The brownouts haven't happened that I've seen for a few years now, maybe several years, but I think the interesting and likely conclusion when you see those disconnects is that the brownout problem was probably a LOT worse in the 50s/60s.

I recently said the wrong words to my wife.

She told me that she wanted to replace our white refrigerator with stainless.

Without thinking I said, "If we do that, we will need to replace the rest of the appliances so they match."

We found a package deal on Whirlpool appliances at Home Depot and it seems a good deal. Around $2,000 for the fridge, stove, microwave, and dishwasher. Not including installation or parts.

Is it a good deal?

it's about 4k less than i paid for kitchen aid **** 4 months ago. you're coming out better than i did.

Sure sounds good to me. I spent that on just a stove and fridge a couple months ago.

There's a vast range of Whirlpool appliances. Without more info your question is pointless. It's like you said, "I bought a Chevy for $20k. Was that a good deal?"

It's a good deal considering he didn't say more wrong words to his wife such as "Sub Zero, Viking, Fisher Paykel".

My mother-in-law has a Viking stove and a Sub Zero fridge. Both are pieces of crap.

I see your point, but darn I was hoping to get your opinion on the price of the car we were looking at next.

We haven't bought anything yet so I will get model information and post it.

Doc,

Around $2000 for a package is pretty good. Lots of packages for just above entry level stainless stuff in the $2200-$2700 range. Basically if any of your items has any feature, you got a good deal. 2 door fridge? convection oven? 5 burner oven? Even at absolute entry level within stainless you probably did good.

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Not sure what you mean by 2 door fridge. It has two doors with the one on the right being the fridge and the one on the left being the freezer.

I don't know if the microwave is a convection oven as we happened to be at the smallest Home Depot in the city so all they had was the fridge on display with a placard about the package deal taped to the fridge. It had tiny pictures of the other items. But we don't have a convection oven now so the new microwave not also being a convection oven is no big deal.

The stove in the package was electric, but we will be swapping it out for gas as we have gas now and my wife prefers gas. I think the electric was a five burner cooktop, but I don't know if the gas is.

The one drawback with the oven is it is a single oven while our current oven is a double with one big oven and one small oven, but the wife only uses the smaller oven for storage so it isn't that big of a deal.

The stainless is print resistant. I put my fingertips on the fridge, left them there for several seconds, and nothing. I put my fingertips on a non-resistant fridge and instant marks. So pretty happy about that.

As I said, I will be stopping by HD today to get model info and I will post it.

Wow. A lot of the somewhat above middle of the road refrigerators I was looking at the other day were about $2,000.

I'm guessing Doc got this bundle:

Whirlpool at HD. Seems fine. Not sure why the price on the front page is not the same price as I get when I click to see item. Assume that could be cleared up with a phone call or in store.

As Doc's wife, I prefer gas so would always choose to spend an extra couple hundred if necessary to have gas.

Doc - the "warming drawer" is one of those features that add a couple hundred bucks to stoves and most people don't use. Re: convection, I was talking about for the full oven, not the microwave.

Re: double door fridge, I have a medium preference for fridges like in this set: mildly fancier Whirlpool. I like the freezer being below because I use it less often. I like the fridge being wide enough to fit a full pizza box in or a sheet pan as necessary.

I've had two relatively fancy Bosch dishwashers and they didn't last very long or clean particularly well. My brother had some super fancy Ficher Penykll whatever brand which I fixed. I'm pretty inclined to think most of the fancy appliances are ripoffs. The Bosch dishwashers were really quiet though.

The package we are looking at is close to what was shown in the link except the color is a shade darker.

According to the clerk at Home Depot, the gas stove is slightly cheaper than the electric version.

Our second oven is just that. An oven and not just a warming drawer. But it is so small, it serves as storage for baking sheets and such. It won't be missed.

I understand your preference for a fridge with a bottom freezer, but the wife and I like the side by side.

The one thing I really wish this package had is a double drawer dishwasher. We are empty nesters and the current dishwasher is either run at less than full load or there is quite a gap between loads. A dual drawer would allow us to meet our daily needs and could handle the occasional heavy load.

Besides getting the measurements, I am thinking going to a bigger Home Depot and laying eyeballs on all the items might be a good idea.

do you need to buy the dishwasher to get the package price?

if so, you could always just try to sell it on FB marketplace or something for like $50 cheaper than retail and then buy a more appropriate dishwasher.

Yes, the dishwasher is part of the package and must be purchased to get the package price.

I know I expressed my disappointment with the dishwasher in the package, but if we got a double drawer dishwasher after selling the one in the package, we would have to get it from another maker and so I would hear those dreaded words from the wife. "I wish everything matched."

I got print outs from Home Depot so I have the measurements.

It is funny how memory can be influenced. I remember the fridge as being a darker gray than it actually was. I guess I just saw so many fridges they all kind of ran together in my mind.

Asko dishwasher is pays for itself just by using a silverware rack instead of a bin. Also, it performs well too.

Solar panel install finished today. Waiting for the red tape they have to go through to get the ok to turn it on.

Debating refinancing into a 15 year mortgage while rates are so low. I know, 30 and invest the difference or manually make extra payments, but the peace of mind of knowing if be done in 15 years when I plan to retire early has some value.

Miele has the same thing. I had a tough call between Miele and Asko but went with Miele.

Cove has this too.

Ive read that if you hand wash dishes for more than like 2 minutes (I forget the number but it was pretty low), you’ve used more water than the dishwasher will use.

I guess it comes down to: is 15 minutes of water running through the faucet cheaper than the electric to run the dishwasher.

Good thing we hadn't actually bought anything yet.

Last night, the wife came home and said how she had been thinking that instead of spending the money on the package perhaps we could use it to take a trip.

We have some time to come to a decision.

I used to fill one side of sink with soapy water and the other side with clean water; wash-rinsh-dryrack. I only let water run when I would get the main stuff off after I ate.

When I started the home search, I made sure any house we looked at had a dishwasher.

Handwashing dishes is one of the things I don't miss about our old apartment.