Random Rant Thread (no moto content)

Dishwasher pics?

Here's mine:

Gotta say, it's been pretty damn reliable over the years.

Just buy another brand and rip the labels off the turd you want to junk then glue the tags on the new Bosch or whatever.

EricV said:

More appliance fun. GE Dishwasher died for the third time in 8 months. This time it's a control board, so time for a new unit. . . . . Oh, in stock doesn't mean HERE, it's at the Distribution Center,

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I too used to be a GE fan. USED TO BE. The last GE product I had was a clothes washer. Same thing, circuit board. One fixed under warranty, the second one. . . . not fixed. Repairman had told me the circuit board was $200+. The washer was only $300 to start with.

Apparently, stores are not actually stocking merchandise at individual stores. An O'Reilly's auto parts store showed an item in stock at my local store. Went to the store, and tried to locate the item. THAT store had never stocked the item, but they could order it. . . .

I'm with Mr. thughes. . . . but, my sponge is loaded with Dawn. Extremely reliable.

Wow. deja vu. My lady bought a new house a month ago (we live close to each other and keep two) and it came with a home warranty. The 2nd night sleeping there the GE clothes dryer came on in the middle of the night all by itself, so it got named Christine. (after a car in a horror movie) Home warranty people were absolutely worthless, in that they'd send a service guy in a week +, and every one of the 88 online reviews says the company is absolutely worthless. They drag out the appointments, then drag out parts, etc for as long as they can, knowing at some point people will just get fed up and buy a new machine. After a few days and before their guy ever came I trouble-shot it myself, found an intermittently faulty $4 switch, and life's gone on. Screw the service company and we got to keep the $100 deductible fee. btw - We found that the main customer for this repair company is Lowes in this region, doing their extended appliance warranties.

Fast forward to Sunday when the side by side fridge decided to not cool on the fridge side and has been frosting up only the day after each time we defrost it and it works. Pretty fridge and fairly new but again a GE. Once again, we are back to the same home warranty company. We'll see how this goes but if they don't step up I'm just going to do it myself again. Probably not the compressor or a leak because it works for short periods. My guess from using online troubleshooting guides and knowing a little air conditioning is it'll be a bad $12 thermistor.

But what a pain and there is no way I'll ever pay money for one of the home warranties or extended appliance warranties.

If I was single, you can bet the dishwasher wouldn't see much use. (It didn't a decade ago when I was single) But I'm married and we have a service for 10. For the last couple of weeks plus we could have gotten by with a service for two, since we wash everything right after using it.

Went down to Lowes and the supervisor wanted nothing to do with me and blew me off to another sales guy. I think he got an ear full when he originally paged her, a second time, before she responded. She, the supervisor, knew full well what was up. And since this over selling is a long time Lowes habit across all stores, usually with an attempt to upsell when they can't get what you bought originally, I don't think she wanted to deal with me.

New sales guy put up a mild fight, but in the end I got a comparable DW that is arguably a better product. Kitchenaid that retailed about the same, but was more expensive from sale price to sale price. My argument of a comparable unit to what I purchased was successful and they had 165 of the KAs in stock, so I should have it installed next week.

@Checkswrecks - The only home warranties I've had were ones someone else paid for when we bought a house. And yes, pretty worthless unless it is something really major like roof or HVAC. GE seems to be on the four year plan of planned obsolescence right now. I read a lot of reviews where a 10-20 year old DW was replaced with a new GE, only to have the new GE die or break with in a few years and get tossed by 4.

Oh, I forgot the rest of the story with my GE washer. Went and bought a used Kenmore. The repairman had told me that Kenmore was still building "old school". Said he could repair whatever broke on one. So, for $125, I've had the washer for about seven years. Still haven't had to have the repairman back yet. As far as refrigerators? He said compressors are good for about 5-7 years. Had a Maytag fridge/freezer. At the five year mark. . . . replaced the compressor. . . . $500. Five years later. . . . guess what? But, now he tells me that since the unit is 10 years old, he would recommend replacing the compressor, because now, the rest of the unit is 10 years old and should probably be replaced. At least he didn't take another $500 knowing that something else would soon fail. Now, I have a Whirlpool fridge/freezer. It's coming up on five years old. . . .

What's up with Frigidaire? Everytime the frig starts, you hear the lines from the compressor knocking. The last apartment I had, they went through 4 different ones, and they all did that. Now with this house I bought last year, it has a Frigidaire, and it does it.

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but most appliances are getting very hard to find around here (east central Wisconsin). Good luck trying to find a refrigerator, freezer or dehumidifier, even TVs are getting hard to find in stock. One salesman blamed the tariffs another blamed the coronavirus. The tariffs added at least $100 to refrigerators and freezers. People hoarding food probably accounts for the shortages too. The housing market around here is absolutely crazy. People are standing in line to buy houses. I suppose they need new appliances.

Anyhow, I have had pretty good luck doing my own repairs on our appliances. There are lots of utube videos out there with some pretty good troubleshooting tips. I can usually find the repair parts online or at Amazon.

magic said:

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but most appliances are getting very hard to find around here (east central Wisconsin). Good luck trying to find a refrigerator, freezer or dehumidifier, even TVs are getting hard to find in stock. One salesman blamed the tariffs another blamed the coronavirus. The tariffs added at least $100 to refrigerators and freezers. People hoarding food probably accounts for the shortages too. The housing market around here is absolutely crazy. People are standing in line to buy houses. I suppose they need new appliances.

Anyhow, I have had pretty good luck doing my own repairs on our appliances. There are lots of utube videos out there with some pretty good troubleshooting tips. I can usually find the repair parts online or at Amazon.

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I've read a number of articles about the reality of what the Administration's tariffs have done and you hit the two recurring bottom lines. (1) WE are paying higher prices and since the supply chain emptied, especially with COVID, (2) WE now have all sorts of shortages. The local Lowes stores in our area have now run out of the cheap Chinese brushes that I use to do fiberglass work, and that was after they increased the price by 20 cents. West Marine has also run out of some of the stainless hardware that sailboats depend on. A friend who runs a boat repair business has customers with big expensive boats out of the water because they can't find $10 parts that are made in China.

Pisses me off and trying to just relate facts.

I'm thinking the bug is the biggest problem. Plants shut down because of it, in China & US. There's shortages on weird stuff, like Vernor's Ginger ale. No tariff there, just the bug shutting down the US plant. DiGiorno "pan" pizza. . . . might come from China, but I doubt it. . . . everybody is out of stock on it. I read an article about the disinfectant wipes shortage. Manufacturers only make "X" amount of a product per year. So, when the bug hit, so did the demand, and the ensuing shortage. The article said in addition to high demand. . . . most of the wipes are made in China. . . . which causes shipping delays even after production ramps back up.

One thing that the bug is having a positive effect on? Vehicles. I can't believe how many manufacturers are advertising 0% for 72-84 months. (yes, there is some fine print going on, but still)

I would love everything to go back to "normal". . . . but, I think this maybe the new, and permanent, "normal".

I had to replace a Fridgidaire dehumidifier that crapped out recently. It was under warranty and they were supposed to replace it. After sending in all the pictures and documentation, they told me that they did not have any in stock and had no idea when they would be in stock. They sent me a prepaid debit card for the purchase amount. That would be fine if I could actually find one to buy. The only ones that I could find locally were at a Menards building supply store. It was from some off brand Chinese manufacturer. We'll see how long this one lasts. This new normal sucks.

Sierra1 said:

I would love everything to go back to "normal". . . . but, I think this maybe the new, and permanent, "normal".

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I hear you and think we are indeed in the new normal for a year or so till inflation kicks in because of all the new debt.

Things are going to get ugly when that happens. My kids own their own houses and the son and DIL think they will be able to move any time they want. They just don't understand when I talk about how home prices tanked and nobody could sell when our mortgages went into the teens. My daughter is money smart and trying to sell before whatever wild card hits after the election, which is why I've been working so hard to help with her kitchen renovation. We've gone from this:


To so far this and counters are next:

Aren't you the busy little beaver. My projects are much smaller.

magic said:

I had to replace a Fridgidaire dehumidifier that crapped out recently. . . . It was from some off brand Chinese manufacturer. We'll see how long this one lasts. This new normal sucks.

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Of course you know. . . . it's very likely the exact same product. They're re-badging everything.

Sierra1 said:

Aren't you the busy little beaver. My projects are much smaller.

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Actually, with the kids needing to work and no providers we'd use, a lot of my time now goes to my new business called Grand Daddy Day Care. Haven't been to work my boat in weeks.

My DIL has a bun in the oven. I've already been informed that I'll be watching Sparticus. . . . or Sparticette, and the big sister. You're never too young to learn the intimate details of a hammer drill.

While I'm being told the deal is done on the electronic side, I have yet to be able to get any paperwork saying I'm receiving the KA instead of the GE. I'm a little worried that the slack jawed sales lackeys are going to drop the ball for a second time. When I agreed to 'exchange' the non-available GE for the available KA, there were 165 "in stock" at the distribution center. The next day when I went to check and attempt to get some paperwork, there were 110. At that rate, I'm already screwed if they didn't actually place a stocking order from the DC last week. I don't get how Lowes hasn't been sued with a class action suit already for over selling and bait/switch, etc. You can't sell products you don't actually have control over and just get away with it forever.

As has become usual, they say they will call me when I can get paperwork, and no one calls. I'll be back down there on Monday again to try and get actual paperwork confirming my new DW is correct and coming. I'll be more than pissed if they then tell me they are out of stock on the KA I agreed to take in lieu of the GE. At that point it's time for them to shell out a debit card to the tune of what it will cost me to buy the GE or KA at Best Buy and have it installed.

So, to put this as delicately, and politically correct as possible. Why are we, society in general, worrying about slavery that occurred 155+/- years ago. . . . when we have slavery occurring in the here & now? Human trafficking is a very real problem, and growing, and not going away. And, yet we (society) never hear about it. If/when a person is rescued, are they going to receive a reparations check? I mean, they are the actual person that endured the slavery, not a great, great, great grandchild of the enslaved person.

Sierra1 said:

So, to put this as delicately, and politically correct as possible. Why are we, society in general, worrying about slavery that occurred 155+/- years ago. . . . when we have slavery occurring in the here & now?

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I suppose because slavery reparations are driven by the entitlement crowd, not by any real desire to do something positive about a real crisis. I don't think that's truly society in general, it's just being pushed by a vocal minority made up of entitlement and overly repentant thinkers. No one alive had anything to do with Black slavery in America or any other Western Country.

OTOH, child marriage and current slavery continue to go on all over the world and most people just put their blinders on if they haven't been directly exposed to it. Kind of like CV-19...
I did a bad thing.

Being in the DC/Baltimore area means people I know are from a number of backgrounds, including some pretty poor blacks. I've never met anybody expecting or asking for slave reparations and as EricV wrote, if something like that makes the news it would be because it's the equivalent of "man bites dog."

Modern slavery though is absolutely rampant and people just don't choose to see it. Where I do see it somewhat regularly is in the illegal immigrant community. They are the gardners and cleaners and nannies around here and are too scared to leave out of fear their "employer" who pays them a few dollars an hour will turn in not just them, but everybody they live with. It's open blackmail.