My Frigidaire dishwasher has given me back an hour a day
Mar 12, 2010 Product Review, What's Going On Leave a comment
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The Installation
A few weeks ago, my Frigidaire appliances showed up: a refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, and microwave (the washer and dryer are coming later). If you’re picturing a couple of guys, a handtruck, and 15 minutes to set up and clean up (like I was), you’re in for a surprise (like I was). Five guys descended on my house and took over. They were fantastic. They weren’t ordinary appliance delivery guys, they were event staging guys. If you’ve ever seen Kelly Ripa standing in the middle of Central Park in a full kitchen, chances are good that these are the guys who got the kitchen there. Still, my little brownstone probably challenged them in ways that the Javits Center would not.
Getting things into and out of brownstones is never easy: the entrances are small, there’s usually a tight turn right after you get in the door, and the staircases are narrow. The guys were thrilled that these were going on the ground floor, but they still had to get them inside. I’m not sure how they did it, especially with the fridge. I couldn’t watch. But somehow they did get everything in, and then they got to work installing. The microwave worried me a little, as it’s basically hanging on the other side of my neighbor’s brick living room wall. But they got everything set and were on their way, a short five hours later.
At long last, a dishwasher!
Once they had cleared out, I knew exactly what I was going to do first: run the dishwasher. It’s been three-and-a-half years since I’ve had a dishwasher. The funny thing was, I’d grown up without one, and only had one in the condo we lived in from 2002-2006. But once you get used to a dishwasher, it’s really tough going back to handwashing. It just takes so much time! During the really intense part of the renovation we used paper and plastic everything. I was actually a little sad when the plastic tarps came down after about six months, because with them went my excuse for paper plates, and I had to start washing actual dishes. I became maniacal in watching over how many dishes were used. If something was cooked in a pot it was served in that pot. If a drink came in a can it was drunk in that can. Soup, spaghetti, and cereal were the only foods I didn’t consider finger foods. I tried as hard as I could to end up with as few dishes in the sink as possible, but still I spent about 90 minutes every single day washing dishes. And if we had people over? Forget about it.
I had The Ass bring down all of the dusty boxes of kitchen items that I hadn’t seen in years: the “good” plates (meaning you wouldn’t bring them on a picnic), actual glass glasses, serving items. Everything had to be washed, absolutely everything. It had all been in boxes since we’d moved in years ago, packed by sweaty guys who may or may not have washed their hands that day. He then went into the next room to let me do my thing, but stayed close enough to make sure I actually did it. He knows me too well: if left totally on my own I would ignore the big picture, and spend the entire evening organizing the spice jars, or labeling everything, or counting the silverware to discover that we’re missing two forks, a knife, and a spoon. But I was working hard getting our kitchen set up.
After about an hour, he tiptoed and surveyed the mess. He asked if there was anything he could do to help. “No, I’ve got it.” “Are you sure? I could at least run some dishes through a light cycle to get the dust off.” Well, score one for the new Frigidaire dishwasher, because it had been on and running for an hour, and he hadn’t even heard it! I think that’s the best compliment someone can give a dishwasher: I didn’t know it was on.
- That green felt-like stuff helps keep the dishwasher quiet
So, just having my new Frigidaire dishwasher has given me back at least an hour every day, probably more. I no longer dread clean up, I no longer let the dishes pile up because I can’t stand the thought of washing each one individually. It’s been heaven.
I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive Campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Frigidaire and received a Frigidaire Refrigerator, Range/Microwave, Washer/Dryer set, and a Dishwasher to facilitate my review.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 2. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and the NYC Moms Blog.
So, the game itself: to recap, there’s a little camera that sits either on top or at the bottom of your TV and connects to your Wii, and that camera shows you onscreen in the Your Shape game. You’re on the right side of the screen, and a Jenny McCarthy avatar is on left, talking to you and showing you what to do. The goal is to mimic what she’s doing. It’s not a good idea to stare at yourself in the game for two reasons: #1, there’s a tiny bit of lag between what you’re doing and what you see on the screen, which will mess you up. And #2, you’ve really got to watch Jenny. So why have the camera at all? That also has two reasons: #1, you can see if you’re doing what you should be doing: getting your legs up high enough, getting your arms straight enough, etc. In fact, I discovered pretty early on that if I thought my arms were straight out, they were actually hanging down a surprising amount.
