A washing machine breaks in the middle of the wash cycle. An oven stops heating an hour before company are to arrive. A dishwasher stops draining and floods the kitchen. These fears are something that every homeowner has in common because of their ability to lead to stress, frustration and thousands of dollars in out of pocket repairs. What many people don’t realize, however, is that many of these problems can be avoided if you use a bit of common sense and apply TLC to your home appliances before the need for a repair arises.
To keep your refrigerator working year after year, clean the coils. Dirt, dust and dander can clog these coils, making it difficult for air to circulate and causing your refrigerator to have to work harder to stay cold enough. To clean, use a handheld vacuum on an annual basis to suck up debris in and around the coils.
Perhaps one of the most costly appliances in your home is your central air and heating system. To keep it clean and operating efficiently, change your filters once every two to three months and more often if you have several pets in the home, family members with asthma or are a smoker. Make sure you know the proper sized filter to use and clean or replace it on a regular schedule.
While these tips won’t solve every home appliance repair need, they can help you to alleviate many concerns and keep your systems operating efficiently and for a longer period of time.
Easy Home Appliance Repair Tips
If you are like most people, you probably take your appliances for granted. It’s easy to get used to just reaching into the fridge for a cool drink, or putting a frozen pizza in the oven without even thinking about it. Unfortunately, however, home appliances do sometimes break down. When one of your primary residential appliances stops working, it immediately becomes apparent just how much you rely on it in your day-to-day life.
Rather than calling a professional to come in and fix your household appliance for you, you may want to consider trying to repair it yourself. Here are some easy home appliance repair tips to get you started.
First and foremost, you should know what type of repairs you can and can’t handle. Generally, any malfunctions that involve electricity should be left to a professional appliance service company, simply for the fact that working with electricity can be extremely dangerous. Also, any major repairs that require you to take the electric or gas appliance apart or that require specialized tools that you don’t have are generally best done by someone who is properly trained, such as a service technician.
To help you find some local repairmen you can check directory or review sites like YelloYello Appliance Service Proiders and Yelp Appliance Repair Companies.
Apart from that, however, you should be able to handle some minor repairs on your own. A good place to start is by searching for the owner’s manual for your gas or electric appliance. If you don’t have a copy of it, you should be able to find it online. In there, they should have a troubleshooting guide that can help you with some basic repairs.
If the manual doesn’t contain the information that you need, you can also try watching online videos for help. There are a variety of different how-to videos available on the Internet that can guide you through basic repairs.
As long as you are confident about your ability to work with tools or small parts, you should be able to fix a broken appliance using these easy home appliance service tips.
