Zero for Two at the Appliance Counter

We spent the day shopping over at Carrefour today.  Besides groceries we wanted two small electric appliances.  Linda needed a new blender and I needed a new coffee maker.  Linda liked the design of the blender container on this model.


It's an Egyptian product and so I thought, let's help out the economy and buy domestic.

After getting it home and trying it out, we found it is going to be rated "unacceptable."  Linda chopped a little ice in the blender then added some liquid which promptly leaked out the bottom of the container onto the motor housing, the counter and the floor.  While your blender container may have sides and a bottom that join with a rubber gasket or be a single molded unit, this bottom looks like it is just a plastic disc glued into the container.  They should have used more glue.


My coffee maker had a different problem.  It looked like it had been opened and returned previously but was the only unit left in stock.  When I opened it up at home, I discovered that the plug has square prongs instead of the round ones that are the norm here.  Per Wikipedia, this appears to be a British standard plug (although also used in Saudi Arabia) versus a standard Europlug.  My problem will be solved with an adapter or via changing the line cord.  And I love how the Wikipedia article refers to it as an "earthed" plug.  Charming!


Fortunately, both products are covered by the Carrefour store guarantee.  Whenever you pick up an appliance at Carrefour, a salesperson is standing nearby to sell you an extended warranty.  Shades of Best Buy!  Actually, it is not so much an extended warranty as it is a one-year Carrefour warranty giving you an easy way to return it if problems develop.  We'll see how that goes!