We’ve been selling these Sealed Unit filters for a couple of weeks and everyone seems very pleased with their performance. As of right now (and this might change in the future) we’re selling a 3-pack of these WF285’s for $75.00. Paying $25.00 per filter versus Whirlpool’s suggested price of $34.99 should be enough to give this replacement water filter a shot. If I get any new customer feedback I’ll try to get it posted it here.

Our latest product is a water filtering pitcher from GE. I think it’s a great idea and if you do the math (you get 40 gallons of purified water per filter) it’s a lot less expensive than buying bottled water. It’s also portable! I’m going to get one for my office at work. Drinking the tap water here creeps me out so I end up donating two dollars a day to Dasani… why not filter the water myself?

Here are the specs: GE’s two-stage dual action pitcher filtration reduces 98% lead, 90% mercury, 99% copper & zinc, 96% chlorine (taste & odor), 98% particulates and sediment.

I’m filling my first pitcher now (actually it only fills half way with filtered water- the top half slowly makes it’s way through the filter in the center). It looks like it will take just under ten minutes to fully filter through a couple of quarts of water.

OK, the pitcher’s full and we’re taste testing. After the first test the water was noticeably better (it got rid of all the chlorine/metal taste our tap water has here). We could taste a slight charcoal flavor that came from the filter itself- you should probably run some water through it first but we were too impatient! Our second pitcher had no charcoal or plastic flavor- just clean water with no aftertaste. Perfect. And since I’m the one in charge of testing I get to keep the pitcher in my office. Sweet! Great idea GE! Now I’m gonna go have a glass of water.

Here’s a link to the GXPL03D water filter pitcher and here’s a link to the replacement filter cartridge for it: FXPL3D. I kind of thought the filters were priced too high until I realized that this is a pack of 3 filters- not just 1.

A lot of customers complained that the condenser fan motor was too loud on these refrigerators. GE came up with the following solution:

In those instances where a consumer perceives the normal condenser fan noise as too loud or objectionable, replace the original WR60X10168 condenser fan motor with the slower RPM WR60X10020 fan motor.

This slower RPM motor greatly reduces fan noise without adversely affecting performance.

Inspect the fan blade and mounting grommets for any abnormalities and replace if necessary. Ensure the blade spins freely without touching the fan shroud and that all brackets are tightened.

This bulletin is specific to refrigerators whose third serial number character is either a 7 or 8 (for example: GH7368754).

GE Service Bulletin

 To order the new WR60X10020 fan motor, click here.

We recently received a bunch of stainless steel cleaning and conditioning kits from Electrolux (actually the Cerama Bryte brand). They are very nice and we have a bunch of them right now- I’m not sure how long they’ll be available?

These kits include a 16oz bottle of Cerama Bryte stainless steel cleaner and conditioner, a container of stainless steel wipes for quick touchups and a microfiber sponge. Right now we are selling them for $15.99. They look good- just another temptation for me to drop coin for that DeLorean kitchen my wife wants… almost. Nah, we’ll stay in white goods land for a while. If you’d like to order one of these kits, click here.

For more information you can visit their website here: http://www.servicematters.com or you can call them at 1-800-832-7174 between the hours of 8 and 5 Monday thru Friday.

If you’re stuck in a repair on an out of warranty Whirlpool appliance*, $19.95 might be a great investment. I believe this program is just for professional technicians but really, how are they gonna know? All they’re worried about is if your credit card goes through!

*”Whirlpool” now also means: Maytag, Kitchenaid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Estate, Crosley, Admiral and Magic Chef.

I’ve seen a lot of sites promising appliance repair help… some deliver and some don’t and there are many inbetween. Really it all boils down to what you specifically need help with and it’s impossible for any web site to cover all the bases. In fact, it’s a full time job really! Our email and phone support only goes so far (we’re trained to find the correct parts not do the actual repair). That’s why A-1 looked for professional help in this area.

In the beginning (way back in 1997) we worked with a pretty slick guy named Don Vonderburg who gave us some basic tools to plug into the site. This seemed to work ok… but the bar was very low at the time. Today we are sponsering online repair manuals written by Doug Emley- the Cheap & Easy Repair series. Hard to beat that name huh? Cheap and easy! We also host a forum moderated by a very sharp repair tech in Canada (props to Jeff from http://www.applianceaid.com!).

Of course, we also sell repair manuals… so why try and get this information out for free? Because we believe when people are empowered with the knowledge to do their own appliance repairs we all win! We don’t think refrigerators are “disposable”… in fact, we don’t even think microwaves should be thrown out just because the handle broke!

In the future we hope to add more appliance repair help pages (maybe even videos). For now, here’s what we’ve got to offer: http://www.a-1appliance.com/appliance-repair.html

You know, for me the biggest hurdle to overcome on my way to attempting a repair is self doubt. Many times I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing (and many times I’m right) but once I pick up that screwdriver and dig in my fears just dissolve away… um, sometimes they dissolve away into things like anger and frustration… but most often I end up very satisfied and happy to know I just saved us sooo much money!

Oh, here’s something to remember- make sure the appliance you’re working on is unplugged. If you can’t get to the plug (like with a built in oven), shut off the breaker first. I know that reads like a dumb tip but it’s not.

Good luck with your appliance repairs. Figure out how much money you saved and put it away for a well deserved vacation!

For those of us in the appliance parts industry, this season means it’s time to stock up on oven elements and drip bowls. And boy have we!

Right now we have a ton of the Whirpool universal style chrome drip bowls- part number 3150246 (the small one) and 3150247 (the larger one). And, if you want to get fancy, we also have these exact bowls in black porcelain: part number 3169204 (the small one) and 3169205 (the larger one) .

Sometimes you just have to replace these things to get the stovetop looking clean again.

So happy cooking season! And if you need anything along the way remember A-1 Appliance Parts- we’re stocked up and ready to ship.

When Whirlpool introduced it’s bottom front grill water filtration system (a little close to the floor in my mind… I know, it’s just me) it was an immediate success. Refrigerators bearing this filter started showing up all over the place. And people started looking for replacement filters– only to find that they had to go through Whirlpool and end up spending as much on the filters as they did on the refrigerator!

Patent laws kept other companies at bay for a long time. It couldn’t last forever though. Brita (still fighting through the legal issues I think) has released a very nice replacement filter for the Whirlpool 4396508 at a reduced price. It’s part # WPRF-100 and when you consider it needs changing once or twice a year, the savings you’ll see with the Brita filter add up.

Brita isn’t the only company taking a swing at this filter though… Supco (Sealed Unit Products) just announced that they have begun production on yet another alternative here and their 4396508 replacement filters will be ready by January 2008. The Supco part # will be WF285. Supco’s filter will cost even less than the Brita filter!

It seems Whirlpool is already feeling some price pressure on this item. The Brita filter is just as good as the original 4396508 and Brita is a trusted name. I bet you can’t even name the company currently making the filter for Whirlpool! Um, it’s a great company too (I don’t mean to imply otherwise)… still, you get what I mean about name recognition and trust. I think Whirlpool is in for an aftermarket dogfight. And in the end that’s good for customers.

Anyway, some time back AC-Safe made the decision to focus on other products and discontinue this one. This was sad news for us because, like I said, it was a unique product and we’ve had a good experience selling it. Our customers liked it and it really seemed to fill a niche. So… we pulled it from our website and quit promoting it. Until recentally.

It turns out AC-Safe found a bunch of these kits in their warehouse and they contacted us to see if we wanted to just take them all. Well, of course we did! So, while they last, we are able to once again offer this unique item- until we run out of course.

If this looks like something you need, you can order part # AC201 here.

Sealed Unit Parts Co. (Supco) finally finished production on a high quality aftermarket replacement filter designed to give the Whirlpool models a run for your money! Now, Whirlpool and Sears don’t want you to know about this alternative replacement and when it does start to eat into their profits they’ll quickly claim the oem filter is better. Here’s the thing though, this Supco filter (part # WF286) actually filters better than the 8171413 and the 9002 filters it replaces. It is comparable to the higher priced 8171414 & 9002P filters- the Supco WF286 catches 99.99% of water-borne cysts.

We’ve been selling the WF286 replacement filter for about a month now with no complaints at all. And we’re able to sell them at a much lower price than the Whirlpool version (1 for $25.75 and 4 for $84.00). In fact, the only difference I can see between these filters is the sticker and the box!

You can get more technical information or order the WF286 filter here.