Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Death of an appliance

The dishwasher died over Easter. On Tuesday I rang a company I had found in the Yellow Pages and arranged for a repairman to visit. It was not cheap: $80 + GST = $88 call out with 15 minutes service plus $22 each 15 minutes thereafter. We needed to be home today between 10 am and 1 pm to await his call.

The repair man arrived early (YAY!) and discovered the fault quickly. It was a valve that often fails after a decade or so. I had disinterred possibly relevant paperwork and discovered the dishwasher had been purchased in 1996 (9 years before we moved in).

The quote for a repair was $450. Given the age of the machine it wasn't a difficult decision. We would buy a new one. The repairman had some to offer - I had spotted some on sale in the morning paper. His prices seemed a bit high. We would find our own, but the same brand wasn't an option - they have just gone into receivership.

So we spent the afternoon shopping. The difficulty is that Kevin and I have divergent ideas on what is a good buy. He wants the cheapest, I want something with a recognisable name that has the best/most useable features. We visited 6 of the major big box stores and eventually returned to the first.

We finally purchased a machine with the features I want - not the cheapest. It is now installed and the dinner dishes have been stacked in it. We will run it for the first time tomorrow after breakfast.

And that was my day. No fibre except the cloths I needed to clean out the cupboards under the sink that accommodate the new hoses.

No comments: