on Aug 5th, 2009The refrigerator
Your refrigerator delivers a great deal of service. Yet it demands very little preventive maintenance. Possibly your main responsibility to it is defrosting. If you do that whenever frost accumulates to about ¼ inch, the whole procedure takes only 15 minutes or so. Clean the coils every 90 days. For coils underneath the refrigerator, remove the grille and use the crevice tool on your vacuum cleaner. Use the vacuum cleaner’s dusting brush in coils hung on the back of the refrigerator. Keeping the coils clean improves cooling efficiency and saves electric energy. If the interior bulb won’t light, change the bulb. Clean around the light switch in the door frame; sometimes it gets gummed up. No light arid no cooling: Turn the refrigerator control on. Examine the power cord and plug. Reset circuit breakers in the main circuit box.
When your refrigerator doesn’t cool enough, check the thermostat setting. If you open the refrigerator door often, set the control a bit colder. Too much food packed in a refrigerator hampers cooling. Throw away or use leftovers. Leave space around each item for circulation. The gasket seal around the door may be worn or damaged; if so, replace it. If none of these steps remedies the poor operation, call a technician. Your range, whether gas or electric, works better clean. Boiled- over and spilled foods left on burners and reflector pans not only give off smoke and odors but also waste gas or electric energy. But don’t use metal implements to clean gas burner ports. They can alter the ports enough to create a safety hazard. Use a round wooden toothpick instead. Never clean the porcelain on your range while it’s hot (next page). If you have a range hood, clean its filter weekly to prevent grease buildup. Major repair to your range or oven takes a qualified technician. However, you can change heating elements in some electric ranges. Lift the forward edge of the element and tug gently to unplug it. Don’t try to unplug elements with visible wires. If your local appliance center doesn’t have replacements, contact your dealer or the manufacturer. Seals around the oven become worn in time and also need replacing. The methods to adjust gas range and oven calibrations are too numerous for you to mess with. Phone for service when calibrations are necessary. If you happen to smell escaping gas, don’t look for the leak with a match. Open the windows immediately and call a repairman.
Oven manufacturers don’t agree on commercial oven cleaners. Many say it clogs ports, damages thermocouples, and causes shorts and arcing in the light bulb socket. If you use an aerosol oven cleaner, rinse the oven afterward with a solution of one cup vinegar to a gallon of water. If you doubt commercial cleaners, try this trick. The night before you plan to clean, set a cup of undiluted household ammonia in the oven. The next morning, remove the cup of ammonia and you can wash the oven with a mild soap-and-water solution.