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You have to rinse. No such thing as a no-rinse detergent that actually works.

I  recently found a BRAND NEW dishwasher in a dumpster behind a store that supplies many of my finds. It has a small scratch in the front panel, easily visible but not obvious. It still had the instruction manual sealed in a bag inside, and the polystyrene packing pieces in place to protect...

I have scrounged a Fisher Paykel front loader that I thought only needed minor repair. I used the machine and its only fault I could find at first was rattling shock absorbers.   These machines are (I believe) made by Haier, and they have an unusual feature. The stainless steel drum attaches...

Tappan oven That Tappan oven reminds me of the stove my family had when I was a young child.     We had a Simpson freestanding stove that was badged "Simpson by Tappan" or "Tappan by Simpson", I can't remember which way round it was. Tappan wasn't a brand in Australia, it was obviously...

I'm not the expert but I reckon I've noticed the opposite here - more yellow tips on LPG cookers than natural gas.   Really I think it is just the air to gas ratio - when it is perfect, there should be no yellow tips at all, or tiny yellow tips at worst. Max heat will be a pure blue flame. If...

thanks Nathan.

Peroxide bleaching plastics Hi Louis (Ultramatic) I'm really impressed with your job whitening those plastics. Can you give us details of what you did? Our fridge had white plastic parts on the front and they have yellowed, which I don't like. I thought it was UV that caused the yellowing...

Ooooh that is gorgeous. Imagine ripping that out and replacing it with some modern thing that will be in the tip in 10 years!   Having said that I replaced my lovely Modern Maid (Australian brand - no relation to US Modern Maid) from 1987 a couple of years ago, still hating its replacement...

I agree these pump failures seem to be the main thing that finally kills older F&P washers. In Australia the original (Selni?? not sure) pumps with a rubber shaft seal are NLA and the machines are generally being scrapped if the pump fails. The machines with pump shaft seal are pretty old by...

"made in Yugoslavia" - it would probably be made by Gorenje.   Gorenje fridges and washing machines were sold here in the 70s and 80s badged as Pacific, usually somewhere on the appliance there was a small badge that said "Pacific by Gorenje."   Later Email / Southcorp imported some Gorenje...

It was an after thought, like most small U.S. made cars The Pacer was hardly an "afterthought." It was intended to be revolutionary. I had never seen one till I was an exchange student to near Chicago in 1981. They certainly caught my eye, and I did a bit of reading up on them.   The thinking...

That's interesting, John. Do they look the same as the ones in my link above?

If the Robertshaw controls are like the Invensys/Robertshaw controls used here in Australia, they don't appear to be very reliable. They fail to on, meaning when switched on they run at full power whatever the setting, so they burn everything you cook. It seems to be a common fault, based on...

yes, seems the same to me here in Australia, too.   A couple of years ago I removed our 1987 Modern Maid Ultima cooker for a make  over, as we were getting new flooring in the kitchen and the stove had to come out, I thought it was a good time to give the old stove a once over. Found that the...

To clarify, Sunbeam Australia is now owned by Newell Brands, the some company that owns Sunbeam in the US. They were independently owned for many years.

Sounds like my fridge. I can't open that link, I guess it can't be opened by anyone outside USA??   My fridge defrosts as I described above - the fridge compartment defrosts itself by natural warming when the compressor is off - there is no defrost element.   The freezer compartment only...

It sounds like a cyclic defrost fridge - when it is actively refrigerating, frost builds up on the evaporator - the cold surfaces inside the fridge. In many newer fridges, this is just the back wall of the interior. When the fridge gets down to the set temperature, the compressor stops and as...

Great idea. I love it.

suggestion for technique... In the small diameter spin can in twintubs, you get better spin rinsing if you stop the spinner, spray the water SLOWLY in to saturate the load (too fast and the water just runs over the top and into the outer drum); then when the whole spin can full of clothes is...

Actually timed heating was common on European front loaders of the 70s and 80s. They used a simple single-temperature fixed thermostat such as 40 degrees, when that tripped the heating continued for a certain known time to boost the temperature further to a calculated 50 degrees or 60 degrees...