I’ve never heard of that happening.
Man that’s all crazy scary. I am trying to decide if I am just lucky, you all are unlucky, or I just don’t cook enough.
I’m on the ‘they are unlucky’ side. Its not like very many of the house fires you hear about on the local news are down to oven malfunction.
The serious eats article on crockpot vs pressure cooker goes into some studies on slow cooker vs oven being left on that’s pretty interesting. Made me a lot more skeptical about leaving a slow cooker on when I leave but as I posted above I don’t like slow cookers anyways.
Okay, I need a bit of advice.
I’ve got a couple of dead blenders on my hands. One I think has a fried motor. The other, I think, has a melted base gear. I think that’s what it’s called. It the plastic spinny part in the base that you seat the blender jar into.
I suppose this is a question bordering on one’s philosophy of obsolescence in various devices, but what do you all think about repairing v replacing in these cases?
-xtien
Assuming you can find someone to do the job, it’s going to come down to the make and model, and the nature of the fault. A high end Vitamix or vintage Osterizer might take any repair and keep going for years. A recent Black and Decker isn’t worth the trouble, whatever’s wrong with it.
I have an ancient and venerable Cuisinart food processor. Made in Japan (important!) some time around 1985. The motors on those things are reputedly bulletproof. Sadly, the On/Off/Pulse switch assembly involves plastic, and mine recently went pear-shaped. I’d love to have it repaired, and I’d be overjoyed if I could find someone to look at it. No luck so far in this neck of the woods.
Off-hand, my guess is “fried motor” = expensive fix, and “melted gearing” = not worth saving. /sadface.
Reconditioned Vitamix 5300 fpr 230 on their website right now, We got a reconditioned one in December and it has been awesome.
So this is one of the blenders in question. It belongs to my ex and I’m considering getting it repaired, or just buying the part. It’s a KitchenAid, Model # KSB5WH. I’m researching it now. One of the nannies she employed seems to have used it for blending gravel (actually she clearly didn’t know how to seat it properly).
The part itself is pretty cheap. I just need to figure out if I can do the repair myself.
Mine is just not worth it as the engine is gone. Luckily Skipper has offered help in this regard, which is pretty cool.
-xtien
Sometimes for things like that a local appliance repair shop (assuming their is one) can handle stuff like that. If the motor is still turning well then it’s just the base gear that looks like … you made chocolate out of it. Replaceable though assuming you or they could get into the housing, get that main gear off and get a new one installed instead.
In response to my blender quandary, @Skipper sent me this:
I’m so excited and appreciative. I just have to unbox now and read the instructions and then send him a picture of the first smoothie* I make. Which is a very good deal.
-xtien
*By “smoothie” of course I mean milkshake.
Woot!
Frozen drink night!!
Throw in a Flintstones vitamin, that makes it “nutritious”.
TOTAL CRUSHING TECHNOLOGY
I need to know: does that crush ice in a manner suitable for use in margaritas?
It totally crushes
Nobody needs an amateur ninja, always get the professional one.
I bought the Ninja Mega Kitchen package from Costco a few years ago. The thing is a workhorse. It also came with blades for slicing and grating which have come in quite handy. I never buy pre grated parmesan anymore. I buy a block of parm at Costco and grate it myself. So much better than pre grated store bought sawdust blend you get.
I was talking to my roommate (who I would say is my best friend) late this night, having a deep discussion about some stuff (you can tell it was “deep” because I use the word “stuff”), and we were at the kitchen table and so we started unboxing this blender at about three in the morning as we talked. Good lord, @Skipper, this thing is heavy duty! We were both all, “Whoa!” It’s a pretty cool piece of equipment.
Then he washed some of the components and cut his finger doing so. Not badly. Just enough to say, “Well now we know this thing will blend effectively.”
I’m pretty stoked to have this thing as a replacement for my crappy old dead blender. We plan a milkshake night for the Fourth of July, since I don’t like to go out that night. My dog freaks out (it’ll be a whole week of her freaking out as people test their fireworks) and I’d rather be with her as she quivers uncontrollably. Plus, I can see fireworks from my bedroom window as they shoot them off at the local high school just down the hill from my house so I don’t have to deal with any of the traffic or people.
-xtien