When an unfortunate event happens, like a refrigerator or a stove breaking down – it can cause you some significant inconvenience. On top of that, it’ll certainly cost a hefty sum to fix those appliances. For that reason, it’s more than recommended to regularly maintain all of your kitchen appliances, no matter how often you use them or how old they are. Since not a lot of people are familiar with kitchen appliance maintenance, we’ve decided to create a list of helpful tips on how to maintain and prolong the life of your stoves, fridges, and rest of the kitchen appliances.
To make this whole thing easier and simpler, we’ve divided these tips into categories for each individual appliance. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Stove
1. Check The Oven Door Seal
One of the things that can cause your stove to break down or perform badly is a faulty oven door. For that reason, we would suggest that you check the seal of the oven door, from time to time, to make sure it’s doing its job properly. A seal that’s not tight will allow for heat to leave the oven, which will negatively affect cooking time as well as the quality of the food.
2. Recalibrate Thermostat
After prolonged use, the stove’s thermostat can become somewhat faulty. You may think you’re baking something at 300 degrees, when in fact you’re not. Luckily, you can easily solve this problem by recalibrating it. It sounds tricky, we’ll admit, but in fact, it’s an easy task anyone can do. All you’ll need to do is follow the instruction manual, step by step and that’s it.
3. Clean The Stovetop Bowls
One of the things that people often forget to wash or clean is the stovetop drip bowls. By maintaining clean stovetop bowls, you retain the maximum efficiency of your stove. They are really easy to clean. All you have to do is to remove them, soak them in hot water or cleaning solution for about 5 to 10 minutes, before scrubbing it clean. After scrubbing – rinse them with warm water and put them back on the stove. If they get so messy you can’t clean them, you can replace them with new ones.
4. Clean The Oven Easily
To be fair, this is the most commonly cleaned part of the stove. However, many people spend too much time cleaning it when there’s a neat trick on how to do it faster. First of all, remove the racks and clean them separately. For the inside of the oven, use baking soda. Rub a mix of baking soda and water all over the inside of the oven and let it sit overnight. Wipe clean in the morning and finish it off with apple cider vinegar spray and wipe.
Dishwasher
5. Clean The Dishwasher
Most of the newer models have self-cleaning features, nevertheless, it is recommended that you manually clean the dishwasher every now and then. The first thing you do is remove and clean the racks separately. As for the inside of the dishwasher – remove and clean the filter and remove any food leftovers that may be residing within.
6. Remove Rust and Lime Build-Up
One of the most common problems dishwashers face is rust and lime build-up. In most cases, you’ll hear the professionals like prominencesupport.co.uk say that it’s always better to prevent build-ups from ever happening than to deal with them once they become obvious. By regularly inspecting your dishwasher and DIY cleaning with ACV and baking soda – you should never have to deal with lime build-up or rust in your dishwasher.
Microwave
7. Clean The Microwave
It doesn’t take much for a microwave to look like the one found in the Dunder Mifllin Inc’s kitchen. We often forget about microwave because we rarely use them for anything other than heating up pre-made food. However, food stains and crumbs get stuck in the oven and they look horrible. Not only that, they could be potentially harmful to your health if left sitting for a long time. Luckily for you, cleaning the microwave oven is extremely easy. Spray the inside of the oven with vinegar and place a bowl filled with water inside it. Turn it on and let the water boil and fill the oven with steam to easily remove the stains from the walls. Once everything’s softened up – just wipe it clean.
Coffee Machine
8. Clean The Coffee Machine
If you have an espresso machine, the only way to make sure it keeps working for a long time is to clean it at least once every other day. coffee grounds can easily block the water flow and make your coffee bad and ultimately break your coffee machine. If you’re using a milk steamer, wiping it clean and blowing it out after every use is paramount. Visit Coffeehow and find out more about these machines.
Refrigerator
9. Vacuum The Coils
The most important part of the fridge is on the backside, the one we never seem to clean. However, we really should. Vacuum the dust or any other dirt found on the coils to make for easier airflow and optimal cooling performance.
10. Change The Filter
If your fridge also has a water or ice dispenser, it is highly recommended to change the filter at least twice a year. That way you’re certain you’re drinking clean water while also making sure nothing goes wrong with your fridge.
11. Check The Door Seal
Once again, it’s important to check the doors and inspect the seals to ensure better cooling. If the doors aren’t sealed properly, the inside of the fridge will warm up and the fridge will have to work harder to cool everything down. This also means it’ll use too much energy to do so, which will ultimately lead to a breakdown.
12. Get Rid Of Smells
Fridges can get smelly sometimes. Even though this won’t necessarily affect the efficiency of the fridge – it’ll affect the food in it. You can get rid of the nasty smells by cleaning the fridge with any cleaning solution and filling it with old newspapers and charcoal. Close it and leave it overnight. If the smell still lingers, repeat the process.
As you can see and you probably could’ve guessed – it’s all about keeping your appliances clean. If you manage to do that, then you probably have nothing to worry about.