Home Appliances

Inside an electric convector heater there is a large heating element similar to - but bigger than - one of the elements inside a bread toaster.

When the electricity is switched on the element gets hot and heats up the air that is all around it.

Because hot air is lighter than cold air, the hot air rises up and comes out, into the room, through the grilles at the top of the heater. Cold air from the room moves in through the grilles at the bottom of the heater to take the place of the hot air, and this process continues for as long as the heater is switched on.

Any movement of air in that way - cold air taking the place of hot air moving up - is called "convection", which is why the appliance is called a convection heater.

Electric fan heaters work in a different way: they have a powerful electric fan inside, which sucks in cold air from the room. The fan then blows the air through an electrically heated element and that hot air then comes out of the fan heater into the room.

A washing machine is a popular electronic home appliance, which is found in almost every household. In this fast age, a washing machine is highly popular because of its great utilities. It does the laundry quite fast, saving a lot of time and labor. It manages to do so, quite effectively and efficiently, as it follows a set wash process. A brief overview of how a washing machine works with respect to its different parts, is mentioned below.

Basic Structure: The elementary components of a washing machine are agitator, inner and outer wash tub, electric motor and drain tube. A washing machine is also equipped with the valves, switches and timers to smoothen its working. Valves enable the passage of hot and cold water to the washing machine. The timer enables timed functioning. A typical washer has switches to adjust and control various functions. The speed of spinning, the special settings for different fabrics and the passage of hot and cold water are the functions monitored by the switches. Valves, switches and timers differ from model to model.

These components have to be present in any type of washing machine, be it top-loading or front-loading. Different models of washers differ only in the positioning of these parts. There is a specific function assigned to each part.

Inner Wash Tub: The process of washing starts in the inner wash tub. It involves the adding of water and detergent mixture to the clothes. The detergent contains many enzymes that work on clothes to clean them. Some such enzymes are protease, lipase, catalase and amylase. In the inner wash tub, the clothes are tumbled and moved to all sides by the agitator.

Agitator: Agitator enhances the action of enzymes on clothes. An agitator is a plastic cylinder positioned at the center of the inner tub. Generally, an agitator is finned. Its finned structure aids it in its function. The function of an agitator is to move the clothing up, down, back and forth so that the clothing mixes well with the detergent. The inner wash tub also moves along with the agitator. This motion is repeated for a determined period of time. The agitator ensures thorough cleaning of the clothing. This cycle is known as the wash cycle. The inner tub has numerous holes. The centrifugal force pulls out wash water from the clothes and makes it move through these holes to the outer tub. The water gets drained out through the drain tube.

Motor: In the wash cycle, the agitator and the inner tub are moved rhythmically by a powerful electric motor. In fact, it is the motor which accelerates the process of washing. Therefore, it is a very important component of a washer.

Outer Wash Tub: The outer wash tub is stationary. Water gets pumped out from here. After the wash water has left, the inner tub is again filled with clean water. Agitator again works to tumble the clothing. This is the second cycle and is called the rinse cycle. The aim of this cycle is to discharge the detergent particles trapped in the washed fabric. On completion of rinsing, the machine again drains out water.

Drain Tube: The purpose of the third cycle, which is called the spin cycle, is to remove out as much water as possible from the wet clothes. In all the steps, draining is carried out by the drain tubes. Once the water has been drained out, another electric motor comes to play. It agitates the inner tub at an extremely high speed. The centripetal force spins out remaining water from the fabric and expels it through the drain tube. This is a timed process. The clothing get reduced from saturated to merely wet. The cleaning of the fabric is done and it is ready to dry.

Power Parts: Electric motors can reach high speeds quickly. In order to smoothen the start-up effects, washers are provided with a clutch. This clutch is similar to car clutches as it has the same standard drum-and-pad construction and functioning. Some units use a simpler method. They make use of drive belts. The drive belts slip on a pulley and fix gradually.

(a) I just want to add my complaint about Conn's Appliances to this to help warn people about this shady operation. I bought a refrigerator from Conn's and they forgot to send me the payment book. When it came time for me to make my first payment, I called them and asked them for the amount and to send me a statement. They told me they would send me the payment book. In the meantime, they asked me to make a payment over the phone which I agreed to do but the problem is that they went into my bank account and took not only the amount we agreed upon but something they called a late fee. We never talked about a late fee since it was their fault they did not send me the payment book. The point is I never agreed to any addition amount beyond the specific amount of the monthly payment. In the meantime, they reported me to the Credit Bureau as a late payment in spite of the fact that I agreed and made the payment. It seems they had some kind of internal mix up inside the screwed up Conn's operation where the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing or something like that. I have been disputing this with them for five months now. They refuse to admit they were wrong to go into my bank account and take more money than I authorized. I notified them to never go into my bank account again as I was rescinding any and all authorization giving Conn's any access to my bank account. They have retaliated by refusing to correct the bad marks they put on my credit. They refuse to admit they were wrong to take money I did not authorize from my bank account. I have had at least a couple of dozen phone calls with them and they are rude and disrespectful. They make all kinds of threats that stop very short of being illegal. They have called my house at all times of the day, numerous times to try and inconvenience me. They call on Saturdays and Sundays. They call early in the morning and late at night. They harass and threat by leaving messages on my answering machine that give the impression of being from "Conn's Corporate Offices" or from "Conn's Legal Department". In their message they lead me to believe they are going to work this issue out with me but when I talk to them they refuse to say specifically that they will correct and resolve anything specific. They use pressure tactics. They even sent me a bill saying I am being penalized by raising the total amount of the refrigerator up an additional $275.00. The past Sunday ("Sunday") they left a flier on my door threatening more legal action leading to repossession. They did this while I was inside my home hosting company. This CONN's APPLIANCES is a mean, vile, dirty, vicious and ruthless company. The name Conn's fits them perfectly because they ought to be behind bars somewhere. Now that I am researching complaints against them on the internet, I want to warn other potential victims to take these complaints seriously. Like they say, let the buyer beware when dealing with the cons at Conn's Appliances.

-Al Hebert

Houston, Texas

(b) Here is my letter to the Conn's Customer (cough) Service Department:

27 June 2008

To: Conn's Customer Service,

In April I was sold a lawn tractor at the Conn's location in Conroe, Texas. This tractor turned out to have been assembled in a faulty fashion, with an entire assembly left missing which would hold up one side of the blade housing, and which resulted in the housing and blades hitting the ground and snapping the belt which drives the blades. Luckily there were no injuries, or worse, due to your company's incomplete assembly of a large piece of power equipment.

I called Conn's customer service at a toll-free number that I was given when I called the store where I purchased the tractor, but for more than 6 hours straight the line at that number was busy. I then went online and looked up another customer service number. I found one in Houston, which, while a long-distance call for me, at least resulted in my getting to speak to a 'real person' after almost an hour of waiting for someone to pick up a phone there. I told the 'customer service' representative (I use the term extremely loosely as there was no service rendered) that I knew what was wrong with the tractor, I had the parts list and was prepared to give the list of specific parts missing to the representative to save a lot of time and unnecessary hassle, as I live in a rural area approximately 100 miles from Houston and 10 miles from the nearest town. The rep refused to note down any parts, or do anything whatsoever other than look at his computer and tell me the earliest date that someone could come out here - this was a date 3 weeks later on June 27.

Today is June 27. At 7:20 am I was awakened by a call from a man at your company who was supposed to come out here and fix the tractor that was assembled, by your company, without all it's parts. He immediately asked what parts were missing. I gave him the list, which the original customer service rep refused to note down, and the 'repairman' verified to me that he was aware that the customer service representatives 'always' refused to note down any part numbers or have anything to do with the specifics of a customer's actual problem. Again I am forced to use the words "customer service" in only the loosest of terms, but at least I am in good company if the several hundred complaints anyone can find online and the vast amount BBB complaints are any indication of how the majority of your former customers have been treated by those employees of Conn's who are supposed to be taking care of the people paying out a lot of money for product and service.

My issues are as follows:

a) your company assembled a large piece of equipment without all it's parts, causing it to not only break itself, but rendering it extremely dangerous as well. Putting it bluntly I could, and may well, retain an attorney and file suit for the danger to my family and I caused by Conn's.

b) your service department rep refused to discuss any specifics about my issue, note down part numbers, names, etc, and such behavior, as verified by your own repairmen, is standard operating procedure for Conn's

c) your repairman called my home telephone at 7:20 am - well outside normal business hours of any sort - and as I work at night a 7:20 am telephone call was certainly not appreciated - especially as the reason for the call was to get part numbers I had offered weeks beforehand but which were refused.

d) your repairmen, even though this was scheduled 3 weeks in advance, never showed up. At all. Even though he said at 7:20 am that he had those particular parts in stock.

I think you can see where I, and any other sane person, might feel that it would be to my advantage to immediately retain legal advice on filing suit against Conn's, for various things ranging from breach of service contract, to physical endangerment.The sheer amount of complaints that are currently logged online against your company's service department only serve to reinforce that decision.

I would like a customer service manager to call me ASAP at my home If I am at my office at the time my wife will direct them to the telephone number I may be reached at.

Jared C

Trinity Texas

c/c: (law firm name)

The new CEO is Mr. Thomas Frank, Phone number: 409-832-1696 ext. 3218. For those of you wanting to bypass "Customer Service".

Thanks for Reading-

Jewel

Dallas, Texas