Forum Friday: Fall yard work, best furnaces, and dishwasher love

We're always happy to see your comments on our blog entries. There's another place for you to vent or to share information with fellow readers: our home and yard and appliances forums. Since most forum messages are posted over the weekend, we're debuting Forum Friday posts to tip you off to the timeliest topics. For example:

• If you've spent more time lately following politics than tending to your yard, our fall-cleanup forum has some savvy tips from Consumer Report garden guru Peter Sawchuk on how you can play catch-up on your cleanup. We've also put together this very useful mix of raking strategies and equipment ratings.

• If you're dreading winter's chill and heating bills, discussions like Which gas furnace should I buy? cover geothermal heating and other topics and offer dozens of first-hand accounts. You'll also find a spirited discussion of our reviews of tankless water heaters and replacement windows.

• On the appliances forum, our dishwashers discussion is attracting a fair amount of traffic as more people are reporting problems with a wide range of models or touting the better-performing ones in I love my dishwasher.

• More warmth is radiating from a discussion of the pros, cons, and costs of slow cookers in our small-appliances forum. And as often happens, members are swapping notes on the real-world performance and unforeseen pitfalls of new products. This discussion about GE's Advantium oven shows how forum postings complement our formal ratings and user reviews (available to subscribers).

Essential Information: Preview our our six free e-newsletters to stay up on the latest news.

Homelite recalls 370,000 chain saws

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on October 30, 2008, announced the recall of about 370,000 Homelite chain saws whose chain brake could fail to stop the chain on its first application, posing a risk of laceration ris. For full details, including a list of the 10 Homelite models affected, visit this CPSC recall page.

If you're using a chain saw as part of your fall cleanup, here's what you need to know:

• Our anatomy of a chain saw lists specific performance and safety features on the models included in our latest report on chain saws (ratings are available to subscribers). It's interesting to note that seven models lacked a chain brake. That's significant, since checking the chain brake leads the advice in our primer on chain-saw maintenance.

• Our advice for safer sawing and the video (right) illustrate proper protective equipment and sawing technique.

• Cutting down a tree is a job best left to the pros, particularly for trees larger than about 6 inches around. While trees often fall in the direction they’re leaning, it can be tricky to know where they'll come down. The University of Missouri’s extension center's Web site is among several with illustrated tree- felling techniques.

Q&A: How should I prepare for an earthquake?

We've moved to the Los Angeles area from the Northeast and just went through our first earthquake. What should we do to prepare for an earthquake?

Scientists are seizing the aftermath of the 5.4-magnitude earthquake that hit Southern California on July 29 as a "teaching moment." (See map below.) They've been doing hundreds of media interviews in a bid to better prepare the public for future earthquake activity.

As we note in our earthquake coverage on our Storm & Emergency Guide seismic activity is not confined to the West Coast. Follow our advice to gird your home so it can better withstand seismic shock.

For instance, you can bracket and brace bookcases, hanging pictures, chandeliers, and appliances to studs and joists; for a ceiling fan, ensure that the electrical box it attaches to is designed to support its weight and properly secured to framing; equip gas lines with automatic shut-off valves to reduce the chance of explosion and fire; and, if allowed by local building codes, replace rigid gas and water connectors with flexible connectors that can move during a quake.

We've also provided similar commonsense and cost-effective ways to harden your home against hurricanes, tornadoes and high winds, floods, and wildfires.

Emergency-management experts stressed in "Be Prepared for Weather Emergencies" that it's essential to have a plan to safeguard your papers and properties before a natural disaster strikes and safely evacuate your family. You'll find printable instructions on these preparations in our Storm & Emergency Guide.—Gian Trotta

Essential information: Read our product reports and expert advice if you need a chain saw or power generator as part of your emergency planning.

Earthquake map courtesy of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.