Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day from all of us at W.L. May Company

Thursday Trivia Challenge

So you think you know all about appliances? Here is a short set of trivia questions to test your knowledge.

QUESTIONS:
1. What percentage of farm households were electrified in 1940?
2. What year was Amana formed?
3. Where are LG machines manufactured?
4. What company introduced the vaned agitator?
5. When was the first washing machine with a drum invented?
6. This major appliance brand was owned by what major auto maker. Who are they?
7. Who introduced the coin slide washing machine for laundrymats?
8. What was the first product sold under the Kenmore name?

ANSWERS:
1. 33.3% or One Third
2. 1934
3. South Korea
4. Maytag
5. 1951
6. GM/Frigidaire
7. Maytag
8. A Washing Machine

Scoring
O-2 correct: You know a bit, but still have a lot to learn. Luckily you came to the right place.
2-4 correct: You know a fair amount about appliances. Keep visiting this blog to learn even more.
4-6 correct: You know a lot about appliances. Pass some of that knowledge on to someone.
6-8 correct You are an appliance star! Great job!

To submit your own trivia questions (and answers) email: rob.m@wlmay.com with the subject line "trivia".

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Seven Tools for News That You Can Use

Cat  Pictures Are Fun, But They Aren't News

One of our goals of the W.L. May Blog is to keep our customers informed about developments and news stories that effect the appliance repair trade and stores that sell new appliances. The vastness of the Internet and the the "long tail" that keeps old, sometimes outdated, articles online means that more than a Google search is needed to keep up. We use a few different tools to do that. All of these tools are free, except for your time setting things up.

• Google News

Perhaps the most useful tool we use to stay informed. Google News is a great way to keep up with the world. Anyone can access the basic news page that Google offers. To make this a power tool requires a few more steps. First, create a Google account if you do not have one already or log into your account if you do. Once you sign in, return to the news page. In the upper right hand corner of the page, just below the magnifying lens for search you will notice a button with a gear icon. Clicking on that icon will give you the opportunity to "personalize your news". You will notice a list of preset news topics that you can adjust to receive more or less coverage of that topic. Below that is a search window that you can use to add topics that interest you to your news page. Some ideas might be your companies name, manufacturers names or types of equipment you service.

• Google Alerts

Sort of spin off of Google News, Google Alerts is service for Google account holders that can send the articles from your Google News directly to your email inbox. This allows you the convenience of keeping up with the news when you check your email, rather than making a separate visit to the Google News Page. 

• Twitter

More than just a place to share what you had for breakfast and what you are doing Saturday night, Twitter can be a helpful news source if you set it up right. To use Twitter for news, search out and follow the places where news is likely to come from. this might mean suppliers, it might be manufacturers, it might be your competition. Twitter also can serve as way to stay in touch with your clients, making it a very versatile tool.

• Facebook

Facebook is a popular tool for staying in contact with friends and family. It can be a great way to reach out to your clients. It can also be a good source for news. A User Profile on Facebook is an individual user. A Page is created by a business or any organization that wants a presence on Facebook. For news, pages are often your best source. Any Page you "like" will potentially show you posts on your timeline. Facebook is popular though, and as a result they create a timeline for you based on your interest and interactions with other Facebook User Profiles and Pages. To counter this and stay informed requires a little extra effort. If you will notice the list of links on the left hand side of your Facebook timeline. One of those links is to "Pages" clicking on this will give you a feed comprised of only Pages that you have "like"d. Going directly to your favorite Pages timelines is also a way to make sure you are seeing everything that page posts, which will not likely all be in your timeline.

• Google+

Google+ is the new kid on the block for social media. Because of the power of Google, many Internet gurus recommend using Google+ as it likely has a bearing on your companies SEO and its placement in the results when people search for your service in your area. Like Twitter and Facebook, following people and companies in our industry should provide you with results.

• RSS

RSS means Really Simple Syndication. Most blogs and news source pages offer an RSS feed. RSS is a specially formatted version of a blog or web page that can be subscribed to with an RSS reader. Then, when new content is posted that content will show up in your RSS reader. You can then read it in your reader, sort of like a magazine. The email program Outlook includes a built in reader, but I like to use a reader called Feedly. It does the same thing but I like the attractiveness of the layout on Feedly a little more. On many pages there will be a link to RSS that will allow you to select your reader and subscribe right from the web page you are visiting. As you gather subscriptions you can sort them in your reader by topic.

• W.L. May

Of course, we use all these tools to find news and information to share with you. You can find all of that regularly here on the W.L. May Blog. Especially on alternating Thursdays when we offer our News Recap.To get email notifications of new updates you can enter your email in this form and every weekday a new post will come to you in a convenient email format.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Kelly's Korner - A True Hell's Kitchen

Hey, All!

Saturday I was here at work and perusing my Facebook page and Viral Nova had pictures of "Cooking Fails" - things that people tried to cook and came out horrible wrong.  The first picture had me recoiling in horror.  It was really tough to even look at the rest but they weren't as bad.

http://www.viralnova.com/new-cooking-fails/

There are soooo many things wrong with this picture!  I certainly hope your kitchen/stove doesn't look like this!

1.  Obvious!  The oven hasn't been cleaned in so long that the ick on the bottom spontaneously combusts.

2.  Missing burner knob - bring in or call us with your model number and W L May can find a replacement for that!

3.  Foil being used for drip pans.  Oh, this is so dangerous in so many ways!  Grease and goo collect a lot more in this and can start a kitchen fire so much easier.  And the fact that this is a gas stove makes it more likely.  Also, the heat can be reflected up and create hot spots and shorten the life of your burners.  Drip pans are usually inexpensive and quick to change.  Check them out periodically.  I didn't think it had been that long ago that I had replaced mine, but when I was doing my staycation cleaning they were pretty bad (head hung in shame!).  Again, contact W L May and we can get replacements for you.

4.  I don't even want to guess at what they are trying to cook here much less eat it!

5.  Probably a good thing we can't see the rest of the kitchen....

If you do have a fire in your oven the best way to put it out if you don't have an extinguisher handy, is to dump baking soda on it.  DO NOT USE ANY OTHER BAKING INGREDIENT!  Flour make look the same but it is NOT.  DO NOT USE WATER!  Call 911 immediately if you can't control it immediately.

Now that I've turned your stomach a bit, take a good look at your stove and call us if you need replacement parts.

Have a great week!

Happy Cinco De Mayo

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Friday Morning Videos: How Its Made Refrigerators

The folks from the Science Channels popular program, "How It's Made" Take a visit to the refrigerator factory to show us the process. They don't say so, but close observers will note that this was filmed in a Sub Zero factory.



For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Throwback Thursday: News Recap May 1, 2014

If you have been reading the W.L. May Blog but haven't checked us out on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, you may not be getting the whole story. We use all of those social media outlets to share news stories that relate to our industry as well as appliance tips we have found from other sources. Here is a recap of some of the top stories we have seen lately. A lot has been happening so without further ado:

We start with some consumer friendly articles we feel would be great for sharing:

• Ecosalon check in with their top 4 "natural" dishwasher detergents. LINK
• CBS8 has some tips for freshening up your laundry room. LINK
• A letter to Parade asked, and got an answer, to the age old question: Air dry or towel dry those dishes? LINK
• Remodelista suggested some ideas to consider when purchasing a dishwasher. LINK
• ViralNova posted some great tips for getting the most out of your microwave oven. LINK
• TheSpec.Com looked into the question of a new energy efficient model appliance vs a quality used appliance, which is greener? LINK

Next, we look at the manufacturers and how they have been in the news recently:

• GE launched a microfactory to allow for designs from students, engineers and makers to be produced more quickly than traditional manufacturing channels. LINK

We found several articles that might be of interest to those of you who love all thing appliances:

• LAist showed us this bar in Los Angeles. It looks like a yard sale-until you open the refrigerator door! LINK
• The Oregonian took a stroll through the kitchen and tells about when many of our appliances were introduced. LINK
• London24 told us about "Tony the Fridge". He has run TWO London marathons in 24 hours with a refrigerator strapped to his back to raise money for cancer research. LINK
• This article from the UK talked about the history of laundrymats, including pictures and laundry tips. Some of this is particularly British, but still interesting. LINK
• Quick and Dirty Tips suggested a great idea for a Mothers Day gift project. LINK
• ABC5 shared some tips from Angies List to help make dishwashers run more efficiently. LINK
• A Portland artist found an interesting use for old refrigerators-modern art! LINK
• Iceland in Review told us about a dicey situation where sticks of dynamite were cleaned in North Iceland washing machine. LINK

Sometimes, the links we post are related to technology, business or happenings on the internet:

• We've told you before about the website that predicts dating compatability by refrigerator contents. Here is an interview with the man behind the site. LINK
• Facebook released some important information for page owners. LINK
• Instructables posted on building a stationary bike generator from a washing machine. LINK
• Gizmodo explained why, if you have heard complaints about whites not being as white as they used to be, it might not be the appliance. LINK

We close with a few stories that are just for fun:

• Columnist John Winters' dishwasher broke. He thinks the kids can do the dishes-his wife doesn't agree. LINK
• This columnist doesn't take her appliances for granted-she appreciates them! LINK

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE