Appliances that are too efficient to be effective?

I was going to mention this. When I was in elementary school spending xmas with my grandparents 8 hours away, a classmate’s family made the national news. The parents went to midnight mass and came home to find the dishwasher shorted out and burned the house down with everyone in it. All the kids and several other family members. Only one uncle in the basement and the dog made it out.

The dishwasher and dryer are two appliances I never ever run while sleeping.

This summer we replaced our toilet with a new low flush toilet. It is an American Standard, and it flushes much better. The new toilet has an elongated bowl and is a comfort height toilet. It’s a couple of inches higher than a standard toilet, which make standing up easier. I do feel the difference.

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And we don’t run them when we aren’t at home.

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I had a friend whose husband was a plumber and a volunteer fireman. She wouldn’t leave the house with any appliance running (washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc.) - between the chance of fire or leaks!

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I don’t have a problem with my dishwasher, other than the time it takes to run a load. I frequently run it on the “half load” cycle, which is shorter - even when it’s 3/4 full. It still cleans well.

I have the same issue of detergent residue with my top load washer (only about 3 years old). I have to use the “less detergent” setting and add an extra rinse. Sometimes even that doesn’t help with dark colored clothing, and I have to re-run it with no detergent. I hate it. Never had this issue with my front load machine.

Side note (not regarding efficiency): Our plumber shared he never even left his house for a long weekend without turning off the main water at the house. A lot of his work evidently was a result of leaks while owners were away. :astonished:

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We did this - turned off the main valve whenever we went away for any length of time.

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We also turn off the water when we’re away. This is highly recommended by our condo association.

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We get a house sitter when we go away. You never know what might happen.

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We never even leave the house.

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We had one flood when it was running and we were not home.

Our Bosch dishwasher flooded while it was empty and not running! Some valve that keeps the water from flowing when not running must have failed. :angry:

Omg these dishwasher stories got me :hushed:! I admit to running mine occasionally (this weekend) when I go to bed.

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We are not in an area that tends to flood so we don’t have flood insurance, but I am starting to look into it. One does not tend to think of flooding happening from within the house, but clearly it can happen.

I believe FEMA flood insurance only covers water that floods from outside your home. Your homeowners should, please confirm with your company, cover leaks that occur inside your home.

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That must be the kind of failure we had when our fridge water dispenser started running continuously. Just a small amount, so kids and I duct taped a vacuum hose and ran it into an empty garbage can. (Hubby was out of town. I now know we have a shutoff valve for just the fridge water supply.).

We always turn off the washer water before a vacation, since the laundry closet is on 2nd floor. If it’s not prime lawn irrigation season, we turn off all the water to the house.

I do not think damage from pipes or overflowing dishwashers is considered “flooding” by your homeowners.

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We had our old water heater die 18 hours before we left for three weeks in Ukraine in 2019. I had gone downstairs to grab a small bag to stick in the suitcase in case we needed, and discovered water on the floor. It was a gas heater – can only imagine what might have happened in our absence! We got a gasfitter to come out, cap it off, and removed the old heater. Didn’t replace it til we returned from Ukraine and had cold showers for a couple days until they could install the new water heater.

I hate our front-loader and will get an HE top loader when the current washing machine dies. We’ve been through four dishwashers and three fridges since we bought this house. The energy efficiency modifications sure are sending a lot of machines to the landfills early.

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