Home Improvement Partner

Some quintessential American names like GE, Walmart, Oracle and Caterpillar have been adding more jobs abroad while shedding them in the U.S., according this report in today’s Wall Street Journal. But Consumer Reports has found at least a few U.S. and foreign manufacturers that are still building fridges, stoves, and other home appliances right here.

Viking, Dacor, Thermador, Sub-Zero, and Wolf (which was acquired by SubZero in 2000) are among the companies that produce most of their appliances in U.S. factories. “We’ve just bought a 400,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Arizona,” SubZero spokesman Paul Leuthe told Consumer Reports. “It’s a matter of keeping production here where our quality standards can be more closely monitored.”

While those brands also carry premium price tags, Whirlpool, Maytag (which is owned by Whirlpool) and GE are among the more-mainstream names that build appliances both stateside and overseas. And foreign-b

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Among the highest-priced models in Consumer Reports latest review of toilets is Kohler’s $500 Highline Comfort Height K-3493. The toilet didn’t make our recommended list, in part because of its steep price tag. But compared with Kohler’s newest offering, the $6,390 Numi toilet, $500 sounds like money well spent.

Kohler calls the Numi a toilet, but it does more than your average commode. The motion-activated lid and seat provide hands-free opening and closing. There’s a built-in bidet, with a “self-cleaning wand” that can be adjusted to your preferred water pressure and temperature. That same wand also features an integrated air dryer for quick drying. Not only is the seat heated, floor-level vents keep your toes warm on cold winter mornings. Illumin

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In Milan French de­sign­er Ora-Ïto is launching the world­wide pre­miere of two hy­brid ob­jects in association with the re­search and in­no­va­tion de­part­ment of car maker Cit­roën. On the edge of hy­poth­e­sis and con­tem­po­rary art, the sur­pris­ing and un­ex­pect­ed sculptures present a unique view of the evolution on the automobile.

(Click the images below for full sized images)

From the Ora-Ïto website, “Bap­tized Evo­mo­bil and U­FO th­ese two monu­men­tal sculp­tures are the cross­ing of Cit­roën’s Icons and a re­flec­tion from the past to the fu­ture.”

“Based on the pro­cess of the evo­lu­tion, the vi­son of Ora-Ito com­bine his­toric and so­ci­o­log­i­cal tes­ti­mony by putt­ing aside estab­lished codes. The icon­o­clas­tic artist was not dream­ing about anot

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Home & Garden How to use your trimmer without tripping on the cord Apr 8, 2011 4:00 PM

Discussions of electric outdoor power equipment often focus on what a product can’t do—rather than what it can. The most common description found in our coverage? “Light duty,” especially with regard to battery-powered products. But for handheld gear, such as the string trimmers in our latest Ratings, light duty might be enough if your needs and property are modest.

I’ve used a corded string trimmer for years and have always been tripped up trying to keep the cord out of the way as I cut. This year Peter Sawchuk, who oversees our lawn gear tests, clued me in on how he avoids that pitfall. Sawchuk grabs the cord about six feet back from where it plugs into the trimmer (or other corded tool), makes a loop, and runs it up behind his belt, as shown in the photo. It stay

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Home & Garden Mower exchanges: Don’t trade one problem for another Apr 1, 2011 5:17 PM

Mowing your lawn for an hour can be as polluting as a long car ride if you’re still pushing a gas-powered mower made before 1997. Mower exchange programs can slice up to $250 off the cost of a greener cordless electric model. But based on Consumer Reports latest mower tests, not all cordless mowers cut it so you might end up trading your old clunker for a new one.

Run by state and local clean air agencies, mower exchanges work like this: The sponsoring agency is given a few thousand discounted mowers by manufacturers for each event. Programs generally start in April and run through the early mowing season. T

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