What’s the next kitchen item you plan to buy?

caseydog said:
Good idea to let a fridge sit unplugged for a bit before using, but a day should be enough. You just need to let the compressor oil settle.

My fridge also yells at me if I leave the door open too long, but I'm fine with that. Better than having my food go bad because I didn't get the door closed completely.

CD
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The time frame is predetermined by the availability of people capable of moving both it and the old one. Hubby can't do it alone and with my arm issues at present, I can't help him, so someone else has to drive the hour out from Canberra to our home and back again... (I think they live on the Southside of Canberra so it is 1¼hrs if you know the roads and are happy driving on dirt roads. The man who was volunteered neither knows our road nor is happy yet driving dirt roads above about 50kph. (When it's in good condition and dry, and not approaching sunset or sunrise we average about 80kph to 100kph depending on the section of road we're on in the SUV (Outlander). My Landcruiser as I say to people, was built to get you there. It just wasn't built to get you there quickly, did typically holds 50-60kph on the same road. She rolls badly so cornering is interesting especially on wide off road tyres and long corners full of loose gravel or rutted).

I, as you have probably worked out, don't typically forget to shut things and am a little OCD about such things... right now the "new" microwave is driving us both batty (about 12 months old, the other failed on us yet again.) It plays a tune instead of it 'pinging'. You can't change that tune, or turn it off or even lower the volume... we won't buy that make again. Living rurally with no other unnatural noises, such artificial noises irritate/grate on our nerves.

Mind you, right now the jungle outside is making a racket and need a volume control... it's the start of a wet spring and the frogs and toads are very noisy. I've just recorded the noise for the national frog ID week and it detected 16 different frogs. I'm waiting on human confirmation. I could only positively confirm 5 of the sounds as stuff I could hear...
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
My 'new' fridge freezer arrived at the weekend. Because of the state of our 'road' at the moment, we're letting it stand for several days before it is turned on. It's 4 months old and was hardly used at his old office (covid stuff still has most working from home, only requiring them in the office once a week).

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The salad drawer is about half the size of the one in our existing fridge freezer though! The old one (6½ years old will go into the garage on bricks to stay above flood waters alongside the deep freezer also on bricks). In our old fridge freezer, the freezer section can be set to refrigerate and actually be a second fridge which will be useful through summer.
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I remember when the veggie crispers were porcelain-on-steel, as was the inner liner. Now it seems that everything inside a fridge is just plastic!! What a shame! And most of them now are made in China or someplace else except in the USA!!! :mad:
 
GadgetGuy said:
I remember when the veggie crispers were porcelain-on-steel, as was the inner liner. Now it seems that everything inside a fridge is just plastic!! What a shame! And most of them now are made in China or someplace else except in the USA!!! :mad:
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My GE fridge/freezer was made in the USA. As for plastic, I'm okay with it, as long as it is good quality plastic.

CD
 
I went ahead and ordered a chest freezer. I got a new fridge/freezer combination earlier this year, the freezer is 103l but it's always full even though I go through the stuff in the freezer regularly, I rarely have anything that stays in the freezer more than 2/3 months.

I have to admit this purchase was heavily motivated by a fear that there will be a food crisis...I still remember too well the pandemic times, where I would have to wait in line to get into the supermarket only to go inside and find loads of shelves empty. I'm seeing a modified version of that now. White sugar went from 0,89€/kg to 1,49€/kg from one week to the other, the supermarket closest to my house was selling sugar discounted, I went there every day, at different times of the day during an entire week, the discounted sugar was always out of stock. Now that white sugar is more expensive, yellow sugar was still selling for a lower price than white sugar, I went to the supermarket every day this week, once again yellow sugar is out of stock, I was only able to pay one bag of sugar. This is sugar which is non essential, but it could be anything else...

Before the pandemic I would go to the supermarket a couple times per week, everything was always available, prices didn't fluctuate as much and my tiny freezer was never even half full. But these are different times now...
 
LissaC said:
Before the pandemic I would go to the supermarket a couple times per week, everything was always available, prices didn't fluctuate as much and my tiny freezer was never even half full. But these are different times now...
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We've just (in July) changed our car insurance to a supermarket one because even though the price saving was moderate, once a month, on the shop you choose, up to a maximum saving of $50, you get 10% off your shopping. So we now do a monthly shop on non-perishable items to get $50 or thereabouts off the shop. The most you can save in a year is $600 not including the Christmas points saved up through the year (we've got $470 of points saved for shopping in December so far this year). So insuring both cars with them saved us about $270 total and if we are careful we can get almost $600 off each year in the 10% shopping discount. We'd save the Christmas points anyway but it all adds up...
 
My new chest freezer has arrived
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Hubby and i had a fight with the new fridge freezer and it is now in its final resting place... It needed tipping again to get it up a big step that has always given us issues (to the point where we have a physio step suitable for use up to 200kg at it to reduce its height. The extra weight limit for the step meant that it is a full width step. We've got another one on the veranda.

Anyhow after a lot of faffing around, we final managed to get the fridge freezer level in all directions which meant a 20mm deep plank of wood on the floor at the back (easier than trying to get 2 smaller things under the rollers) and a 5mm dedicated height adjuster under the both front feet. The floor isn't even or level and the whole house is twisting with the constant drying out and then waterlogged land the house is on.

So the one that will end up in the garage is currently in the dining part of the kitchen/diner/sitting room whilst the new one rests again for a few hours. We'll turn it on later tonight before we go to bed and allow it to get cold overnight. Tomorrow or the next dry day, we'll move it to the garage and balance it on bricks to keep it above the flooded floor.

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So kitchen chaos for a day or two...

And the new one in place.
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The new one is shorter than the old one which looks odd to us... as is the colour. We'd have preferred white but can't really complain. Lol
 
caseydog said:
I want a freezer, but I want an upright. If I got a chest freezer. I'd lose all kinds of food at the bottom, and find it in a few years, ruined. I don't have the self discipline for a chest freezer.

CD
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Yes I wanted an upright one, but it wouldn't fit anywhere in my house unless I put it in the living room or the office, where it would look horrible (no way). Even the freezer I got is a tiny one (52l and only 38cms wide I think), so it can fit in this part of the kitchen.
 
LissaC said:
Yes I wanted an upright one, but it wouldn't fit anywhere in my house unless I put it in the living room or the office, where it would look horrible (no way). Even the freezer I got is a tiny one (52l and only 38cms wide I think), so it can fit in this part of the kitchen.
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If I buy a freezer, it will have to go in my garage. There is no place to put it in my house. I have a big garage, so that won't be a problem, other than being a little inconvenient.

CD
 
caseydog said:
If I buy a freezer, it will have to go in my garage. There is no place to put it in my house. I have a big garage, so that won't be a problem, other than being a little inconvenient.

CD
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A lot of people have freezers in their garage or the basement (my mom has hers on the backyard, in an area that is covered). I don't have a garage, or a basement, or a yard 😅
 
caseydog said:
I want a freezer, but I want an upright. If I got a chest freezer. I'd lose all kinds of food at the bottom, and find it in a few years, ruined. I don't have the self discipline for a chest freezer.

CD
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I've got a few chest freezers..At home, I use milk crates to organize my products..I have the food divided up into the usual categories..chicken, beef pork, veggies and other products..this way, when I need to fish something out, it's just a matter of pulling out a crate or two, going through it and putting it back in..nothing is rolling around on the bottom getting freezer burnt...
 
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caseydog said:
If I buy a freezer, it will have to go in my garage. There is no place to put it in my house. I have a big garage, so that won't be a problem, other than being a little inconvenient.

CD
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It get's too cold here in the winter to have a freezer in the garage..when the temp gets below zero, the freezer will naturally stop but then will turn on and off as the temp fluctuates every day and night so the food will actually start to thaw..this creates too much condensation and the contents become freezer burnt. I've tried and it's true..lol
 
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LissaC said:
A lot of people have freezers in their garage or the basement (my mom has hers on the backyard, in an area that is covered). I don't have a garage, or a basement, or a yard 😅
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When we had a dedicated freezer (upright), it stayed in the garage. I didn’t use it enough back then and ended up giving it to my brother. Nowadays, I wish I had it back!
 
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