A biased and situational appliance choice matrix.
palimpsest
12 years ago
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mabeldingeldine_gw
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoFori
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Comments on EcoWater please
Comments (20)Chris You wrote "With the amount of salt needed from yours and justalurker's calculations, that is a lot of salt. I am not sure what the sales guy was referring to then. He kept pushing the lifetime warranty (besides the 10 years on the electronics) so that if anything went wrong, things will be replaced for free. So what you are saying is that there really is no way to feasibly maintain the system other than having a once a week (or at least once a month) routine to check the system and levels?" You can generally have salt delivered and placed in the salt (brine) tank, in most areas, by a water treatment dealer on a scheduled basis if that is a service you would want or need. You will pay more for your salt that way. Otherwise you will be responsible for checking the salt levels on a regular basis and adding any if needed, ie, water barely covers the top of the salt in the tank. There really is nothing to picking up the cover of the salt tank and peering inside to see if it needs salt. Remember, the fuel the water softener runs on is salt. Keep gas in its tank. :) Regards the amount of salt used per year the figures you were given are not unreasonable nor out of the ordinary for a family of 4 with 13 grains hard water. (1 grain of hardness = 17 mg/l) Some info on water softeners is found here: http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/housing/356-490/356-490.html There really should not be any service necessary on the water softener for a number of years unless, of course, you get a lemon like steve. What a terrible experience that must of been. My own experience with various makes of softeners is that, yes, there are slight differences in the valve designs and their construction. However most, if not all, manufacturers warrant their equipment for a number of years. As justalurker pointed out; "The "ready-built" softeners like the Sears, GE, Morton, and such are not as well designed or made of the same quality components and materials as the REAL softeners you'll get from a local pro. IMO, the "ready-built" ones are OK for slightly hard city water and people up against a constraining budget. Any softener is better than no softener at all IF YOU HAVE HARD WATER." So if indeed you are on municipal water and you simply have a hard water problem most any off the shelf box water softener will work just fine for you. Good luck....See MoreWhat color of appliances would you pair with a brick red stove/range
Comments (21)Wow, lots of great feedback! Cookcarpenter, yes I am going with the Bluestar RNB in brick red. I agree with all of you who said that white does not necessarily fit into a higher end kitchen, I am just trying to find another solution other than SS. I am not sure if I like the idea of a black refrigerator and dishwasher, I would prefer SS over black. Paneled might be okay. Cpartist, great pictures! Thank you for posting them. Hehehe, maybe that is what I need to start drinking to get through this house project. ;-) Lots to think about. Thank you everyone!...See MoreYoung, newly married couple, looking for reputable appliance brand
Comments (23)Folks. This JennAir (and all others) thread totally fascinates me. We have spent over 20k on JennAir appliances in two houses, mainly because we felt that we were getting the best deal for our money (we have the range reviewed at reviewed.com and have loved it, even though it is too powerful for our needs and is being vented by a JennAir microwave situated some 14-16 inches over it (stupid, but the limitations of our second/vacation home). I looked at every appliance under the sun and then some and reviewed hundreds of posts on THS and other resources. I also talked to my installer who is a certified JA, SZ, Thermador, Wolf, pretty much all high end brand installer. He tells it bluntly...ALL, yes ALL manufacturers produce lemons that require one time expensive repairs or multiple expensive repairs. He attributes it to "sick day" or "snow day" syndrome...couple of workers call in sick or fail to show up bc of inclement weather and a whole assembly line of products roll off the assembly line and get packaged after poor assembly by "scrub" workers. He has seen no more failures among JA, SZ, Thermador, etc than among any other manufactures. Now, how a manufacturer deals with a problem is another story. I have yet to call on JA for service and hopefully won't have to. My dealings with GE (and those of my parent's, as well) have been atrocious. 3 delivered dented replacement refrigerator doors (all left for me to dispose of...all had tiny dents, but GE didn't feel it was necessary to recycle any of the stainless steel they left behind for me to deal with). Also had our brand new GE fridge break within days of the 1 year warranty expiring and we had repair men fail to show up and then have to wait several weeks for replacement parts. GE tried to charge us several hundred dollars in repair fees (which we successfully fought), all on a $8-900 fridge!!! My parents have had equally exasperating experiences with GE. We had the compressor die (and I believe get replaced for free...after we sold our home) on a top of the line SZ fridge and we had a Viking 8 burner range that never really worked fantastically and that was a major, major pain to keep clean. We have two local major appliance dealers within 10 miles of us. I am incredulous that when querying both of them independently, they tell me that JA products are flying out of the stores (including complete high end packages like ours), mostly due to aggressive pricing and promotional discounts (installation subsidies and free appliances as part of a package purchase). Yet, I have never, ever, ever met a single person who owns a JA product, let alone is considering JA for their remodel. Several have not even really heard of JA!!! I was initially concerned with the reviews I read online about JA reliability and customer service, but so far, it has not been an issue. We purchased and installed the new Obsidian fridge from JA and the door had a tiny scrape in the corner where the stainless was not "buffed". JA did the right thing and replaced the door with no questions asked. They also called to make sure we received it and had it installed. See my separate post about this fridge. Luv, luv, luv it. And, it's super quiet. And a good $1500-2000 cheaper than similar models from the competition. With respect to the 9600 model of DW built by bosch, I believe it cost us $200 more than receiving the free DW that comes with a range (or cooktop and oven purchase) and it is indeed built by Bosch (for what that is worth). It had no panel, which we desired as we were going with a built in look. Honestly, no complaints here, either with this model which is nearly silent, nor with the free DW that we received with a range purchase in our other home. My wife (who really only opined about the DW and aesthetics of some other appliances) thinks the world of both DWs and is glad we did not go ahead with the FP dish drawers again. Overall, we are very satisfied customers of JA (thus far) and hope to remain as such. We're getting pestered with offers for extended warranties and I am seriously considering these given past experiences with other manufacturers and concerns about reliability. I remain puzzled by the fact that JA is not more in the vernacular when it comes to appliances, even when I hear from salespeople that people are indeed purchasing JA packages. Maybe JA's past reputation is the reason...maybe Thermador, SZ, Wolf, etc just have too much cache. But look at my review on the Obsidian fridge...I thought that internally, the SZ looked like any cheap fridge; people just marvel over the inside of the JA fridge and the layout meets our needs nearly perfectly. I'll try to upload photos when I get a chance....See MoreHelp with granite choice please!
Comments (17)I prefer the first sample as well. We have dark counters (Titanium) and I don't find them hard to see dirt on or hard to keep clean. I always would wipe up after working in the kitchen anyways, even with our old white laminate counters. We put UCL in when we got the new counters and that also really helps add light to the working surface. But it does depend on your situation and which type you get. Our water isn't very soft and I don't get water spots on the granite. Maybe because I like to keep them wiped and shiny new looking. My black cast iron Kohler sink can get some water residue as it is constantly being used. but Bar Keeper's friend usually does the trick. The dark would make a nice contrast if there is a lot of light coloured finishes going into your kitchen....See Moresas95
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