by Bob Meadows http://www.angieslist.com/articles/how-avoid-appliance-repairs.htm
We all depend on our household appliances. But we often take for granted that our milk will stay cold, the dishes will be spotless and that those clothes in the washing machine will come out clean.
It’s inevitable that one of your appliances will break down one day and you’ll be faced with a repair-or-replace decision, but there are things you can do to help prolong the life of the appliances you rely on every day. I’ve been an appliance repair technician for more than 30 years now, so I see daily how appliance failures and breakdowns can be prevented with the right information.
Here are some guidelines and maintenance tasks to perform periodically to help save you money and frustration:
1. Washing machines
Make sure your empty everything out of all your pockets before you wash your clothes. Coins left behind in pockets can damage the washing machine’s pump and a forgotten fountain pen can permanently ruin a whole load of laundry.
Never overload the machine. Heavy or off-balance loads can destroy a washing machine. Most people think that if a washing machine features a larger tub, it can handle much larger loads, but if you want your washing machine to last, do smaller loads.
2. Dryers
You should always clean the lint screen before every load, but lint will still build up inside the dryer and the dryer vent line. To prevent the possibility of a dryer or dryer vent fire, it’s extremely important to have your dryer taken apart and vacuumed out every few years, as well as cleaning out the dryer vent line.
3. Refrigerators
If you want your refrigerator to last a long time, you must keep the condenser clean. A dirty condenser will cause the refrigerator compressor to overheat and fail prematurely. I check the condenser on every refrigerator I work on and most of the time they are packed with lint and animal hair. Most people just don’t know or they forget to do this crucial maintenance.
Replacing a refrigerator is expensive and it only takes a few minutes to vacuum out the condenser and protect the life span of your refrigerator compressor.
4. Dishwashers
Rinse all the food off dishes with warm water before you load them into the dishwasher. You may have heard that it’s OK to leave food on your dishes, but it’s not. The food has to go somewhere and it usually ends up clogging the pump, drain lines or spray arms, and then you’ll need to call an appliance repair service.
5. Ovens and ranges
If and when you use the oven’s self-cleaning cycle, the oven gets very hot. The extreme heat emits toxic fumes that can be harmful to your health and cause expensive oven components to fail. Often, I’m called out to repair an oven right after someone has used the self-clean cycle. If you wipe up any spills in the oven right after they occur, you should never have to use the self-clean cycle.
On most gas ranges and cooktops, the igniter switches are located directly under the burner control knobs. Be very careful and don’t let any moisture get on these switches, as a spill from cooking or cleaning can cause these switches to fail and catch fire.
Following these few simple tips will save you money and unnecessary frustration. Before making the decision to replace a broken appliance, have it checked out by an honest appliance repair service. Repairing what you have may be a lot wiser and less expensive than buying new, and a trustworthy and experienced appliance technician can help you with that decision.