About
Meet Tim Rhodes and learn what Kitchen Dimes covers, how its guides are put together and how the site handles trust.
I started Kitchen Dimes because small kitchen decisions add up, and too many of them get made on the strength of a brochure, a rushed sales pitch or a confusing error light. I’m Tim Rhodes, and this site shares kitchen product reviews and practical information for home cooks in the United States. My aim is simple: help you understand what you are looking at well enough to make your own good decision.
What Kitchen Dimes is for
The mission is to give plain answers to practical questions about choosing, using and caring for kitchen appliances and cookware. Sometimes that means explaining the difference between two products. Sometimes it means helping you decide whether a tired appliance deserves a repair, a technician or a replacement. Either way, I want you to come away knowing why the answer is what it is.
What I cover
The site’s two categories are Cooking Appliances and Major Appliances. The first deals with stoves, ranges, cooktops, wall ovens, microwaves and range hoods. The second deals with refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, dishwashers, garbage disposals and whole-kitchen brands and packages. Along the way, Kitchen Dimes also looks at the gear home cooks use around those appliances, including pans, woks, knives, coffee makers, blenders and pressure canners. Whole-house systems and anything outside the kitchen fall outside the site’s scope.
How I work
I’m skeptical by nature, but I try to be useful about it. I read the manuals and specifications, I check safety questions against public guidance, and I keep asking why a claim should be true until I get an answer that makes sense. Then I try to write that answer down the way I’d explain it to a neighbor standing in my kitchen. The cards on this page spell out those steps in more detail.
What you can rely on
I don’t hold trade credentials, and Kitchen Dimes doesn’t run a test lab. My years of poking around my own appliances are the reason I ask these questions, not evidence that a particular product is good. That is why I try to show my reasoning and name the kind of source behind it, so you can judge it for yourself. The site does earn from Amazon’s affiliate program, and I lay that out on the Disclosure page so that you never have to guess.
Stay in touch
I welcome readers’ questions, along with product suggestions and corrections. The Contact page has what you need to get in touch.
What are you looking for?
Cooking Appliances
Plain answers on stoves and ovens, plus cooktops, microwaves and range hoods, covering buying, fuel choice, safe use and troubleshooting.
Major Appliances
Practical guidance on major kitchen appliances, including refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, dishwashers, garbage disposals and appliance packages.
Who writes here
Tim Rhodes
I was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a house where a broken appliance was a puzzle before it was a bill. My dad's answer to most household trouble was to unplug the thing, find the manual and sit down on the kitchen floor with it. My mother's answer was to keep supper moving, usually a pot of soup beans on the stove and cornbread in a cast iron skillet, whatever was going on around her feet. Between the two of them, I grew up believing a kitchen was worth understanding.
I'm 55 now, and I have spent years as a committed do-it-yourself homeowner doing what my dad did. My dishwasher, my garbage disposal, my refrigerator and my oven have each had a turn at sending me to the floor with a flashlight. Some of those problems I sorted out myself, some went to a repair technician, and a few ended with me buying new. The question was always the same, and it was never really about the machine. It was whether this was worth fixing, worth paying someone else to fix, or ready to be retired.
Somewhere along the way, I became the person who asks why. When a brochure promises a miracle or someone on a showroom floor tells me one range is simply better, I want to know why that should be true. I like a good answer, and I'm happy to change my mind for one. I just don't accept "everybody knows" as a reason, and I never much liked paying for a feature nobody could explain.
That habit is what Kitchen Dimes grew out of. The name fits the way I think about a kitchen, because small decisions and small fixes add up over the years. I share kitchen product reviews and practical information about appliances such as refrigerators and dishwashers, along with the cookware and tools home cooks reach for every day. I'm not a licensed technician and I don't run a test lab, and my time on the kitchen floor is where my questions come from rather than proof that any product is good. What I can offer is a stubborn curiosity and a plain explanation. If you have a question about something in your own kitchen, I'd be glad to hear it.
More about Tim Rhodes →How we work
Start with the real question
I begin with what a home cook is trying to decide, such as whether a container is safe to heat or whether a failing appliance deserves another repair. A useful answer has to fit that moment, so I put the plain answer near the top and then explain what it depends on.
Go to the primary sources
I look first at owner's manuals, manufacturer specifications, care instructions and installation guides. For food safety and home safety, I turn to public guidance from sources such as the USDA and the FDA. Forum lore and marketing copy can raise a good question, but they don't settle one.
Ask why it should be true
Every claim has to come with a reason that makes sense. If a pan is said to heat more evenly or a feature is said to save money, I want to know what mechanism would cause that and how much it would matter in a home kitchen. When I can't find a good reason, I say so instead of repeating the claim.
Separate the fit from the verdict
Most kitchen decisions depend on your space, your hookups, your budget and the way you cook. I try to spell out who a choice suits, who should skip it and what trade-offs come with it. Where the evidence is thin or the answer depends on your model, I say that plainly and point you to the document that can settle it.
What you can expect
No lab and no pretending
Kitchen Dimes is not a test lab, and I don't claim professional testing. I'm also not a licensed technician, so nothing here should be read as a trade credential. Treat a recommendation as reasoned research, and give it weight according to the sources and explanation behind it.
Affiliate links in the open
Kitchen Dimes participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and product roundups link to Amazon with the site's Associates tag. The site may earn from qualifying purchases made through those links. The site carries no display ads, and the full details are on the [Disclosure page](/disclosure/).
Safety comes before savings
Saving a service call is never worth a gas leak, an electrical shock or an unsafe jar of home-canned food. When a job involves gas lines, high voltage, sealed refrigerant systems or anything else that belongs with a qualified professional, I say so directly. Your manufacturer's instructions take priority over anything you read here.
Corrections are welcome
Models change, manuals get revised and I get things wrong like anybody else. If you spot an error, send the page address and what you found through the [Contact page](/contact/). A better explanation is always welcome here, and I would rather fix a mistake than defend it.