Frigidaire introduces new time-saving devices on appliances

Frigidaire is trying to help out dear old mom by launching a new line of 250 appliances with specific time-saving devices that aims to give moms, “eight hours of extra time a month.”

Also, if you are not satisfied that the new appliances have given you more “me time, you can return them for a refund. The More Me Time Guarantee runs from May 10, 2009 through December 31, 2009 and requires the completion of sign-up form at time of purchase and only at participating dealers.

So how does Frigidaire plan to save consumers (and moms especially) more time? By adding such time-saving features as Frigidaire Dishwasher Power Plus™ Dry so moms do not have to hand dry dishes that are not fully dry from the dishwasher. Washer and dryers that will complete their cycles in unison so that you do not have to waste time waiting for both loads to be done and ovens that preheat in less than six minutes.

Frigidaire also claims its new ovens reduces cooking times by 30 percent and will have more oven space so more cooking can be done at the same time through their Fits-More™ Oven.

Frigidaire is also running two giveaways; visit http://www.mymotherload.net/ and submit five things you would do with an extra hour and you will be entered in to win a suite of new Frigidaire appliances.

The “Daily Dare” contest is giving away a new Frigidaire Affinity front-load washer and dryer. Enter the Daily Dare now.

More information

• Frigidaire’s More Me Time Guarantee
• Frigidaire’s Daily Dare Contest and Giveaway
• Frigidaire’s Five Things with an Extra Hour Contest
• Frigidaire Refrigerator Parts
• Frigidaire Parts

Frigidaire is trying to help out dear old mom by launching a line of 2509 appliances with specific time-saving devices that aims to give moms eight hours of extra time a month.

Also, if women purchasing three of more new Frigidaire appliances with the new time-saving features are not satisfied that their “me time” has not increased , they can return the appliances and get their money back. The More Me Time Guarantee runs from May 10, 2009 through December 31, 2009 and requires the completion of sign-up form at time of purchase and only at participating dealers.

So how does Frigidaire plan to save consumers (and moms especially) more time? By such features as the Frigidaire Dishwasher Power Plus™ Dry so moms do not have to hand dry dishes that are not fully dry, washer and dryers that complete their cycles in the same amount of time, and ovens that preheat in less than six minutes.

Frigidaire also claims its ovens reduces cooking times by 30 percent and will have more oven space so more cooking can be done at the same time through their Fits-More™ Oven.

They are also having a giveaway, visit http://www.mymotherload.net/ and submit five things you would do with an extra hour and you will be entered in to win a suite of new Frigidaire appliances. Frigidaire is also holding a “Daily Dare” contest and giving away a new Frigidaire Affinity front-load washer and dryer. Enter the Daily Dare now.

More information

• Frigidaire’s More Me Time Guarantee
• Frigidaire’s Daily Dare Contest and Giveaway
• Frigidaire’s Five Things with an Extra Hour Contest
• Frigidaire Refrigerator Parts
• Frigidaire Parts

Enter these contests to win new appliances and Visa Gift Cards

Keep an eye on the AJ Madison Appliance Seller’s Blog: http://ajmadison.wordpress.com/, as they are going to announce a new contest called “Ugliest Kitchen Contest”.  Prizes are a new “dream kitchen” filled with new appliances from Frigidaire or Electrolux.

From the AJ Madison Blog:  ”Customers posts pictures or videos of their kitchen on AJ Madison’s blog and Facebook.  As the title of the contest is called, it’ll be based on who has the most grotesque, hideous, unappealing, unpleasing and unsightly kitchen. ”

AP Wagner Appliance Parts also has its own contest where your repair advice could win you one of nine $50 Visa Gift cards. The cards are good anywhere Visa is accepted. All you have to do is the following:

1.       Visit the APWagner.com Appliance Repair Forum online at http://appliancerepair.apwagner.com/ and sign up for a user account.

2.       Post an original, relevant appliance repair question, or answer an appliance repair question already posted on our forum. If you post an appliance repair question, be sure to include the appliance type, the make and appliance’s model number.

Remember! The more original questions you post, and the more detailed answers you give to existing questions, the more times you are entered and the more chances you have to win! Users will receive one entry for each original question posted, or answer given to a question, under their username.

Registration, posting and reading the Appliance Repair Forum on APWagner.com are all free services, no purchase is necessary to enter the contest.

How about winning a new KitchenAid Appliance or two? BakeSpace.com, a recipe sharing and cooking social network website, are giving away new KitchenAid appliance each day throughout the month of February. Oddly enough, the contest is called “The Appliance-A-Day Giveaway!”

Entering the contest is easy, simply join the BakeSpace.com network and post a few original recipes or get a friend to accept your online invitation and join the social networking site. You earn different amounts of “online raffle tickets” for different activities. View complete contest details online at BakeSpace.com.

Good luck to everyone!

Contest Links

• AP Wagner Appliance Parts, “Help Fill Up Our Forum and Win!”
• AJ Madison Blog, “Ugliest Kitchen Contest” (to be announced)
• AJ Madison, Your Appliance Authority Website
• BakeSpace and KitchenAid’s “The Appliance-A-Day Giveaway!

How much does it cost to run household appliances?

Ever wonder how much it costs to run your household appliances? Here’s a great article from WalletPop.com, “Top 5 Costly Appliances,” that will give you an average idea based off of estimates from the U.S. Department of Energy. It also gives tips on how to make sure your appliances are being as energy efficient as they can be. A little bit of cleaning and some basic maintenance can save you hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs.

According to the article and the U.S. Department of Energy, “The fridge accounts for 5% of your annual energy bill, or $117.50 for the average household.”

The article quotes Ronnie Kweller, a spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy, as saying that in order to save money, keep the coils beneath and behind your refrigerator unit clean so the fridge does not have to go into cooling cycles as much.

“Keeping the fridge at a moderate temperature (36 to 38 degrees, not lower) helps, as does regularly defrosting the freezer to eliminate ice buildup on the interior coils,” says Kweller.

Your washer and dryer are the energy hogs of your household, according to the US Department of Energy.

“Clothes washers and dryers collectively account for 6% of your annual energy bill, with the bulk of that amount coming from the dryer,” says the U.S. Department of Energy. That costs the average U.S. Household $141 per year.

To cut your expenses, the article advises you to use the clothes dryer’s moisture sensor which will turn the appliance off once the clothes are dry.

“Dishwasher use represents 2% of your annual energy bill, or roughly $47, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. By letting your dishes air dry instead of using the appliance’s drying feature, you’ll save $20 a year says Kweller.

The article also gives tips on how to cut costs for your HVAC System and your water heater. Read the entire article for more tips.

If you are looking for more ways to cut costs and save money on running your refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes dryer or other household appliance, visit The Repair Center at APWagner.com. The Repair Center offers appliance maintenance tips that will help you extend the life of your appliance by years. It also offers a trouble-shooting guide to appliance repair written in an easy to understand question and answer style.

APWagner.com also sells new, appliance parts with fast, next-day shipping on millions of in-stock appliance parts. Make sure you are ordering the correct part with their easy to use PartFinder appliance part search. Finding the right part for your appliance is easy, simply locate the model number off of your appliance and enter it into the PartFinder. If you do not know where to look for the model number on your appliance, we can help. Visit this page to see where to locate the model number on your appliance.

How Do Microwave Ovens Work?

Warning! Microwave ovens carry high-voltage! Do not attempt repairs without taking the proper precautions. We do not recommend home repair of this appliance. Serious risk of injury and the risk of death come with opening up a microwave oven. There is a high-voltage capacitor inside this appliance. Warning!

Microwave ovens use microwave energy to cook or heat food. A microwave passes microwave radiation, at a common frequency of 2.45 GHz, which is equal to a wavelength of 12.24 cm, through foods. This radiation is really just a high frequency radio wave. The fat, water, and other molecules in the food act as electric dipoles. A dipole has a negative charge at one end, and a positive charge at the other. The dipoles try to align themselves with the alternating electrical field generated by the microwave radiation by rotating themselves. This causes a lot of bumping between the molecules, which creates heat by friction.

A common misperception is that food cooks from the inside out with microwaves. This is not true. The microwaves actually penetrate deeper initially, up to a couple of centimeters deep, than does the heat from convection and radiant heat cooking. This makes it appear that the food gets cooked from the inside out.

The cooking area is enclosed by a Faraday cage, which keeps the radiation safely inside the oven, and away from people and pets. The mesh you see on the door allows visible light to pass through, letting you watch the food cook, while blocking the microwaves. This can happen because the frequency of the microwaves is much larger than that of visible light. The legal limit of microwave leakage for new microwaves in the United States is 1 mW/cm² at 5 cms. This is way below the exposure limits thought to be harmful to humans.

When cooking or reheating foods in a microwave oven, especially a convection microwave oven, you need to allow at least 1″ clearance between the food containers and all the walls and door. This will allow proper air circulation for optimum microwave performance.

Refrigerators and how they work.

All residential refrigerators operate in a similar fashion. All refrigerators have these components: a compressor, condenser, evaporator, capillary tube, and a thermostat. Refrigerators with an automatic defrost cycle have small heaters in strategic places to defrost ice buildup. The basic principle of refrigeration is that you remove heat. Some people think refrigeration works by cooling something, but it’s just taking heat away. The refrigeration process is really simple. Your refrigerator takes warm air and makes it cooler by transferring the heat using evaporation principles.

Refrigeration starts with the compressor. The compressor is the workhorse for the refrigerator. The compressor is turned on when electricity is sent to it by the thermostat. It mechanically compresses, or squeezes, a refrigerant gas. This compression causes the gas to become a hot, high-pressure gas. Next, this hot gas flows through a set of condenser coils where it dissipates its heat, and condenses into a liquid.

The condenser coil is a system of bent tubes that run through thin pieces of metal. These thin pieces of metal are sometimes referred to as fins. These fins resemble a radiator that you would see in a car. The high-pressure gas from the compressor flows into the condenser coils and changes state to become a liquid. As this change takes place, the tubes radiate heat from the refrigerant gas. This heat is conducted away from the coils by the fins attached to the tubes. The capillary tube connects the condenser coils to the evaporator coils, and it controls the pressure of the refrigerant as it enters the coils.

As the refrigerant passes through the exit of the capillary tube, the liquid refrigerant expands, boils, and evaporates into the evaporator coils, and it becomes a cold, low-pressure gas. This cold gas flows through the evaporator coils, which allows the gas to absorb heat, and by absorbing that heat; it cools down the air flowing past the coils. The fan inside the freezer’s compartment circulates the air to keep the temperature uniform and constant. Because the evaporator coils are so cold, they cause any humidity in the air to freeze onto the evaporator coils as ice or frost. The refrigerant is then sucked back into the compressor where the process is repeated. A thermostat controls the process, helping to keep frozen foods at the desired temperature to maintain freshness.

The fan that is located inside the refrigerator’s freezer compartment circulates the air to keep the temperature uniform and constant. The process is regulated through the use of thermostats and switches, which help to keep your foods at a desirable temperature to maintain freshness without freezing the food, or leaving it so warm that it spoils. When the temperature is cool enough, the thermostat senses it, and tells the compressor and fan to take a break. When it gets too warm again, the same thermostat tells the compressor and fan break time is over.

Most modern refrigerators have an automatic defrost system which includes three major components: the defrost timer, defrost thermostat, and defrost heater.

The defrost timer, approximately every 6 to 12 hours, cuts off the power to the compressor and cooling system, and switches on the defrost heater. As the ice melts, it drips through a drain hole, through a tube, and into an evaporation pan where it evaporates with the help of a fan that blows warm compressor air over it to improve evaporation. The defrost heater has an electric heating element and is located just beneath the evaporator coils. This heater element gets hot, and due to its proximity to the coils, any ice or frost build-up usually melts pretty fast. When the defrost timer advances, or the defrost thermostat, located near the evaporator coils, detects that the temperature by the coils has raised up to a certain pre-set temperature, the cooling unit kicks back in.

For more information check out AP Wagner