Is this a situation rife for conflict of interest?

Sears: What’s in store next

Sears is experimenting with encouraging its appliance-repair teams to make sales pitches, and is featuring its repair technicians at workshops inside Sears stores, as the retailer explores ways to exploit its service and repair network.

A service technician who comes to a customer’s house to repair an appliance may offer to go online or call Sears to help the customer buy a new appliance if the customer decides a repair is too costly, said Tina Settecase, vice president and general merchandise manager for home appliances at Sears Holdings Corp.

The technician would bring along a booklet of Sears’ best-selling appliances to show customers. If the customer chooses a new appliance, the technician would either use the customer’s computer or call a dedicated phone line to make the sale. The test of the process will start in mid- to late June in a few markets.

“We are testing a number of options,” Settecase said. “We are in the customers’ homes. Is there a way, when the customer determines he or she believes a product is beyond repair, that we can put her in touch with a Sears sales person at that moment?”

Sears also has featured a service technician at home appliance “health check” events to answer shoppers’ questions about their appliances and how they work. The next one will take place on Aug. 25.

Sears is redefining its Kenmore brand to emphasize innovations. The retailer introduced 25 new Kenmore products at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas earlier this month. The products include a washer and dryer that use steam to remove stains and wrinkles.

Sears counts on its appliances, along with its lucrative extended warranties, for its lead over rivals.

In September, Sears will introduce a higher-end Kenmore Elite line of countertop appliances, including a coffeemaker that brews a pot of coffee in less than six minutes, and a toaster that toasts a slice of bread in 70 seconds versus the conventional three minutes.

With his foot in the front door, should we welcome targeted sales pitches? Are these to our advantage or just too much hard sell? Does it encourage even more “throwaway” of appliances that may have another few years of life in them?

Claim: Washing the lint filter in your clothes dryer can help extend the lifespan of that appliance.

Status: According to Snopes, this is True.

Ask the average person, for example, how a clothes dryer works, and you’ll probably get an “Are you kidding me?” look in return, along with a terse explanation that a dryer makes stuff “hot,” and everybody knows stuff dries faster when it’s hot.

That explanation isn’t technically wrong (as far as it goes), but it’s rather simplistic. Knowing a bit more about the process involved is the key to understanding why the advice to keep your dryer’s lint filter clean can help improve the performance and lifespan of your clothes dryer.

In a standard (gas) dryer, a fan pulls fresh air into the dryer and sends it flowing over a gas burner. The burner heats the air, which is then channeled into a tumbling drum where the wet clothes are held. The heat, air flow, and tumbling motion all contribute to evaporating the moisture held in the fabrics, and that moisture is absorbed by the gas-warmed air. (Warm air is capable of holding more moisture than cold air.) The warm air — and the moisture it now holds — passes through a filter to trap lint and other particulate matter stirred up by its movement and is vented to the outside so that it can be replaced with new, less-moist air. This process repeats until enough moisture has been evaporated and carried away for the clothes to be considered sufficiently “dry.”

Of course, if you neglect to clean the lint filter between dryings, or something else occludes the filter, moist air cannot be vented from the dryer as easily. The result will be that your dryer will work less efficiently — you will have to run your dryer longer to dry a load of clothes, which means higher electricity and gas charges for you and a shorter lifespan for your dryer.

So, keeping the lint filter clean is one simple way to increase the efficiency and lifespan (and decrease the operating costs) of your dryer. Just removing the lint from the filter isn’t always enough — the fine mesh of most dryer filters can be clogged in ways that aren’t obvious at a casual glance. As suggested by the piece quoted above, softener sheets can cause waxy build-ups on lint screens that require a little extra effort — usually no more than a quick scrub and rinse in warm, soapy water — to remove.

Many modern dryers also use moisture sensors rather than ordinary timed cycles, and residue from dryer sheets can coat the sensors and interfere with their ability to function properly. Cleaning the sensor screen with a little detergent and a soft brush, and wiping off the sensor itself with a cotton ball and some rubbing alcohol can rectify this problem.

CPSC Warns of Dangerous Counterfeit Electrical Products

WASHINGTON, D.C. — May is National Electrical Safety Month, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is warning consumers that, unlike a fake purse or watch, counterfeit electrical products could pose the risk of injury or death. Counterfeit circuit breakers, power strips, extension cords, batteries and holiday lights can cause fires, explosions, shocks and electrocutions.

Often, manufacturers of counterfeit products neglect to use key components or skimp in the manufacturing process in order to save money.

While cheaper prices are passed onto consumers, so too are the dangers.

Fake consumer products are not tested for compliance to relevant safety standards.

CPSC has recalled more than one million counterfeit electrical products in recent years, including circuit breakers that did not trip when overloaded; cell phone batteries without a safety device in the circuitry to prevent overcharging; and extension cords with mislabeled, undersized wiring that overheated.

“We are very concerned about unsafe electrical products,” said Acting Chairman Nancy Nord. “Our priority is to keep consumers safe by preventing potentially dangerous counterfeit products from getting into the marketplace in the first place.”

Many counterfeit products are made in China and CPSC is actively working with the Chinese government to reduce the number of unsafe products that are exported to the United States. CPSC has also been working with Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security, legitimate manufacturers, and certifying testing laboratories to identify and stop unsafe counterfeit products at U.S. ports and in the marketplace.

Counterfeits can be extremely difficult to spot. A counterfeit electrical product could be a knock-off of a name brand product or one that bears an unauthorized certification marking. CPSC offers the following tips to help avoid counterfeit hazards:

• Scrutinize the product, the packaging and the labeling. Look for a certification mark from an independent testing organization, such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and the manufacturer’s label.
• Trademarked logos that look different than usual may signal a counterfeit.
• Trust your instincts. If the price is “too good to be true,” it could be because the product is an inferior and unsafe counterfeit.
• Be extra vigilant when buying from an unknown source such as a street vendor, non-authorized dealer, dollar store, online retailer or an individual. Ask about the return policy. Get a receipt and look for missing sales tax. Businesses selling counterfeit goods often don’t report their sales.
• Stay informed. Sign up for CPSC e-mail alerts, so when a dangerous product is recalled, you’ll know about it right away.
• Report safety-related incidents to the manufacturer or CPSC.

For additional electrical safety information about counterfeit products, visit the Electrical Safety Foundation International’s Web site

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC’s hotline at (800) 638-2772.