Oops - Updated

Late yesterday, R went to get the tires changed and oil change on his car.  He walked into the dealership and explained what needed to be done with the car, and then commented that the key fob "stopped working".  They didn't ask any questions and he didn't volunteer the information that it stopped working AFTER it went through the wash.  So we got a new key fob free of charge. 

I couldn't help but laugh when he told me the story because something similar happened to me in college.  When I went to college, we were advised to get a battery backup system for my PC to make sure I wouldn't lose any valuable school work if we lost power.  One of the mornings during the first month of school, I was rushing to get ready and couldn't find an open outlet for my hair dryer.  Without really thinking, I plugged it into the battery backup since it had open outlets.  The hair dryer ran for a few minutes and then I heard a little pop and it cut out.  I figured it was the hair dryer, but then the battery backup started beeping.  Because the hair dryer pulls so much more current, it fried the circuits in the battery backup and it wouldn't work.  A few days later, I went to Office Max to return it and get a new one and all the store asked was whether it worked or not.  I said, no it didn't work (didn't mention that it stopped working after plugging my hair dryer into it), and they replaced it for me....free of charge. 

Now....I did read online that it shouldn't have fried the circuits by putting the hair dryer on there, it should have just popped the safety circuit and stopped working.  So there really was something wrong with it, but with the combination of the battery backup and the key fob...it was a little something that put a smile on my face.

Just remember this little story though...don't go plugging in anything that pulls a big current (like irons) into battery backups for computers!  Especially if you use something to protect the electronic circuitry on your sewing machines!