new appliances

I'm sure I blogged about my dryer woes from last year. On Saturday, the dryer stopped working again. I knew it was time to look for a new unit.

Thanks to Stephanie, I was able to check out Consumer Reports. I was shocked at the cost of new dryers. When and why did they get so expensive? I picked out 5 middle of the road unit to look at. I planned on checking them out and purchasing a new dryer on Sunday.

I went to Famous Tate first. I still had not heard from them regarding Andy's bed. I told them that and Ricardo said it would be taken of.

We looked at dryers. We looked at scratch & dent but the only dryers they had were basic units. Very basic. Ricardo showed me some LG units. I hadn't heard of steam units and he explained the benefits. We don't have dry cleaning nor use bleach so the benefits would be wasted on us.

Gas dryers are not popular in Florida. It would cost about $100 more for the unit, $75 more for installation since a certified gasman needs to do the work, and take a week linger because they don't stock them. The new washers are supposed to cut the drying time by about 30%. Famous Tate had a good deal on the pair. I bought the pair with the electric dryer.

As we sat writing up the order, we talked about detergent. I told them I used Charlie's Soap. Another person looked it up. We then talked about hard water and phosphates being removed from detergents. The phosphates are what helped the detergent to clean and removed the calcium from the hard water. They recommend Lemi Shine. I had never heard of it but looked it up when I got home.

I found Lemi Shine at amazon.com for 4 times the msrp. What? But the reviews were good. I found some at Target and bought a jar. I tried it last night and am sold! When I emptied the dishwasher this morning, there was no more grit, not more white deposits left on the nylon spatula, not fog left on the mixing cup.

Today I stayed at home waiting for delivery. I cleaned up the boxes littering the entry, moved an old printer to my car for donation and vacuumed the carpet. Dad capped the gas and I cleaned up the years of dust and grime behind the washer and dryer. Gross.

The installation was uneventful. It took Andy awhile before he would actually get near the washer & dryer. Now, he is sitting in front watching them spin. And he has his recorder on top to record the new sounds and tones.