Kitchen appliance shopping and some useful websites

I was thinking the other day about how lucky I’ve been with my kitchen appliances. I’d expected to spend hours on the phone with various customer services trying to find out where my oven/fridge/washing machine was, or why the wrong one had been delivered, or why it was missing a crucial part or so on. This isn’t (only) because I am a pessimist, but is borne out of painful experience; both personal (Dixons, I’m looking at you), and professional (in an office management role).

But really, thinking about it, it wasn’t that I was just lucky, I also did a HUGE amount of research. After all, there is so much to consider with any appliance, and a hefty amount of money involved. Some general things to think about:

Technical and Functional Specifications. What is the minimum that you need your appliance to do or be, and what are the extra ‘nice to haves’ that you’d like if you can afford them? For example, I decided in all cases that I wanted appliances with good energy efficiency rates. As close to A++ as possible (the highest energy efficiency rating). This was my baseline, and enabled me to filter out any appliances which didn’t conform. There is a lot to consider here, take some time to research your options and any terms you don’t understand. (Also check the amperage!)
Appearance. Obviously, you want the appliance to fit into your colour scheme and style!
Integrated/Free-standing. Do you want the appliance to stay hidden behind a cupboard door? This helps keep a sleeker look, but limits size choices, for example. In my case, I wanted a large fridge and freezer, and a large double oven (I like to cook a lot) and felt too restricted by the available integrated choices.
Size/Height. Most standard appliances fit into 600mm blocks so that they can be easily arranged in a fitted kitchen, but there is some variation with this. For instances, freestanding cookers are sometimes somewhere between 500mm and 600mm, so if you don’t want a large gap, or do want room to move, or to fit a cooker in a space with an overhanging worktop, make sure you have the right size. Also, it seemed that some free-standing appliances had more flexibility with adjusting the height than others, another thing worth checking.

DOING THE RESEARCH

So, how did I go about checking all of this out? In all cases, I initially just browsed around various sellers’ sites to see what was out there. I soon came across a few sites that I kept coming back to.

I found Appliances Online particularly useful for their reviews and clear listing of specifications. The site has useful filters and is easy to navigate. In the end I didn’t actually order anything with them though, as they weren’t always the cheapest, so I can’t speak for their overall service.

The Google product search was also useful for product reviews, is good for price comparison (it seems to be fairly exhaustive and reliable) and also for the seller reviews, which I found really helpful when deciding who to buy from. A tip, use the product code (like RFA52P or similar) to search on, makes searches more precise.

The site that I did eventually order my washing machine and cooker from was Electrical123.com, who were usually the cheapest with delivery. I know, the name is rubbish and sounds distinctly cowboy, but after looking up lots of seller reviews for reassurance I went with them first for the washing machine. I was hugely impressed. You pick a date for delivery, and then the day before they message you by text to let you know the three hour window in which they will arrive. Both times they were slightly early for this slot, which actually suited me better. I’ve had no problems with the appliances I ordered with them.

I ordered the fridge from John Lewis, having been surprised to find that they were the cheapest, and this was also a pleasingly painless experience.

I didn’t just go on the online reviews and pictures, though, I also visited various stores (Comet, Currys etc) which stocked the appliances I was interested in to see them in person. I also wanted to check I wasn’t missing out on any instore deals (I wasn’t, the best deals were always online). I took tons of photos in the stores so that I could remember details, including the price and information stickers, which I also found really helpful afterwards.

As always, please feel free to share any other tips or useful sites in the comments.

Read Full Post »

The 30 amp cooker (a cautionary tale)

In all the many hours I spent scouring online reviews and technical specifications for cookers, as well as visiting actual real world appliance suppliers, it never once occurred to me to check the amperage required. More fool me.

I found a lovely Stoves cooker (DF600SIDOM, above) that seemed to fulfill my criteria of being energy efficient, attractive and dual fuel. It arrived, but then sat in my living room for several weeks, unpacked but unmoving, gathering dust. When it finally came time to install it, the builder noticed that it required 30 amp wiring. It seems that standard wiring into a home is 15 amp, and that was all I had. As you can imagine, plugging a 30 amp appliance into 15 amp wiring is bad news of the highest order. A phrase something like ‘burning out the wiring’ was used. Bad.

I had two choices. Either send back the cooker and try to find one which could work off the 15 amp ring main, or have a 30 amp cable wired all the way from the fuse box, over 10m away under floorboards which had only just been fixed down. I couldn’t bear to send back the cooker, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t find an alternative I was as happy with. So I went for the latter option, and paid my builder/electrician a whole day’s rates to redo the wiring. The cooker suddenly seemed like less of a bargain, I can tell you.

There is a happy ending to this cautionary tale in that I am very pleased with the cooker, how it looks and how it works. However, don’t be like fixingitup – remember to check that your electrics can handle whatever you need to plug into them!

Read Full Post »

Worktops; this isn’t the colour I ordered!

Don’t panic. Or rather, don’t panic like I did. It may not look like the wooden worktop you wanted, but everything is probably going to be OK. Read on…

I ordered my woodern worktops, along with the rest of my kitchen, from Benchmarx. Well, technically my builder did, as Benchmarx are trade only (this has advantages and disadvantages, as I’ll explain at some point). They have only one brochure, which has the following teeny weeny photo of the worktop I ordered, Acacia:

It looked to be exactly what I wanted. A fairly dark warm wood, without too much variation. It felt a bit of a risk going only on this tiny picture, but their prices were reasonable, cheaper than the B&Q equivalent by some way for example, and I could always send it back if unsuitable.

Well, I almost did send it back. The worktop that arrived was a lighter oaky colour, without any of the warmth from the photo and with what seemed like glaring variation between the individual blocks of wood. I called the builder: ‘this isn’t the colour I ordered, are you sure this is the right worktop?’. He assured me that it was definitely the right one and so, annoyed, I began to look into alternatives. I was convinced that Benchmarx had misrepresented the worktop in the photo.

Thankfully, before I went too far along this road, I spoke to a colleague who I knew had fitted a similar worktop (Iroko from Kitchen Worktops Direct, whom she highly recommended by the way) and was immediately reassured.

The key is in the Danish oil. Applying Danish oil to a wooden worktop is vital to protect it, but also has the affect of changing the colour, warming it up and darkening it considerably. Having seen the difference it made to my colleague’s worktop I decided to stick with the one I had, and I’m incredibly pleased that I did. As soon as I applied the Danish oil, and I used Liberon ‘Superior Danish Oil’, it made a huge difference. See below for before (left) and after (right) pictures of the color. I *love* it.

Here is a little taste of what it looks like installed (in my unfinished kitchen), against checked tiles and white cabinets.

Final tip: this acacia worktop is seriously hard. My builder had to buy a special (and pricey) router bit to get through it. The ones he usually used just couldn’t cut it, literally, only leaving burn marks on the wood. Apparently the guy who sold him the worktop said that kitchen installers often don’t like using this wood because it can be so hard to handle. I suspect it therefore requires a very skilled installer. For me, the result is worth it. And, with all the pain of installing it behind him, my builder did agree that it is a very fine worktop.

Read Full Post »