Well, that escalated quickly!
Some visitors noticed the dryer at our beach house was still going in the middle of the night last week, even though the clothes were dry. When this happened a second time, we knew we had to replace the dryer as a safety issue, before we were all incinerated in our beds. Since we were upgrading one dryer, why not get a new dryer for our house in town at the same time? It’s always been very noisy, and the filter falls out onto the floor every time you open the door in a most irritating fashion. That’s been happening ever since it was installed, and our old nanny could never be bothered replacing it every time, meaning that every surface in the laundry is now covered in fluff. Upgrading both made a lot of sense.
I had the day off on Wednesday, so popped into the local Harvey Normans. Apparently dryer technology has moved on enormously since the last time I was in the market. Now they have heat pumps and condensers and LCD screens – at a price. Unfortunately, that’s not the only downside, as I discovered today to my cost. I bought two of the flash new dryers and they were delivered today – but it turns out they can’t be installed hung up on the wall. Who knew? Apparently the salesman did but I never even thought to ask. They were both delivered at the same time, and both had to be taken away again. Thank goodness I didn’t have to meet the delivery team because I was on the road. Simon tells me the team in town had quite the sense of humour failure. A little bit unfair I feel.
Anyway, I was soon back on the phone to the man in the shop. All good, he said (thank goodness, because I wasn’t looking forward to channeling my inner Karen) just pick out what dryers you want and we can refund you – the cheaper vented dryers are the only ones that can be wall mounted. Unless…..unless I wanted to upgrade my washing machine at the same time, because the new dryers can go on top of a front loaded washing machine. Well! The washing machine at Waikanae has always annoyed me for being ridiculously small, and the one in town does have a tendency to chew clothes up a trifle…and I’ve always yearned for a front loader…My husband having barely any reasonable objections to the idea of a double upgrade, I made my mind up to get new washing machines too. But while I was researching the front loaders, I looked up the dryers I’d bought the other day and found that 20% of the reviews were dismal. Granted, they were mostly Australian, and some of the complaints did seem quite strange, but it still rang alarm bells. On the other hand, the next model up had uniformly positive reviews. This might be because that model hasn’t been released into Australia yet, although that’s probably just a coincidence. Anyway, the nice man in the shop was quite happy to take my newly expanded and upgraded order on the phone, and hey presto, suddenly we have a whole new bunch of whiteware heading our way. Very exciting!
Am a little dismayed to have gone from minor electrical fault to $10k poorer in one week, but hey – at least I’m doing my bit for the economy! And Fisher and Paykel are still a New Zealand company, right?
In the meantime – does anyone want a washing machine or dryer? Completely free, as is where is…