It would be useful to provide more detail about brand, etc. Surface temperature checking: http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Industries-ST-01-OvenChek-Thermometer/dp/B0009XBILS/ref=sr_1_43?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1288706999&sr=1-43 The above and lower link are two low priced items can give you a good idea of what is happening in your ovens. Just hang the meat probe from a high rack for air measurement (it can be first checked by measuring a pot of boiling water on a cooktop). When (and if) the digital probe agrees with the oven setting (350) place a cast iron frying pan in the oven with the other thermometer in it on a lower rack and see how long it takes to match the air temp. Getting to a set oven temperature is just half the story. Then the question becomes can the oven produce enough energy to hold or recover to that given temperature quickly when the food goes in. Same problem as doing a good stir fry, just not as extreme. Have you tried the cake mix test? Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Digital meat thermometer

My WF218 that I did the original testing on is still going strong (just did three loads on this fine Saturday afternoon). My routine has adapted as follows: -Tankless hot water heater set to 140F. One of the benefits of tankless is no wasted energy on standby losses with higher setting. I don't run higher for risk of scalding my toddler in the tub or shower. -I don't have a laundry sink, but just noting that if I had one, like Todd above I would prime the hot water to get the standing cold water out of the pipes. I do this for my kitchen dishwasher, which is quite far from the water heater. -I have the cold water shutoff throttled down. It seems like the Samsung's still pull some from the cold water supply when you are filling for warm or hot. Not sure if this really helps, but I do feel like throttling it down nets more from the hot supply. Like someone mentioned you can't shut off cold completely, plus you need it for the rinses anyway. -I try to wash in larger loads, as the larger loads fill more water, and thus the cold standing water in the pipes becomes diluted with more hot water. -Lastly, since we don't wash towels separately, my wife doesn't use the Towels mode, and so when I do the laundry, I've basically taken over Towels mode as my full Manual mode. It has full access to all temps and settings, and will remember my last used settings, which I'll run 80% of the time in H/C, to net about a 120F wash for most laundry including colors. A 130F or 140F option would definitely be nice, but I've been OK with the 120F washes.

Good morning, I knew there would be people who were as obssessed as I am with this data! To respond to the questions (in no particular order): Yes, my DH reports that we will be able to break out the machines' components (motors vs heater) individual electrical draws. My machines have at least two motors: drain pump and drum rotator/spin. It was easy to see them in the graph as it was happening, but we will need more experience to be able to accurately capture all the data. As far as the efficiency of energy used by an internal heater vs a DHW appliance, Dadoes is correct. It's a theoretical wash (LOL!). Our DHW is electric, not propane, so fuel is identical. There is also no loss of temp in the pipes (though that heat wouldn't be wasted as it's under the house, anyway). In theory, allowing for age and any scale on the calrods, it should take precisely the same energy in both appliances. Functionally as livebetter pointed out, however, beefy internal heaters fed only cold water provide the very-useful "profile wash" characteristic. (Profile washes are a deliberate stepped rise in temps that improves washing perferformance.) In addition, an on-board heater also allows the machine to maintain the desired temp throughout the whole wash phase, which I believe improves washing performance as well. As far as loopholes in the mandated energy ratings, I believe that may be at play these days, particularly for the newest generations of machines (mine are 15-19 years old). However I think heating water is less of an issue there than overall water use requirements. Nunyabiz noted my use of high temps as being atypical. I agree, but point out that I also use very little detergent compared to many. That's obviously a function of my good water quality, but I also can get away with using less partly because I use higher temps because temperature, time, agitation energy and detergent are all wrapped up together in the cleaning equation. Of course, I almost never wash clothes at 190F, just linens, cleaning cloths and pet bedding which can stand it. In addition to the profound cleaning these items get, the regular use of higher temps keeps my washer clean of bio-film and product build-up, etc. No small thing for FLs, it seems. (Overnight, I did another load similar to #2 & 3 and it's energy cost was 22 cents. But that's without the extra "starch" cycle which has to be selected manually after the progam is finished. I will check and see what it costs, all by itself.) It seems to me that heating the water, particularly for people who choose more "more normal" max temps, is not the cost driver on each load. My DH reports the machine's vampire load is a stable 3 watts; let's see, 3 x 24 x 365 = 26 KWH/year or $3.90 year. Except I have more than one washing machine .... Anyway, now that I know that, a big ole circuit-opening switch will be high on my DH's honey-do list. More data (and more details) as I organize them. L.

No. It's a violation in any number of ways, the least of which is that cordage can not be used to substitute for fixed wiring. Leaving the boxes open, etc... just contribute to it. Start with Article 400.8 of the NEC.