I don't think I've shared the saga of my new washing machine here. Frankly, the whole ordeal made me so tired I couldn't think about it for a couple of days.
So back during the great natural gas appliance disaster of 2007, my plumber discovered my washer was leaking all over the floor. And since the washer was 15 years old, it seemed silly to have someone out to fix it. So I went over to the scratch and dent place [I think it's officially called the Sears Outlet, but I've never met anyone who calls it anything other than "the scratch and dent place"] to pick out a new one.
First of all: I don't know why I bother to read Consumer Reports. Because you read it, and they give you like the two best brands, and the best model numbers within those brands, and the bad brands. And then you walk in the door of a store, and a. they don't sell those model numbers and b. there are about 60 different washing machines for sale and how the hell can you remember which ones are good and which ones aren't? Part of the reason I love shopping online is that you have both limitless choice, and you can easily self-limit with search and other options. It's very difficult for me to deal with say, 150 or 200 actual washing machines sitting out on a showroom floor.
Anywho, I finally picked one out. It was high-efficiency, had a reasonably large -- what do you call it? washtub? -- and had a delay feature, which I figured would be really nice since I frequently fill the washer and set it while the kids are eating breakfast....but I have to remember to start the machine before we leave, since I don't want it running while I'm in the shower. Our house is 50 years old, and that's a recipe for getting scalded.
Sooo.....they delivered it the next day. I ran a load that night, but I was so confused. Since this machine is a front-loader, the door locks with the cycle starts. I figured that would mean it unlocked when the cycle was done, but noooo. This was truly the first sign of trouble.
Then I thought, these clothes seem awfully wet coming out of the washer. Shouldn't a modern high-efficiency machine do a better job of spinning than my 15-year-old clunker?
It took me a few days of thinking and finally sitting down to watch it run a cycle, but I figured out the problem: the machine was cutting off after wash and never getting to rinse or spin. Considering, those clothes were pretty dry coming out of the washer. :)
So when you buy from the scratch and dent, apparently you can't just call them up to bring you a new one if yours turns out to be a lemon. I didn't know this, because I've bought multiple appliances from the outlet in the past 15 years and I've never had a bad one. So they scheduled a repairman to come out, between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. At 10:30 a.m. he called to say he was on his way. Maybe a half hour later, he called again, and said, "Aren't you at such-and-so address?" My old address.
I calmly explained that no, I didn't live there anymore, and I was so sorry, but it must have been in the Sears computer, and I had given the repair people my new address. And fortunately, I was a mile and two left turns from that old address, and I would see him soon.
And I looked up 30 minutes later and realized he hadn't shown up. Shortly after that, the Sears repair call center phoned me. They wanted to go through the whole address issue. So I finally got them straightened out, and said, but please, where is the repairman? He should have been here 5 minutes after I spoke to him.
They said, Oh we're not sure where he is. We'll call him.
Sears and I both called the man, and finally, about an hour later, a Sears rep confirmed that the man had just gone on to the next stop and would not be at my house until 5 p.m.
I can't repeat what I said here, because this is a family blog.
A different Sears repairman showed up here about 3 in the afternoon. He went down and fiddled with things for a while, and came back up to report that either the control board or some other computer-y thing was messed up. And that he had ordered the parts and they'd be here in a week or so, and call back and he'd come back to install them.
Sigh.
Well, I figured if I'd been OK for a couple days with the way it was, I'd be OK for a few more. So I popped some towels into the washer. Later that night when I went back to put them in the dryer, I was stunned. The washer door was unlocked, and the towels were just barely damp. The washer worked!!
I'm not questioning it. I'm probably jinxing it by even writing it out here. But I'm grateful.
But a side note: Don't put your nearly-full jug of laundry detergent on your new high-efficiency washing machine. Apparently they spin in a fairly vigorous manner. Look what I came home to tonight:
