August 21, 2020
Dear Everyone:
Some weeks ago, I was placing an item in the
dishwasher. Whatever it was,
it had some water on it, or in it; because when I put the item on the
top rack and pushed the rack back inside the dishwasher, I heard a
distinct splash.
I thought:
“Splash? Why would it
go ‘splash’?”
I discovered that the bottom portion of the
dishwasher was filled with water, even though I hadn’t run the thing in
several days. I started the
“Rinse Only” cycle, which caused the machine to swoosh the water around
for several minutes, then pump the water out.
And that was that.
For the time being.
Last Tuesday, I walked out into the kitchen
first thing in the morning and wondered, “Why does my foot feel sticky?”
That’s when I realized that my foot wasn’t so much “sticky” as it
was “wet”. Because I had
just stepped in a puddle of water, in front of the dishwasher.
Upon investigation, I realized that the machine
had once again filled up with water, without my having run it for
several days; and this time, there was enough water to leak out onto the
floor. This was because the
door was left partially open.
We all know what this means:
Time for a new dishwasher.
Of course, I could have called a repair
service. I even have the
magnet that I got from a pretty good repair service that I’ve used in
the past, with phone number and all.
But did it make sense to spend hundreds of dollars for a repair
when I had already decided it was time to replace the dishwasher, along
with the other kitchen appliances, this year anyway?
It did not.
Same thing with the refrigerator.
The automatic ice maker stopped working around the first of the
year. Again, I could have
called a repairperson. But I
was planning on replacing the fridge this year as well.
In the meantime, I could just buy a bag of ice
at the supermarket and pour its contents into the ice dispenser.
However, I discovered that the bagged ice tended to be in small
enough pieces to clog the chute in the dispenser, which allowed the
clogged ice to slowly melt out through the dispenser onto the floor.
Again, wet floor.
I also realized that, while I was paying for a
new water filter several times each year, without the automatic ice
maker, I wasn’t getting that much use out of the (rather expensive)
filters. So I found some
plastic ice cube trays which I could fill with pre-chilled, filtered,
water from the dispenser in the fridge.
They made ice in record time, but also took up most of a shelf in
the freezer. It was
definitely a temporary solution.
I knew the exact age of each of the appliances
because they were all installed in 2005.
That was when a developer bought the entire apartment complex and
began converting them all to condominiums.
To encourage sales, the developer remodeled the kitchens and
baths with the latest in “granite” countertops and “satin nickel”
hardware. And the cheapest
set of appliances they could get at volume-discounted prices.
The refrigerator is a few years younger because
I got it when I bought the condo.
The fridge in my previous place was too big to fit in the space
between the counter and the wall.
That makes this fridge over eleven years old, so it will last a
few years more. Unless I get
tired of making ice.
As for the dishwasher, the current situation
simply knocked it up to the top of the Priority List.
In the past, I would have gone to a place like
Sears, but they’re mostly only online businesses these days.
When I buy an appliance, I like to be able to see it, touch it,
look inside of it.
Otherwise, I might as well buy it from Amazon.
So “Jeannie” and I went to a very large,
family-owned appliance showroom Wednesday afternoon.
The company has been in business for nearly 100 years, so I felt
reasonably confident that it would feature reliable machines.
If things go well, I’ll be coming back in the near future for a
range and built-in microwave oven.
We found a salesman fairly quickly, explained
that we wanted a quality dishwasher, and I quoted him a budget set
several hundred dollars lower than I was willing to pay.
We looked at various models.
Then the salesman explained that most of the
ones I might want to have installed were unavailable for a month or
more, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
That’s because many manufacturers, in order to keep their
factories open, have had to limit the number of employees to about half
the usual contingent.
Keeping everyone six feet apart, installing plastic or plexiglass
dividers between work stations, etc.
The bottom line was that most manufacturers were several months
behind in their deliverables.
Ultimately, we decided on a Miele model
because:
Miele makes a very good product*
I liked the features
It was exactly one dollar below my stated
budget
It could be delivered and installed within
about a week
(*During our weekly Wild & Woolly Wood Women
Zoom Meeting the next day, both “Frankie” and “Alice” enthusiastically
endorsed the Miele line of products.)
While the salesman and I processed the
necessary paperwork, I sent “Jeannie” off to investigate refrigerators,
specifying side-by-side fridge and freezer and automatic ice maker.
She came back a bit later crowing about the magnificent “wine
cave” she had found.
Evidently, this was a large space done up as a “cave”, filled with
specialized refrigerators designed to hold only bottles of wine.
Not exactly what I was looking for.
But there’s time for that.
The new dishwasher is scheduled to be installed
next Thursday. In the
meantime, I’m keeping the current dishwasher’s door tightly closed, to
keep any errant water inside.
And some old hand towels arranged in front of it, just in case.
Love, as always,
Pete
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