Yipes! Inflation is about to rear its hideous head, or so we’re told. Manufacturers are threatening to raise prices as much as 15 percent between now and this fall. The reason for yet another kick in the ribs to folks who are unemployed, underemployed, and furloughed is the rising cost of commodities from cotton to copper to foodstuffs.
Well, if that’s the case, now may be the time to buy pricey goods such as appliances, especially if you’ve been putting it off until you can afford it. In another couple of months, you’ll be able to afford it even less. 🙄
My dryer has been dead for so long I’ve lost track—running safely only on “Air Dry” for the past year, anyway. Haven’t replaced it because I quickly learned that I’d just as soon hang the clothes on the line. But before I put away the comforters for the summer, I will need to wash them, and that is the one chore that will require a fully functioning dryer. The comforters need to be batted around inside a warm dryer to fluff them up.
At least…umh…I think they do. Maybe I’ll try it on Air Dry before springing for an $850 dryer.
Meanwhile, though, the washer is also about to give up the ghost. It no longer will spin the water out of a load of laundry. Last night I pulled out a wad of sopping wet jeans. Stuffed them back into the washer and ran the spin cycle again, to exactly zero avail.
Annoying.
Think of it: eight hundred and fifty bucks for a $325 appliance! What a flickin’ outrage. Every time we get another energy-efficient, green “improvement” to our lives, it ends up either costing us through the wazoo or, like the infinitely plungeable toilet, just flat not working. According to that article, we can expect Whirlpool (which makes most Sears appliances) to jack up its prices by 8 to 10 percent, as of April 1. That would be a price increase of 68 to 85 dollars, plus the 9.3 percent tax extortion: $74 to $93 all told…before the delivery charge.
That’s probably enough to justify accelerating the purchase of a washer, rather than waiting until the thing stops dead.
I’m thinking I’ll buy the dryer through Craig’s List, since it looks like I’ll hardly ever use it. But the washer is something I’d like to have for its entire lifetime (especially since they’re now designed to crap out in seven years). So I guess I’ll buy that new.
But it frosts my cookies.
How about you? Will you consider buying a big-ticket item sooner than later, knowing the prices are about to jump significantly?
There’s a supply and demand factor that I think will come into play plus competition will drive prices. Unless all manufacturers simultaneously raise prices 15%, there will most likely be some tugging between competitors. One might only raise 10% which would force others down. Another might delay their price increase and see if their volume builds, in which case every manufacturer would be forced to rethink their strategy. Plus, if many consumers decide to simply wait until absolutely necessary to make a purchase, and it pushes volumes down significantly, manufacturers will scramble to re-capture those sales.
In other words, I’m skeptical that appliances, clothing, and other things they’re talking about are all going to jump in price overnight.
@ Money Beagle: I sure hope you’re right. A big jolt of inflation is not what we need just now.
If you only need a dryer once a year, why not go to a laundry. Or even pay a service to clean your comforters. It will cost less than a dryer.
I have a dryer but haven’t used it in years. I wouldn’t be without a washing machine, however, so if I needed to buy one I definitely would. WRT comforters and the ilk, I run down to the local laundromat, pop in $1 in quarters and take care of the drying that way.
Thinking about buying a dishwasher for aesthetics, solely to complete my kitchen but not sure that I will. Haven’t used a dishwasher in years either!
Well, the second time the guy set fire to the laundromat by dumping gasoline-soaked work clothes into a washer was the last time I went to a laundromat. It may be snobbery, but there’s just a limit to how much elbow-rubbing I want to do with strangers.
LOL! You know, a dishwasher’s racks make terrific dish draining racks. Just keep the inside of the washer clean (you can do this by running a cup of vinegar through on the short cycle about once every week or two), and you’ll never have to plant a dish drainer on the countertop again. Voila! A double contribution to aesthetics. 🙂
@Quest – I don’t have a dishwasher either, but I have heard that good models can use less energy & hot water over the long run than hand-washing. YMMV of course. Also, fellow homebrewers have informed me that you can pasteurize your home made beer and cider by running full bottles through on a sanitize-only cycle, and I’ve heard of doing the same thing for canned jams & pickles and so on. That would be useful!
@ Nikki: From what I understand, the dishwasher is fine for washing canning equipment before you start the process of canning. But to truly sanitize jars, you need to set them in boiling water. Some people say that if you’ve processed food for at least 10 minutes, it’s OK to use bottles santized in a washer but not sterilized. ??? Dunno.
A washer or dryer in a reputable brand should not cost $800. Look at Lowe’s. I hate the laundromat! A woman remarked to another, “Where did you put those chicken shit clothes?” She was not just insulting her clothing. It seems they worked in a chicken house. That chicken shit will get powdery and land all over the washers. So, you drag it around with your clean clothes if they touch this unseeable powder. The dryers in the laundromat are too high for clothing that you actually value. I would never put a comfortor in one. The laundromat washers and dryers are too rough on clothing. I will do exactly what I must to always have a washer and dryer at my home.
@ Practical Parsimony: Roger that! All that.
Funny, you might see about having a part replaced instead. Something similar happened to our machine at work and all it took was a $25 part to repair it.
Great timing. Have you seen Wenchypoo’s article today on front loaders?
http://wenchwisdom.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-just-in-do-front-loading-washers.html
As one who exclusively lines dries everything (because our dryer is broken), I can with confidence say that you can hang comforters to dry. In fact, even before the dryer broke we were drying the comforters that way because our dryer was too small to toss the comforter around enough, and it would be wet in parts while blazing hot in others. Don’t sweat it, just set up a line.
Um… that came out sounding like a “Just do Drugs” thing. Don’t do drugs, do line dry comforters.
@ Brenda: Ah hah! That IS an interesting post!!! Suspicions confirmed, too.
@ Kelly: The things will dry OK, but the down feathers inside clump together, even when dry. They need to be fluffed up with vigorous shaking. I’ve always dried them on the line and then put them in the dryer to thump around for 15 or 20 minutes.
But…is heat required? I doubt it. My dryer will still tumble and blow cool air. It’s when you turn on the heat that the thing threatens to burn down the house. I imagine that I could try plumping it in my cool dryer, and then if it doesn’t work, just take it down to M’hijito’s house and run it through his dryer for a few minutes.
My washer would not spin all the water out. Then, it would not spin at all. It was a belt. $90…$45 for two trips here and $45 for the belt. The dryer sounds like a thermostat.I would not trust it not to burn the house down even if it is off. But, that is just me–terrified of a house fire. I would have to flip the breaker when I went to bed at night. If you can go to your son’s house, I would do just that. It might even be a permanent arrangement.
Don’t flip any breakers. Just unplug the dryer.
You ought to turn off the water faucets into yr washer, too, when you’re not using it. Extends the washer hose life.
If the unit isn’t hot when it’s running on air dry, it’s not going to burn yr house down. But if it overheats when in use you should get it fixed (could be plugged dryer vent, maybe thermostat) or get rid of it..
Look online for basic repair tips. You can learn how to do an awful lot, including replacing a belt or thermostat; there might even be video tutorials on YouTube.
Any chance you can hang on — laundry at m’hijito’s house or the laundromat — until Black Friday? Lotsa sales then.
If not (and even if so), then go through a cash-back site like Mr. Rebates or Ebates. At some places you can specify in-store pickup, i.e., you order online to get the cash-back but go and pick it up at your local Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sears or wherever.
Unless, of course, they’re offering free delivery and haul-away of your old equipment. Score!
@ Donna Freedman: Well, I’ll tellya…the Handyman par Excellence is coming over on Sat’day (assuming it’s not raining) to claim some of the insurance money in repainting the hail-whacked fascias. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that this guy knows something about repairing dishwashers, that being a guy thing. I’m planning to ask if he thinks he can do anything for either or both of the contraptions.
Meanwhile, the more I read about the fancy new washers, the creepier they appear. An old-fashioned energy-wasteful, water-wasteful washer begins to look mighty good. Thinking if I get one of the last of those now, in 7 years when it craps out the design of the New! Improved! washers may be Improved! enough to make the things look like a better buy. Right now they look a lot like expensive rips, at least for a person who runs a load of laundry no more than once a week, and usually not that often.