Robert Krughoff dies

Robert Krughoff started Washington consumers checkbook in 1976, checkbook magazine expanded to several other cities, including the San Francisco area over the years.

This was a spin off of consumer reports to rate local businesses for their honesty and efficiency, and doing anything from repairing appliances to plumbing air-conditioning roofs they also reviewed healthcare items and issues.

I post this here because I think this man and the organization did more to save thousands of vintage appliances than anybody I can think of

When consumer reports went on a rampage 15 20 years ago of recommending not repairing appliances after only a few years checkbook, consistently recommended repairing them if possible ( consumer reports stopped giving out this bad advice about six or eight years ago after thousands of readers complained about the wasteful nature of just recommending replacement over repairs )

Checkbook magazine here in the Washington area was responsible for at least a quarter of our total business by recommending the top performing companies.

Among the many findings they found over the years is they often found that there is no correlation between price and quality often the least expensive contractors were actually the best ones .

Luckily checkbook magazine lives on Robert retired from it about two years ago. I got to know this man personally when I was on television with him one time promoting the magazine

John.


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Post# 1173491 3/2/2023 at 06:25 (429 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)
Checkrate/Likes 7 Robert Krughoff started Washington consumers checkbook in 1976, checkbook magazine expanded to several other cities, including the San Francisco area over the years. This was a spin off of consumer reports to rate local businesses for their honesty and efficiency, and doing anything from repairing appliances to plumbing air-conditioning roofs they also reviewed healthcare items and issues. I post this here because I think this man and the organization did more to save thousands of vintage appliances than anybody I can think of When consumer reports went on a rampage 15 20 years ago of recommending not repairing appliances after only a few years checkbook, consistently recommended repairing them if possible ( consumer reports stopped giving out this bad advice about six or eight years ago after thousands of readers complained about the wasteful nature of just recommending replacement over repairs ) Checkbook magazine here in the Washington area was responsible for at least a quarter of our total business by recommending the top performing companies. Among the many findings they found over the years is they often found that there is no correlation between price and quality often the least expensive contractors were actually the best ones . Luckily checkbook magazine lives on Robert retired from it about two years ago. I got to know this man personally when I was on television with him one time promoting the magazine John.

Post# 1173495 , Reply# 1 3/2/2023 at 09:49 (429 days old) by philcobendixduo (San Jose)
Checkrate/Likes 5 *Sorry to hear.....* .....of Robert's passing. I am a long time subscriber and have always highly valued the articles and ratings found in Checkbook magazine. I stopped subscribing to Consumer Reports some years ago when the articles and ratings started getting "watered down" into short little "snippets" rather than in-depth evaluations. These days, one can find plenty of product ratings by just searching online.

Post# 1173528 , Reply# 2 3/2/2023 at 17:41 (428 days old) by Hippiedoll ( arizona )
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Sorry to read the sad news...* My condolences for Robert's passing. I never heard of the magazine, but he sounds like he was a blessing to our community of vintage appliance owners. 😔

Post# 1173563 , Reply# 3 3/3/2023 at 05:48 (428 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *How many people have used checkbook?* Curious about how many automatic washer fans have use this great service and if it�s in your city. Apparently they get 190,000 inquiries a month for information about consumer services. Unlike Angie�s list and other commercial services checkbook is completely non-commercial you cannot advertise in it different vendors cannot affect its ratings. John.