I Hate Appliances
Specifically, I hate modern appliances. Why? Because one tiny thing breaks and it ends up costing a ton of money. For example, our stove, which we bought a long time ago, only lasted one year (just past the warranty) before some tiny piece of plastic inside the doohickey behind one of the knobs broke, and suddenly you couldn’t turn off one of the burners. It was always on. Thankfully it was a back burner, and Maya wasn’t a little child, and we would just turn off the power to the stove when we weren’t using it, but yeah, not good.
The fridge has had myriad issues. The door compartment, where you put condiments and so on, is cheap plastic and has broken TWICE. There is nowhere to go buy the new part locally, you have to order it online and wait. Twice in the last two years, something (two different things, btw) have broken, both of which have the symptom of cold freezer, warm fridge. Not OK, and not 2x in 2 years.
Most recently, the touchpad ‘start’ button on the dishwasher went out, meaning I could not turn on the dishwasher. I do understand that this is a first world problem, but it made me mad, and also made me wish we had kept our old eyesore of a dishwasher, which had a knob that you turned rather than a stupid touch pad. Though perhaps that would have died by now as well. So I looked online to see what the issue might be, discovered it was the control panel, watched a YouTube about how to replace that, got scared because it looked pretty technical, and called a repair guy. He seemed knowledgeable, and looked online to find the replacement part. He said the part was maybe $150, and the labor would be about $150, so we said, “oh forget it”, and bought a new, I’m sure equally stupid, dishwasher. Not exactly how I wanted to spend the money. I guess I could have just bought a dish rack for the counter and gone all old school, but we’d likely end up buying a new one at SOME POINT, so we may as well bite the proverbial bullet now. Sigh.
6 Comments
nance
You know what I’m going to ask.
WERE ANY OF THEM A FRIGIDAIRE?!?! (AKA–THE GREAT SATAN!?!)
Sigh. My deepest sympathies. Rick, the day after Thanksgiving, said when he first got up, “Well, we made it through the first holiday with all the appliances intact. Now, let’s see if we get through Christmas.” Our Appliance History is well-documented over at the Dept.
Bless your heart. I hope your new Stupid Dishwasher proves worthy of your trust. For a few years, anyway.
J
Nance, the stupid stove is a Frigidaire. We bought it around the time we were thinking of selling our house, 2007. We both wanted a gas stove, but there is not a gas hook up, so we went with electric, thinking ‘who cares, we’re moving’. If we had known we would not move, we would have spent the money to have the gas hook up. It wouldn’t be TOO much, as the water heater isn’t TOO far away. A couple of hundred dollars more. We were just talking about the stove, and I was dreaming of buying a new one, a gas stove, but now that money will go to the stupid dishwasher, which is basically a newer version of the stupid one we have now, but with fewer options (OK, since we don’t really use those options). Maybe in a year or so…right now, the focus is on paying for college and getting by. And saving for a trip for the three of us to France next May. I KNOW! So exciting. We haven’t planned any of it yet. Maya graduates in May, and Ted and I will celebrate our 25th anniversary next July, so it seems like a good time to get a little spendy.
Ted
Appliances aren’t made to last like they used to be. The new dishwasher will probably last a decade (like this one), so maybe old school dish rack may be the way to go. Okay, maybe not. I do like having a dishwasher, but I have noticed our drinking glasses look more sparkly since we’ve been hand washing them…
J
I think that may be the generic dish soap. 😉
OmbudsBen
OMG it drives me crazy how often an appliance breaks and it’s doubtless some little two bit part inside the thing that can’t be accessed and means landfill waste for 99.99% of it, which works just fine, before buying a new appliance. It’s so resource inefficient and all in the name of corporate profit!
We wash many dishes and gradually fill the dishwasher as efficiently as possible, running it only when full. And hoping that this one doesn’t break down, too.
J
I know, that’s exactly how I feel. One tiny little sensor in the control panel, and we decided to get a new dishwasher. It was almost the same amount of money, and with the stupid dishwasher, we worried that something else would break next. Ugh.
I feel like a grumpy old man. “They just don’t make things the way they used to!” “Get off my lawn!”