we wish you a merry kitchenmas.....
so this year, instead of the usual $25 limit we place on gifts for each other , we decided to go all out and get new appliances. our dishwasher was shooting craps - the rack was rusty and ruining our silverware, it didn't really seem to clean so well anyway, and it was plain old boring white. Our range was un-level (not to be fixed, no matter how much i tried) and didn't hold heat so well. Also didnt have self clean - who has a range w/o self clean in this day and age?! The fridge was fine, but if you replace the other two, might as well do them all. We got some mid-range whirlpool units, in stainless steel. Fridge has water and ice (and ice bin in the door- strange, i know) It also has fancy blue LED lights, and warning tones, and some sort of ESP or sixth sense that will detect hot food and ramp up the cooling for a while. The dishwasher needs some sort of drying agent, which we didnt realize when we bought it, but what are you going to do about that? Range has self clean, and some sort of semi-convection whatnot, and is a newer flat surface technology than the last one we had, which is good. Also it is a cat magnet, for some reason.
Apparently the new thing is SS with grey/silver sides ("monochromatic" for those in the know.....) Since the range and dishwasher had bits of black (lots of it in the case of the range) we wanted the fridge with the black sides - which is a special order, apparently. rather than wait on all three, we had the range and dishwasher delivered together, and the fridge schedule for later. The range and dishwasher came on the 10th, the fridge came this past weekend. The range was "installed" when it was delivered - the dishwasher just lived in the corner of the kitchen in the box (which the cat loved) till this weekend. I wanted to get the new fridge in and the old one out before i started to monkey around under the sink. Everyone is in and working now, but it was a bit of an adventure.
Here are some things I've learned regarding new appliances:
-measure your old appliances, then measure the hole they were in, then measure any and every opening or hole or hallway you plan to bring those appliances through. I double and triple checked the openings in the kitchen cabinetry, and then we almost didn't get the fridge up the stairs or past the half wall.
-if you think you can "just take the door off the hinges or pop out the sliding door" to make delivery easier, double check that you can actually do that. i though i would just work that sliding door out and make it easy on the delivery guys - no such luck - could not get it out of the track. didn't realize that till they brought the stove onto the deck. oops!
-delivery guys hate, HATE, split level houses.
-delivery guys are crazy. they'll try anything, like wiggling a fridge through an opening with 1/8 inch clearance on either side.
-delivery guys are not necessarily the best people to "install" anything. plugging in a stove and sliding it in the hole? no problem. attaching the water line to the fridge - apparently rocket science.
-energy star appliances, while efficient, run more and longer than old appliances. our dishwasher cycle will range anywhere from 1.5 to 8 hours, says the manual. i guess they've gone to higher water pressure and lower hp motors. same with the fridge - "don't be concerned if your refrigerator cycles on more frequently than your old one" thanks, instruction book. i actually would have been concerned, but now i wont be.
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no matter what your confidence level, it might just be a good idea to have the store install the dishwasher. new dishwashers have a tall tub, which means the motor and other workings sit closer to the floor. also, they maximize the amount of space they fit into - and every fraction of an inch helps. and good luck keeping that insulation tight to the unit. i think we've got plenty of it bunched up near the opening, and none in the back of the unit. the house wasnt very cooperative, either - here are some things to think about: did the old homeowners install new flooring at some point, but stop short of the dishwasher hole - that's gonna cause a problem. did your house settled a bit, and now your opening isn't 100% square and true? that's gonna cause a problem too. our house had both of these conditions, and about 1 hour into installation, i was ready to just tear out the whole kitchen and start over.
-it is my recommendation that every one of you make it a habit to open and close your shut-off valves (all of them) at least once a year. i think maybe even twice a year. Every time you adjust your clocks for daylight saving time, give the ol' valves a workout. the one for the dishwasher didn't quite close all the way, and neither did the hot water shut-off on the water heater - ever tried to install equipment while your pipes were leaking? that made the electrical hookup really interesting.
-if you get a new fridge, take all the stuff out of the old one, put it in a cooler till the new one comes to temp, or throw it away. whatever you do, let the delivery guys get the old one out of the house. or get yourself an actual furniture dolly. mine doesn't have the small wheels or the fancy glides, or straps. so we dollied the fridge to the landing, couldn't get the dolly out from under it (thanks, giant wheels), so we took it back up, then me, Karen's dad and the neighbor just tipped the fridge back and carried it out of the house like a dead body.
but they're all in, they all work, and they look great, so it was all worth it, i guess. though now i believe what they say about stainless steel and fingerprints.
hope everyone has a good holiday. stay safe, and warm, and don't kill your families.
