Appliance. net

Appliance news, reviews, ratings, forums, reports and buyers guides.
Locate repairs and parts. for home and kitchen appliances.

You are here: Home / Archives for Small Appliances

Small Appliances

Air Cleaners – What You Need to Know

By

Many people believe that an air cleaner will help their family be healthier.  Using an air cleaner or air purifier in your home supposedly helps reduce dust, pollen and other respiratory irritants.  There are three types of air cleaners,  High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, electrostatic precipitators, and ozone generators.

From the Arizona Daily Star:

1. High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters: Consumer Reports says air cleaners with these filters are among the best performers. But homeowners can more easily improve their indoor air with other methods, such as banning indoor smoking, keeping pets out of bedrooms, removing carpeting and other dust-mite havens and opening windows, the magazine says.
2. Electrostatic precipitators: They apply an electrical charge to particles and deposit them onto filters. They commonly emit small amounts of ozone as a byproduct. This month, Consumer Reports withdrew its endorsement of them after 15 years of recommending some models, saying, “We now believe that air purifiers that emit even small amounts of ozone are not your best choice.”
Ozone is a common air pollutant, an indicator of smog’s presence. The Environmental Protection Agency says that relatively low ozone levels can cause respiratory problems.
3. Ozone generators: Manufacturers say that ozone will purify the air, but Consumer Reports recommends against such machines, saying its tests have found that their ozone production generally exceeded federal Food and Drug Administration limits of 50 parts per billion set for medical devices. The California Air Resources Board just approved new rules, requiring such generators to limit ozone to 50 ppb by Dec. 31, 2008.

Newer houses with better insulation, double-paned windows and weatherstripped doors save energy, but they also seal pollutants into our homes. I try to limit my impact on the environment. Air cleaners are just another electronic device to run, with uncertain results. My choice is to vacuum and wash floors and bedding regularly and to open windows daily. Those are results you can see.

Recall: Pressure Cookers By Manttra Inc. Due to Burn Hazard

By

Name of Product: Pressure Cookers

Units: About 38,250

Importer: Manttra Inc., of Virginia Beach, Va.

Manufacturer: TTK Presitge Ltd., of India

Hazard: If the pressure cookers are not closed properly, the lid can separate and allow hot contents to spill out. This poses a risk of burns to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Manttra has received two reports of hot contents spilling out of the pressure cookers, resulting in minor burn injuries.

Description: This recall involves Manttra Smart Series five-piece stainless steel multi cooker sets. The set includes a pressure lid, glass lid, steamer basket, wire trivet, and stock/pressure pot. Model/code number 38270 is stamped on the base of the 8-quart stainless steel cooker.

Sold at: Kohl’s, Robinson’s, Sears and Carson Pirie Scott stores nationwide from June 2003 through April 2007 for between $70 and $100.

Manufactured in: India

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the pressure cookers and contact Manttra Inc. to receive a new replacement pressure valve (ZPD valve).

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Manttra Inc. toll-free at (877) 962-6887 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.manttra.com

Picture of Recalled Pressure Cookers

Toastmaster Bread Machine Review

By

AmericanChronicle offers this review of the toastmaster bread machine which is an option if you are looking for a less expensive bread machine than the Cuisinart that we reviewed here.

A Toastmaster bread machine is cheap to buy. This combined with their standard features makes these appliances attractive to buyers. But there are other cheap bread makes on the market and these can be a better bet than a Toastmaster. Here’s a reviews of the two best sellers.

Just because they’re cheap doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice a lot of functionality; you’ll be surprised at the amount features that come as standard on a Toastmaster breadmaker. The following appliances both do a good job at baking bread and many consumers are happy with their overall performance. The following review is for two models currently available from the Toastmaster range – the TBR15 and the TBR20 – and how they compare with a rival brand.

The Toastmaster TBR15 Bread Machine

This appliance currently retails for around $40 plus. It comes with an 80 minute quick bake cycle and can bake a loaf as large as 1.5lbs. You get a large viewing window and its pretty compact at 13″h x 13″w x 11.75″d. It comes with a fairly impressive list of 8 cycles; basic, whole wheat, French, Sweet, fast bake, Quick Bread, dough and bake. These are pretty much going to satisfy all but those that take home baking very seriously.

The cost of the TBR15 puts it in competition with the Sunbeam 5891 bread machine. The Sunbeam also comes with a quick bake – only 58 minutes, so it’s quicker. Also, it’s more versatile as it can bake either 1.5 or 2lb loaves. It also beats the TBR15 when it comes to the choice of cycles; there are 12 in all – including one for making jam.

Both machines have their drawbacks, the biggest being that they can sometimes fail to mix all the ingredients together so you end up with floury corners on the loaf – unless you manually intervene during the first mixing stage. But, this is a fairly common complaint with horizontal bread machines that use only one mixing paddle; even more expensive brands have this problem.

The Toastmaster TBR15 does have one main plus point over the Sunbeam 5891; its instruction book is far superior. It would be fair to say that the Sunbeam is pretty hopeless as it gives contradictory advice and has a very limited recipe list.

But, if you’re going to be spending this little on a bread maker, you’re best choice is the Sunbeam.

The Toastmaster TBR20 Bread Machine

This is a slightly more expensive machine and it currently retails at $55 plus. It can bake either 1, 1.5 or 2lb loaves. You also get a delay timer of 13 hours and a touchpad with digital readout. However, you still only get the 8 programs available on the TBR15 model. Its closest competition is the Oster 5838 ExpressBake bread machine. The Oster retails for around $10 – $20 more. It can also bake 1, 1.5 and 2lb loaves and has a 13 hour delay bake option. But it out does the Toastmaster on the selection of cycles that are available; the Oster has 18 cycles.

It’s a close call as to which is the better appliance. Personally, I prefer the Oster breadmaker but both models perform equally well and the TBR20 is cheaper. If you’re satisfied with the 8 cycles then the Toastmaster bread maker is probably the best option.

Both the TBR15 and the TBR20 Toastmaster bread machine are low priced but good appliances that get a decent rating on many customer reviews. But I would say forget about the TBR15; either upgrade to the TBR20 or buy the Sunbeam bread machine instead.

Review: Cuisinart CBK-200 Bread Machine

By

The BreadMachineDigest, which is a very complete resource for bread machines, offers this review of a Cuisinart bread machine:

The Cuisinart CBK-200 bread machine is an interesting machine. It offers several features that are not available on any other machine. Features like convection baking for a more evenly browned and crispier crust. A beep signal when the final kneading is done telling you, you can now remove the kneading paddle from the pan so that you don’t have a large whole in the bottom of your loaf. It also has cycles for low-carb, gluten free, and artisan breads.

The machine itself is quite typical. It is a box shape with the standard side control panel. It has a small LCD screen that gives you the time remaining, the loaf size, crust color and where you are in the cycle information. To choose a cycle you just select the number that corresponds to the cycle you want. For example white is 1, low-carb is 8, etc. You set the number for the cycle you want using a menu button. Each time you press the button a different cycle number is selected.

There are also buttons for crust color, loaf size, delay timer as well as one to turn on and off the mix-ins option. The mix-ins option causes an alert beep to sound which tells you when in the cycle to add things like raisins, nuts, etc. The last two buttons are start and stop/pause. Overall the controls are easy to figure out and use.

This machine has a total of 101 cycles. However, this is a bit misleading because like some other companies Cuisinart counts variations to the main cycles as cycles. For example white bread with a 1 pound recipe and a light crust is one cycle and white bread with a 1-1/2 pound recipe and a light crust is another. If you forget about the variations this machine has a total of 16 cycles which includes:

White, rapid white, whole wheat, rapid whole wheat, French/Italian, rapid French/Italian, quick bread/cake, low-carb, gluten free, dough/pizza dough, artisan dough, sweet breads, rapid sweet breads, jam, last minute loaf, bake only.

Like some other machines on the market this one has a power failure backup feature. Should the power to the machine be disrupted it will store in memory the stage of bread making cycle and resume once the power is restored. However, unlike some other machines this backup feature is good for only 15 minutes. If the power stays out for longer than that you are out of luck.

The pan in the Cuisinart CBK-200 is called a horizontal pan by Cuisinart. However, to me it is a hybrid of the horizontal and vertical pan. This machine doesn’t make quite a horizontal loaf or a vertical loaf, it makes loaves that are some place in between. The pan in fact is the same size and shape as many of the pans included with Breadman machines like the Breadman Ultimate. It is also a single paddle pan. I don’t like this style of pan. During my testing of this machine I made 30 recipes, every single one of them required me to scrape some of the ingredients out of the corners of the pan. Had I not stuck around to do this, the loaves would have come out with floured corners. I really wish companies would either do vertical machines or true horizontal machines with dual paddles. These hybrids are a pain.

All of the recipes I made turned out great. The machine once you have all of the ingredients incorporated in to the dough kneads very well and makes a nice dough. It has no problems with white bread dough, egg bread dough, whole wheat or any of the other 30 types of bread I made.

I also have to give high praise for the convection bake feature. While I still prefer to make the dough in the machine and bake the loaf in my regular oven, the convection feature made for a much nicer and evenly browned crust. It was also crisper which quickly faded as the loaf cooled thanks to the steam.

Now for the real down side, this is one very unattractive looking machine. I think Cuisinart tried to make it look retro. However, in doing so they placed black trim all around the top of the machine (see the picture) and in doing this they made it the all time hardest machine to clean. Sooner or later you are going to need to clean flour off the top of this thing and because of the black trim it is going to be a real time consuming pain. I ended up using Q-Tips to get the thing clean. And, as I said this is in my opinion one of the most unattractive machines ever put on the market.

Would I recommend this machine? It depends, if you need its unique features like convection bake, low-carb or gluten free cycles then yes. I say go for it. If none of those features is something you are frothing at the bit for then I would recommend you look at something else. Something with a better pan and something that will be easier to clean. Finally, it comes with a very nice users guide and recipe book. I am very impressed with the number of recipes included and how diverse the recipes are. I give Cuisinart a round of applause for this excellent collection of recipes.

Review written by Robert Barnett.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things – Part Two

By

A while ago we asked readers to let us know which small appliances they think are most important in their kitchens. Little-known-food-facts.com has compiled a list of their choices:

When it comes to small appliances, there are 6 must haves to every kitchen. Yes an automatic Can Opener is nice as is the plug in cutting knife for Turkey Dinner. But what about the Real Stuff?

The small appliances that allow us to cook entire meals or at least accent them with simple cooking uses. Do not get me wrong. I use my coffee maker every morning but I do not consider that a cooking tool.

The #6 Must Have For Your Kitchen: Popcorn Maker. First these are cheap. For less then $15 for the maker you can have healthy homemade popcorn in less then 5 minutes. It will not contain anything except what you put in it. That means there is no extra preservatives or unwanted salt.

The #5 Must Have For Your Kitchen: The Blender. I love my blender. You can use them to make almost anything. I use it to make sauces and dips, fruit drinks in the summer, mix a salsa or puree my tomatoes for a Lasagna. A blender is one of my most favorite small appliances.

The #4 Must Have For Your Kitchen: The Toaster Oven. Yes, not just for pastry cooking or roasting toast. You can warm toast and melt cheese or even cook a wrap in it. This small appliance makes life a simple task when it comes to cooking. Making open faced sandwiches is a snap when you have a toaster oven.

The #3 Must Have For Your Kitchen: The Indoor Grill. I personally have a “George” and I secretly love him. This is great for cooking meats of an inch and a half thick or making toast. I have made vegetables in it however, I always manage to cook it a little longer then I should. My grill comes with a bread warmer on top and is an easy to clean tool.

The #2 Must Have For Your Kitchen: The Slow Cooker. You can make anything from a lasagna to a banana nut bread in this. Ok so you can not make a steak dinner with sauteed onions and mushrooms but you can sure make the potatoes in it! The Crock Pot allows you safe cooking all day while you are at work.

The #1 Must Have For Your Kitchen: The Food Processor. When it comes to home cooking, everyone should have a Food Processor. This tool is essential to someone who has arthritis or just general trouble cutting. The right one can do nuts, cabbage, shred cheese, and peppers, the list goes on. There is almost no food that a food processor cannot slice, dice, or chop. It can be used to make soup, salads, and lasagnas. Well any meal really!

When it comes to the kitchen, just like a hot stove there is no playing around. Having the right tools will ensure that you have the right meals and having the right ingredients can give you a taste and dinner no one will ever forget.

Every kitchen should have these tools and by having them will give you a chance to create almost any meal. Ah, well! All I know is that I would be lost without any of my Small Appliances!

This list differs greatly from my original list, and to be honest, the blender and food processor are the only two I use somewhat regularly and they were on my short list in my earlier post. Feel free to let us know your favorites.

As Seen on TV- One Touch Can Opener

By

I didn’t see this on TV- but apparently it’s everywhere- the One Touch can opener. I couldn’t escape it. Bed, Bath and Beyond has been stacking them in the aisle and the check-out lines and I finally gave in. I can’t resist the idea of an easy to use can opener; mine is finicky and inconveniently mounted outside the kitchen in the laundry room, so I decided to give this new one a whirl.
Well, it is definitely easy to use. Just load it with the required AA batteries and you’re ready to go. As the package says, it is truly hands-free. We placed the opener on the can, pushed the button and watched it go. Kids really like the “magic” of it working independently.
It has only one negative that I can find, but it is a big one. The can is cut around the outer edge which removes the entire top. The top of the can is now razor sharp. If you want to drain the can by pressing the lid against the contents (as I do with tuna), it’s not possible because the lid fits back too tightly against the can. If you try to drain it and touch the top with your fingers, you risk cutting your hand. This edge is really sharp!

So far I would consider this can opener a part time help in the kitchen. I choose it for cans that will have their contents, such as tomato sauce, added directly to a pot or bowl, with no fingers nearby.

Finding Your Inner Guide – or at Least a PDF Manual

By

I recently overhead someone ask a friend: ‘how did we ever find out anything before Google?’. I gave away my internet age when I said “with altavista” and added for good measure – in a gopher guide. But nevertheless, the point stands. Google is just the greatest mindshare search tool, but its just a gateway into the riches of the internet. One of the great killer aps of customer service is the ability of any manufacturer to make all of their manuals available instantly to their customers.

att_logo.jpgMy ATT answering machine phone is acting weird, and my wife asked me to find the manual. After 10 minutes of wasting my time in paper files, I just did a quick search and came up with this page listing dozens of PDF manuals to various AT&T phones.

One of our goals here is to create a single point resource with as many manuals as we can hunt down. So here’s a start.

Air Cleaners – What You Need to Know

By

Many people believe that an air cleaner will help their family be healthier.  Using an air cleaner or air purifier in your home supposedly helps reduce dust, pollen and other respiratory irritants.  There are three types of air cleaners,  High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, electrostatic precipitators, and ozone generators.

From the Arizona Daily Star:

1. High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters: Consumer Reports says air cleaners with these filters are among the best performers. But homeowners can more easily improve their indoor air with other methods, such as banning indoor smoking, keeping pets out of bedrooms, removing carpeting and other dust-mite havens and opening windows, the magazine says.
2. Electrostatic precipitators: They apply an electrical charge to particles and deposit them onto filters. They commonly emit small amounts of ozone as a byproduct. This month, Consumer Reports withdrew its endorsement of them after 15 years of recommending some models, saying, “We now believe that air purifiers that emit even small amounts of ozone are not your best choice.”
Ozone is a common air pollutant, an indicator of smog’s presence. The Environmental Protection Agency says that relatively low ozone levels can cause respiratory problems.
3. Ozone generators: Manufacturers say that ozone will purify the air, but Consumer Reports recommends against such machines, saying its tests have found that their ozone production generally exceeded federal Food and Drug Administration limits of 50 parts per billion set for medical devices. The California Air Resources Board just approved new rules, requiring such generators to limit ozone to 50 ppb by Dec. 31, 2008.

Newer houses with better insulation, double-paned windows and weatherstripped doors save energy, but they also seal pollutants into our homes. I try to limit my impact on the environment. Air cleaners are just another electronic device to run, with uncertain results. My choice is to vacuum and wash floors and bedding regularly and to open windows daily. Those are results you can see.

Heater Safety

By

As the days get colder, many people are bringing their electric heaters out for the season. Give Space Heaters Space The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), the “best source of information about home appliances and the industry www.heatersafety.org. Tip number seven is one people might not be aware of:

Unless the heater is designed for outdoor use or in bathrooms, DO NOT use in damp or wet areas. Parts in the heater may be damaged by moisture.

Have a warm and safe winter!

Recall: Black & Decker® Brand Toasters

By

Name of Product: Black & Decker® brand Infrawave™ Toasters

Units: About 70,000

Distributor: Applica Consumer Products Inc., of Miramar, Fla.

Hazard: An electrical component in the toaster can overheat and ignite the circuit board, posing a fire hazard.

Incidents/Injuries: Applica has received two reports of the toasters igniting, including one report of fire that damaged a kitchen countertop and cabinets. There have been no reported injuries.

Description and Model: The recalled two-slice toaster is black with stainless steel trim and has a digital display below the toaster lever. The Black & Decker® brand name is on the top of the toaster. Model number ST2000 is printed on the rating plate on the bottom of the toaster.

Manufactured in: China

Sold at: Home improvement and discount department retailers nationwide from March 2007 through November 2007 for about $50.

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled toaster, unplug it immediately, and contact Applica to receive a refund.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Applica at (800) 556-9439 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or log on to the firm’s Web site at http://www.acprecall.com

Picture of Recalled Toaster