On Monday I wrote about my Sharp microwave oven. After 30 years of use it failed, and Nuria and I spent most of the day shopping for a replacement.
Today, five days later, my Haier toaster oven failed. I took it apart. Inside the oven, an electrical connection that was supposed to be secured with a screw and nut had never been tightened. The nut was loose on the screw. The screw served as an electrode on one end of a heating element. Because the electrode screw and the nut were both metal, electrical contact was made and current flowed through the connection. But because someone at the factory in China never tightened that nut, the connection was poor and therefore it got very hot. Eventually the connection burned from the high temperature and the connection was lost and the oven quit working.
Above left: Good connection, shiny screw, shiny nut. Electricity flows through the connection.
Above right: Burnt connection, screw and nut burned and blackened from high temperature.
I could probably fix the oven if I had the right size nut. I have a lot of screws and nuts in little cabinets in my garage, but I don't have the correct size to fix the oven. I found an inexpensive oven online at Walmart and we ordered it. It is supposed to arrive tomorrow. That's what Walmart says, and if you can't trust Walmart, who can you trust? You know?
Yesterday we ate dinner at Arby's (which you would know if you read yesterday's blog post) and through an error we were given a free chicken sandwich and fries. We ate them today for lunch.
The chicken sandwich (disassembled) looks like this:
What you see is a piece of fried chicken and a bun—a very bare bun. We put ketchup on the chicken and on the fries and cut the sandwich in half, and with the fries we had an adequate lunch, so I can't complain. At least, not to Arby's. But I can complain to the Internet. Dear Arby's customers, when you're ordering from someone who looks like she's in middle school, speak slowly and be prepared to repeat yourself. The sandwich actually wasn't bad, but could have been better with lettuce, tomato, and mayo.
2 comments:
Greetings
Your toaster oven is surely pretty and sleek looking -- so sorry it didn't last. I admire that you can assess the issue and know what you're looking at. Not many of us could figure it out. I didn't know China made them either --
Walmart experiences I've had are mostly all positive so I believe you'll get your new one. I like mine except the bottom sliding tray is a thin metal and is so hard to clean. You can't even scrap it clean. I like the timer so I don't forget that it's on.
Maybe you should take them apart when you first get them and do your own quality control so you'll know it will work or not --save yourself some time.
Good luck with this one -- glad you had leftovers for lunch.
Best, LL
Good morning!
Sorry to hear about your oven. I bet it was made in China, also. Appliances are not made to last many years now. They are plastic, and carton and many of them can not been repair anymore, they have to be discarded, which it means to waste our money.
Wow! what a poor presentation of a chicken sandwich, it is a shame that these prestigious fast food restaurants do this to the customers. That is nasty and I would claim to them.
I hope you will be luckier next time.
Nice post. I enjoyed it.
TA
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