work great. And even better – they’ve just updated the products and put together a great Starter Kit to get you going. Click here to read more about your Appliance Care Kit!

The long-awaited Fall issue of our award-winning, official newsletter, Appliantology, the oracle of appliance enlightenment, has hit the Internet face-first and screaming. Hurry, download your FREE copy now before it gets all used up! You’ll be glad you did. 🙂

In case you missed the previous issues of Appliantology, you can peruse the archives. And if you want future issues delivered directly to your email, use the signup form below:

MESSAGE SENT THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE

This form was submitted: Sep 06 2006 / 22:47:34
by a visitor with this IP Address: 71.112.108.215

name = John

comments = Again want to thank you for your service. You have provided valuable help twice before oh wise one. I ‘am e-mailing instead of calling the hope that it is more convenient. I am a gen. cont. & helping my customer select appliances. Your last recommendation, that included Dacor gas cooktop, proved quite on the spot. Now its a refer, dishwasher.& stacked micro/oven unit. This humble student seeks your wisdom once again, Thank You again.

Hi, John, nice to hear from you. And since you’re a Live Help subscriber, you’re always welcome to call me– it’s not an intrusion.

As for for your questions…

Refrigerators: Whirlpool makes more than anyone else and has the most opportunity to get it right or to screw up. For the most part, they get it right.  Kitchenaid is their upline, some nice choices there. Amana is not a bad second choice. Avoid like the plague: Sub-(standard)-Zero, GE, and Frikkidaire.

Dishwashers There’s one and only one dishwasher I would recommend today: Miele. Anything else, including the Bosch, will be a troublesome machine. Overwhelmingly, the most common problems I see with the Miele are customer-induced. Get ready to shell out $2,000 but, hey, you get what you pay for… in this particular case.

As for the stacked micro/oven unit– OY! Do you really want to go this route? These are nightmares to work on. I honestly don’t know of any brand that’s better than the others. The usual ground rule applies:  avoid GE.

Just got back from two intensive days of technical training with Miele, a German appliance manufacturer. This was by far the most intensive field-factory training I’ve attended. The first day was dishwashers, washers, and dryers. The second day was ovens, steam ovens, convection/microwave ovens, and coffee brewer systems. The instructor, LeRoy O’Brien, even had us do pop quizzes each day and you had to make at least 70% or you flunked training!

All Miele appliances are designed and built in Germany. As you’d expect, they are very expensive but also very well designed and precision built. Most Miele products start at $2,000. Europeans have a whole different attitude about appliances– they expect their appliances to last forever and many people keep the same appliances their whole lives. In fact, when designing appliances, Miele engineers specify that components must have a 40 year life.

Compare and contrast that with the throw-away culture here in Ameedica. Just yesterday, someone called me and wanted me to come out on a 12-year old Frigidaire top loading washer that was leaking. I declined to schedule the call because, as I explained to the lady, it was a throw-away washer that she paid about $300 for and is simply not worth repairing. So, she happily went shopping for another $300 throw-away washer that will soon end up in a landfill.

For Americans, it’s all about cheap, cheap, cheap. When shopping for appliances, most people just look at price and features and never even consider longevity. And when their Sears special breaks down after just three years, they whine and moan that it costs $300 to fix a $500 piece of junk appliance, as if the price of buying a new appliance has anything to do with the costs of running a service call on it. If I go out on a $2,000 Miele washer or a $400 GE washer, my fixed and variable costs for running that call are exactly the same, regardless of the appliance. But many people have this goofy notion that if the appliance costs less, then the service call should cost less. No wonder appliance repair is a dying trade here in Ameedica.

This is why, in my service business, I’m increasingly scheduling service calls only on high-end appliances. I advise people who call with low-end appliances to come to Fixitnow.com and learn how to fix it themselves because it is simply not cost-effective, for them or me, to run a service call on low-end junk. I believe that appliance service companies who have built their business around fixing bottom-feeder models will soon go bankrupt unless they recognize these market dynamics and adapt to them.

The digital July edition of Appliance Design magazine has hit the web streets. If you’re into appliance technical esoterica, this magazine is for you. Done in a cool format, too; not a mere pdf file, this is a completely web-based, interactive experience. Awww, GEEK OUT!

MESSAGE SENT THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE

name = doctor rock
country = USA
comments = I’ve been in this field 8 years as an appliance tech and hvac, and this is the best site i;ve seen. thanks for all the help.The company i work fpr provides no training of any kind,and everything i know is by hands on figuring out stuff and osmosis. thanks again. p.s how do i make a beer cooler out of a fridge?

Domo for the good words, mah bruthah. What you describe is an epidemic problem in all the skilled traded. Companies are so strapped to find good appliance repair technicians that they’ve given up training them; instead, they’re simply training monkeys to change parts.

However, I’ve recently completed preliminary work on a new microchip implant that bypasses the need for appliance-specific training. It’s called the Appliantology 3000® Total Appliance Awareness Microchip Implant (TAAMI).

Since appliance servicers have access to so many homes and can immediately report suspicious activity, federal law now mandates that all appliance service personnel working in the trade as of January 2005 must recieve the TAAMI implant as part of our nation’s war against terror. All medical expenses for the procedure are paid for by Uncle Sam. You’ll be contacted by the Department of Homeland Security in the next couple of months about arranging your surgery.

Remember, together we appliance techs are the bulwark of Democracy standing against the tyranny of those who hate our freedoms!

P.S. As for turning a fridge into a beer cooler, well, that’s kinda redundant– a fridge IS a beer cooler, some folks just choose to store other stuff in there. If you’re interested in converting a beer cooler into a keg cooler, this topic in the kitchen forum may illumine you.