the power of leverage

Avid followers of my continued progress in domestic engineering will want to read on.

I commented on a crummy domestic appliance some months back. I replaced the defective unit with another, at considerable effort: I had to special order it with a couple of weeks wait time, after researching which ones were a. good and b. available through a local retailer in case I had to return it.

I settled on a KitchenAid unit and it has been perfectly acceptable.

Flash forward to the present day. I got a call from the nice people at Insinkerator and upon returning the call, they wanted to get the old unit back and would dispatch a new one with a local installer to replace it. In the course of the conversation, it became clear that opening a ticket with the Consumer Product Safety Commission was instrumental in getting their attention. When I let the helpful operative know that I had replaced the unit already, with another brand, she was undeterred: she is going to send me a newer model — with a stainless steel tank (the cheaper plastic tanks are what fails) — and I can install it where and when I like.

So the lesson here is, if you have a valid issue, take it as far as you can muster the energy. I figured I was putting my case on the record in case anyone was injured: I really think having 110v wiring with a switch underneath a water tank that has been know to fail is a Really Bad Idea. The replacement unit routes the wiring through the top of the housing. My new friend told me that Underwriters Labs requires them to wire their units as they do, but I am skeptical, and justifiably so. As it happens, having those complaints go on their Permanent Record can be productive.

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