Dear1 Dear2

My Home Living with Morries 28 April, 2007

Haha… when Dear2 wrote the post on Tuesday with Morries yesterday, I still thot she is going to talk about our rice cooker. Haha… Our rice cooker is a Morries brand one, a 1 litre version. I’m quite sure this Morries and that Morries are completely different. :)

When we first saw this rice cooker at Carrefour, my only impression of the Morries household electrical appliance brand is that of box fans. In fact, Morries makes one of the most durable and yet budget box fans around. U may even have 1 in ur house, it’s that popular. So when we saw their rice cooker, we were abit skeptical. But it’s going at an attractive price of $29, a discount from the usual $38, and that’s one big reason why we bought it. Compared to a Philips 1 litre rice cooker going at $57 at Harvey Norman, I say this is quite a good buy. After all, rice cooker technology is more or less the same, I guess we’re only paying extra for the big name branding, which is not worth it.

Oh, and recently, rice cookers seem to come with this added function that is the ‘Porridge’ mode. I initially thot that it’s something really useful, but it turns out to be just a simple play on existing technology, so it’s nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Simply put, ‘Porridge’ mode is just an always-on mode with lower power. When u feel that ur porridge is sufficiently cooked, u have to manually switch it off. ‘Rice’ mode has this automatic off function based on the weight of water remaining in the pot, which has been the mainstay function for rice cookers that we are all so familiar with.

Just the other day, I spotted more Morries products at NTUC in Clementi centre. There’s a 0.6L rice cooker @ $31.50, 1.8L rice cooker @ $29.90 and a 2L 2-in-1 steamboat cum hotplate @ $45. The funny thing is that the 1.8L cooker is actually cheaper than the 0.6L version. It should still be there if anyone wants to go down to get it. They didn’t have the 1L version that we bought though.

I think when it comes to these small scale household appliance like fans, toaster, rice cookers, hot water kettle, etc, there are really big competition especially amongst budget brands. So it’s really worth a look rather than to spend unnecessary money just to get a big name label.

-Dear1

Our Samsung Washing Machine 23 April, 2007

Back from a 2 day absence. Haha… I really wonder if anyone actually missed Dear1 and Dear2 writing a daily post? Hmm… Anyway, we were very busy over the weekend, going shopping, equipping our place and Dear1 is preparing for exams. So now u know why Dear1 and Dear2 went missing for 2 days. :D

We decided that it is about time we get a washing machine. Remember Dear1 talked about being self sufficient in our new house? Well, this is it. Washing capabilities. We must be able to wash our own clothes so that we do not need to bring clothes home back to wash after every chalet stay at our new house. This is a transition period, and that being said, things better start transiting. Hence, washing machine is the number 1 item on our shopping list when deciding how to prudently spend our shopping vouchers.

Now, we bought the Samsung P853 washing machine from Harvey Norman for $499, comes with $50 Aussino voucher and $30 Harvey Norman voucher (which we used to offset the $30 delivery charge). It’s a front load, fully automatic, 6.5kg, 800rpm washing machine. Dear1 and Dear2 aren’t experts when it comes to choosing washing machine, so we had to ask the opinions of the sales people. But the problem is, different people say different things and u have to decipher who to believe.

Anyway, a short search from the Internet says that, generally speaking, front load washing machines are more expensive than top loads, but is more energy efficient, water efficient, cleans clothes better and at the same time gentlier on clothes. But it requires a special type of lesser foaming detergent, hence narrowing ur choices. In the long run, the water and energy savings may be able to cover the initial startup cost. Also, 6.5kg is suitable for about a family of 4, and 800 rpm is on the lower end of the acceptable range, but this is not an issue for us since we’re going to sun our clothes anyway.

Those are just facts to consider, now let us look at our personal considerations. There are other reasons in addition to the benefits above why we chose this washing machine. Firstly, we wanted a front load washing machine so that we can make use of the space on top of it. The washing machine is place next to our kitchen cabinet with solid top, so we wanted a continous setting which would give the impression of an extended working surface. Secondly, we wanted something that can wash a king size bedsheet. Nothing about capacity relating to bedsheet can be found on the Internet, but different sales people seem to say diff things. One claimed that a 6kg is sufficient, but another claimed 8.5kg is the bare minimum. With these kind of things happening, how can we ever expect service standards in Singapore to improve? Either the salesman dun understand the item he is selling, or he is trying to rip us off buying a bigger more expensive model than we actually need. I suspect the latter. I believe 6.5kg should be sufficient to wash 1 king size bedsheet on its own in 1 wash. King size comforter is another thing altogether.

I digress a bit here to mention my utter disappointment in sales people from Harvey Norman West Mall branch. First, nobody attended to us when we were shopping for washing machines, and the shop is relatively empty. Second, sales people are eating along the walkway where all customers can see. Thirdly, sales people are impolite and were shouting across the shop to each other. Fourth, the sale person who attended to finally, after calling him many times, stink of cigarette smoke, hence disrespect for customers. And he went off, leaving us alone, to attend to a more ‘potential-buyer’ uncle. Fifth, the next sales person who attended to us and write up the invoice for us, gave a very bo chap (couldn’t care less) attitude. He even typed the price wrongly, over charging us by 90cents, until I pointed out his mistake. Overall, it’s a terrible experience purchasing from there. Won’t go back there again unless it’s really an urgent matter.

Back to our washing machine. It’s delivered last Sat, but there were some problems that we didn’t foresee and that prevented us from using our washing machine directly. The problem is with the water outlet pipe. We didn’t build a water outlet for the washing machine in our kitchen during the renovation becos we didn’t want a washing machine base, hence the outlet cannot be concealed, so we decided not to have it. Instead, we’ll do it the ‘manual’ way by dragging the outlet pipe from the washing machine directly into the toilet thru the toilet entrance since the washer is located directly outside the toilet door. However, the problem now is with the orientation. The outlet pipe from the wash emerges from the right while the toilet door is on the left, and it’s not long enough. This means that we have to go and buy a pipe-extension before we can actually use it. Oh well, luckily, the market is just downstairs.

We dunno if it is going to be good until after our first wash. Dear1 and Dear2 dun really have much experience with a washing machine before. It’s definitely something we have to learn together now that we’re starting a family of our own. Let’s do it together.

-Dear1