Archive for the ‘FAQ’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Refrigerator temperature: What temperature should a refrigerator be set at?

August 6, 2010

Flickr photo credit: olibac

Your refrigerator likely comes set at the factory-recommended temperature, probably a “mid-setting,” but what is that?

If you set the temperature too low, your food will freeze. Set it too high, however, and your food will spoil quicker due to increased bacterial growth.

The recommended temperature for your refrigerator ranges from 35 degrees to 38 degrees.

I keep my refrigerator at 37 degrees and try to keep it stocked well with food, because — believe it or not — a fully stocked fridge holds its temperature better than one with a couple condiment bottles in the door.

But the best test for your refrigerator’s temperature is a beverage. If you don’t like the temperature of your beverage, adjust the fridge. If you think your refrigerator is too cold, increase the temperature by 1 degree and allow 24 hours for the compartment to adjust. Obviously, do the opposite if you think your refrigerator is too warm.

To ensure proper temperatures, air has to be able to flow between the refrigerator and freezer sections.

As shown in the super sweet illustration, cool air from the refrigerator enters through the bottom of the freezer section and moves upward. Most of the air then flows through the freezer section vents and recirculates under the freezer floor. The rest of the air enters the refrigerator section through the top vent and flows down the back of the refrigerator compartment.

Make sure the air vents aren’t blocked by some errant food thing. Otherwise, it might block the flow of air to the refrigerator, which in turn causes temperature and moisture problems and melty ice cream, etc.

Also (word to the wise), last time my refrigerator was too warm — and I had cranked it up to the coldest setting — I (my dad) finally popped off my kick-plate to find a veritable lint blanket.

Lesson: if your refrigerator can’t exhaust properly, it can’t cool properly. So, vacuum the condenser every three months!

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Appliance Design, FAQ, Refrigerator | 6 Comments »

HOW TO: change a refrigerator water filter

August 2, 2010

Think of the children, won't you? Replace your refrigerator's water filter.

If your refrigerator dispenses water, chances are it uses a filter.

Most manufacturers recommend replacing the filter every six months to nine months, but certainly your fridge won’t blow up if you don’t. You might just drink some stanky water or notice a “decreased flow.” Or your ice maker won’t function as well.

Or you could just replace your filter when your status indicator light (or “change filter” light, as many customers call it) tells you to. Usually, this light lives on the temperature control panel. If you don’t have a change filter light, replace the filter based on the time frame recommendations outlined in the Use & Care manual you tucked away for safekeeping because you’re a responsible appliance owner.

Mostly, just use good sense, as the life of the filter depends on your usage and the quality of the water. If you notice a change in your water, replace your filter more frequently.

Many of you don’t know this, but I used to be somewhat of a water filter whisperer back in my Warners’ Stellian receptionist heyday. Customers never remember what the heck brand their fridge is when they come in for a replacement filter — not that I judged them. Picking up a replacement water filter falls under the “lost bet to spouse” level of fun errands. (On a related note, we offer free shipping on accessories totaling more than $50.)

I could generally qualify someone based on sketchy info, but not all receptionists possess such amazing skills, so do your homework. And even if you know your brand of refrigerator, it’s important to look at the filter itself as some brands make several types. Here’s how you replace your refrigerator water filter:

For the filters like the one picture above left, rotate the cap counterclockwise until its vertical pull the cap and filter cartridge out through the base grille. Push the new filter cartridge into the base grille until it stops with the cap in the vertical position. Rotate the cartridge cap clockwise to a horizontal position.

For the filters like those on the above right, press the eject button and pull the cap straight out. Don’t twist the cap or it will detach from the filter, and you’ll have to put the cap back on and try again the way I told you to in the first place. Got it? OK. Push the new filter into the opening in the base grille. The button will pop out when the filter is in place, but give the cap a tug to make sure.

This kind of filter, found in the upper right corner inside the refrigerator, is pretty easy to replace. Just turn the filter counterclockwise until it come out, drain it into the sink and trash it. Next, remove the seal from the new filter, insert the filter into the filter head and turn it clockwise until it stops. Easy.

This filter to the right often sits in the back right of the fridge.

To remove, turn the water filter 90 degrees counterclockwise (aka your left) until the filter releases. Take all the packaging crap off the new one, push it up into the housing and turn 90 degrees to the right. (Here’s where the directions include “close the door,” but I figure you can make that decision on your own.)

Once you replace the filter, make sure you flush air from the water system, otherwise you’re going to have a drippy dispenser in your kitchen driving you absolutely nuts. Watch this fun video or follow these directions:

Hold a container to the water dispenser lever for 5 seconds, and then release it for 5 seconds. Repeat until water comes out. Continue holding and releasing the dispenser lever (5 seconds on, 5 seconds off) until a total of 4 gallons has been dispensed. You might get a little spurting as the air clears out, so beware.

Can’t get to the store for a new filter? You can still remove and use the water dispenser in bypass mode. You just won’t have filtered water.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Appliance Design, FAQ, HOW TO, Refrigerator | 1 Comment »

Top 10 FAQ appliance blog posts

July 26, 2010

I realized that I’ve now been blogging for almost seven months, so some of the best posts could now be considered “old.”

But you can’t argue with success.

Based on reads, here are the most popular blog posts categorized as frequently asked questions or HOW TOs or that sort of thing.

1. Refrigerator seal & fridge maintenance

2. Ice maker troubleshooting

3. Dishwasher troubleshooting: Dishes not drying

4. 10 sneaky ways you’re wasting money in your kitchen

5. Should you put aluminum foil in the oven?

6. Why do front-load washers take so long?

7. Dishwasher troubleshooting: Dishes not cleaning

8. Cleaning your washer – 3 tips on how to clean a smelly washer

9. HOW TO:  clean and season a griddle

10. HOW TO: clean stainless steel appliances

Tags:, , , , , , , ,
Posted in Best, FAQ, HOW TO | Comments Off

Will it grind? My disposer dilemma

July 12, 2010

Growing up as appliance retail royalty, I never wanted for anything appliance-related.

(There was that one week when I was 11 when we didn’t have a fridge, so all I ate was Munchems and got violently ill, but I digress…)

I mean, we wore hand-me-downs and “new” meant from the thrift store, but God help us if we didn’t have a 1 horsepower Insinkerator disposer humming in the drain.

Why throw corn cobs and chicken bones in the trash, when they can be scraped right off into the disposer?

Fast forward my let-them-eat-cake perception of food waste disposal to Saturday:

After making lunch, I shove a broccoli stalk, fennel fronds and stems, half a lemon and a salmon skin down the disposer at the same time, turn on the water and flip the switch.

After about 30 seconds of fighting through — and clearing — the fibrous, fatty material, my disposer began its equivalent of whimpering and water began pooling up in the little sink.

Oops.

Apparently, I forgot where I was — my kitchen. Perhaps I should’ve taken my own advice on how to sharpen disposer blades. Suddenly, worries about plumbers and service calls and bills started coalescing into a decision to just hope that it cleared up on its own.

Too afraid to run the dishwasher, we ended up washing the dishes from the day’s barbecue in the laundry tub, which subsequently plugged up.

Oops.

Luckily, I know people who know things about appliances who also find the stupid people that break them (me) to be endearing. So I called him on Sunday.

Store manager friend: Does it still grind?

Me: Yes.

SMF: It’s just clogged. Buy some Liquid Plumr.

I threw half a bottle down the disposer drain and the other half down the laundry tub drain, waited 15 minutes and flushed hot water down the disposer while running it.

It made some gurgling/gobbling noises and then cleared itself up, wouldn’t you know it, for only $4. (Note: I’m now a HUGE fan of Liquid Plumr).

Lesson learned. Unless I install the Cadillac disposer, fibrous foods should be composted or cut it up into manageable bites and loaded into the disposer gradually.

Here’s a handy “will it grind?”-type chart I found from KitchenAid:

Everyday food scraps Yes
Vegetable peels
(Potato skins, melon and fruit rinds)		 Avoid grinding large amounts at one time. Instead, gradually feed vegetable peels in while running the water and the disposer.
Fibrous materials
(Celery, corn husks, artichokes)		 No; but some higher horsepower models can handle limited amounts of these food types.
Hard Materials – See NOTE below.
(Small bones, fruit pits, egg and lobster shells, crab and shrimp shells)		 Avoid grinding large amounts at one time. Instead, gradually feed hard materials in while running the water and the disposer

NOTE: If you are on a septic system, grinding large amounts of these types of waste may require more frequent cleaning of the septic tank system.

I’m curious as to what other people successfully and unsuccessfully grind in their disposers. Or do you think disposers are a problem in general? (I’ve never lived without one…)

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Appliance Design, Cleaning, Disposer, FAQ | Comments Off

Loud refrigerator? We hear ya

July 7, 2010

Image: maxabout.com

If you’ve replaced your refrigerator within the last several years, your shiny new model might be making its presence known in noisier way.

Why?

For one, foam insulation — often used to make these appliances more energy-efficient — lacks the sound-baffling capabilities of fiberglass insulation incorporated into previous energy hogs.

Here’s some other “normal” sounds to expect, along with their abnormal counterparts:

Evaporator coil

A boiling, surging or gurgling sound as the compressor starts and stops. Also, a pop as the evaporator expands and contracts after defrosting.

Evaporator fan

The sound of air being forced through the unit is normal, but a continuous ticking or even intermittent squealing is abnormal.

Defrost heater

Sizzling or hissing sound from water dropping onto the heater during defrost cycle

Compressor

Newer fridges’ compressors are much more efficient and run much faster, giving off a high-pitched hum, whine or pulse. But watch out for clicking during start up (especially if the lights dim), banging or knocking during start or stop, a ping or snap followed by the compressor stopping.

Cold control and defrost timer

A snapping or ticking sound as the refrigerator turns on and off

Plastic liner

Cracking or popping as the temperatures change

Drain pan

Running water during or after the defrost cycle

Water valve

Buzzing, clicking or running water as the icemaker fills or water is dispensed

Icemaker

Cracking of ice and cubes dropping into the bin

Condenser fan

Air being forced over the condenser is normal, but squealing from the motor is abnormal.

Condenser

You should hear a surging or gurgling sound from the flow of refrigerant when the compressor runs, but an improperly placed drain pan could cause rattling.

If the normal sounds bother you, consider a piece of rubber-backed carpet for underneath the fridge. You could even put sound absorbing materials inside the cabinet if the refrigerator sits in an enclosure.

Tags:, , , , , , , ,
Posted in Appliance Design, customer service, Energy Efficiency, FAQ, Refrigerator | Comments Off

Oven cleaning tips

July 1, 2010

Photo credit - las_intially

If your oven is setting off the smoke alarm every time you make a pizza, it might be time to give it a good cleaning.

Self-clean ovens have a setting that allows it reach very high temperatures and burn food mess off into ashes. Do NOT use oven cleaners on self-clean ranges, and make sure to take the racks out before you start a cleaning cycle to ensure they continue to glide well.

If you don’t have a setting for cleaning your oven, you’ll have to manually clean it of course. (I can hear my grandpa, who started Warners’ Stellian, making some sort of joke related to manual-clean ovens actually being self-clean: “Of course it is…you clean it yourself!”)

To manually clean your oven:

1. Make sure you’ve allowed the cavity to properly cool down. We don’t need any heroes on our hands.

2. Remove the oven racks. These can be cleaned with steel wool, water and dish soap. To get off trickier messes, put racks in a garbage bag in a cup of ammonia overnight in the backyard and rinse with the garden hose in the morning.

3. First try scubbing the oven cavity with soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge. Hopefully, this will do the trick.

4. If more rigorous cleaning is needed, our customer service rep, Amy, suggests the following natural oven-cleaning remedies:

  • Pour ¼ cup ammonia and 2 cups of warm water in a bowl in your oven, and close it up tight. If you’re at home during this, make sure you open a window so no one gets sick. You can clean out the dirty oven with a scrubby sponge after a few hours or overnight.
  • Fill a spray bottle with 1 tablespoon Borax (which works great as a cheap laundry detergent booster), 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil dishwashing soap and a quart of warm water. Spray the oven walls, scrub it clean after an hour and rinse thoroughly.
  • A paste of baking soda and vinegar left on the oven cavity surface could work well, but be careful to cover the holes of the gas line if you have a gas range really REALLY well, because if they get clogged, that’s a bad thing. If you go this route, you should be able to scrape off food mess with a spatula. Wipe out the oven thoroughly afterwards.

Anyone ever try these tricks? I’m going to have to pretty soon on the manual-clean oven in my new house. I’ll report back.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Cleaning, FAQ, HOW TO | 8 Comments »

The bad habit that can waste 20 gallons of water

May 17, 2010

You might not wash your dishes before you wash your dishes, but even rinsing is completely unnecessary.

Energy Star, a joint program by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, cautions people to scrape, not rinse. Pre-rinsing dishes can waste up to 20 gallons of water.

Energy Star dishwashers and today’s detergents are designed to do the cleaning so you don’t have to pre-rinse.

And if your dirty dishes are going to sit overnight, use your dishwasher’s rinse feature. It uses a fraction of the water needed to hand rinse.

Speaking of a using a fraction of the water, a dishwasher built before 1994 wastes about 8 gallons of water per cycle compared to owning a new Energy Star-qualified model. So if you replace one of these old dishwashers with an Energy Star dishwasher, you’re saving enough water each week to wash two loads of laundry in an Energy Star qualified clothes washer.

So be lazy: scrape, don’t rinse!

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Cleaning, Dishwashers, Energy Efficiency, FAQ | 2 Comments »

HOW TO: remove burnt popcorn smell from your microwave

May 12, 2010

Burnt popcorn smell lingers in microwaves so badly, an office I worked in banned it from the break room. It’s notorious, but completely removable.

If your microwave harbors its own dirty Pop Secrets, try this cleaning tip we got from Frigidaire (hat tip to Sarah from our Customer Service Department):

Microwave Odor Removal

You’ll need:

  • 1 cup water
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • grated lemon peel
  • several whole cloves

Combine together in a 2-cup glass measuring cup and boil for several minutes in the microwave on full power. Allow hot mixture to sit in the microwave until cool. Wipe interior with a soft cloth.

Though this tip wasn’t specifically written for burnt popcorn, I can’t think of much else that smells up a microwave. Help me out in the comments below!

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Cleaning, FAQ, HOW TO, Microwave, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Should you put aluminum foil in the oven?

May 6, 2010

Want more kitchen help? Subscribe to get tips & tricks in your inbox

Don't shoot yourself in the foot trying to keep a clean oven.

Warners’ Stellian‘s expert service guy, Gene, passed on a cautionary tale to me yesterday after he ordered a new, $90 oven floor for a customer.

A well-meaning woman lined the bottom of her oven with aluminum foil, to catch all the food that bakes into the oven.

Instead of having to scrape it all off, she could just pull out the aluminum foil and voila, no more mess.

Except she ended up with a bigger mess when the aluminum foil melted onto the oven.

For years, people had lined their ovens with tin foil to speed clean up. But these days, we don’t use tin foil. We use aluminum foil. And aluminum has a much lower heat tolerance, apparently.

And aluminum foil-maker Reynolds warns against it.

From the Reynolds FAQ webpage:

To avoid possible heat damage to your oven, we do not recommend using aluminum foil to line the bottom of your oven. Rather, we recommend that you place a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil on the oven rack beneath the pie or casserole you are baking. The foil should be only a few inches larger than the baking pan to allow for proper heat circulation. The foil will catch any drips before they reach the oven bottom.

There you go. Smart play on Reynolds part, right? Because you know people will end up getting rid of the sheet of foil and using a new one next time…

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Cleaning, FAQ, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Washer vibration leaving your laundry room all shook up?

April 21, 2010

Asko, whose latest designer series is pictured, designed its front-load laundry for main-floor applications from the start. Other manufacturers took a while, but most problems have been worked out.

Front-loading washers have been available long enough now that we’re replacing more and more first generation units of the now ubiquitous style of washing machines.

Front-loader washers clean better, use less water and (my favorite feature) spin more water out of the clothes with spin speeds around 1200 RPMs. But all those rotations made some customers’ experience with the earliest models a bit, well, shaky.

The washer would vibrate. It would move. Customers would call and say, “My washer is walking across the floor!” Things would fall off the walls. I heard of an extreme case in which a customer’s sheetrock shook loose.

Of course, it wasn’t solely the washers’ fault. People pulled washers and dryers out of the basements they were designed for, reinforced with their sturdy concrete block, and put them where they were never supposed to go: upstairs. Empty nesters converted their children’s former closets on the second floor and ended up chasing runaway machines. Families tucked laundry units into main floor kitchens without reinforcing the floors.

The problems were real for some. Fortunately, those problems came out in the wash (rimshot, please?) as most manufacturers since beefed up the suspensions of front-load washers.

So your friends’ warnings about front-load washers likely are moot dangers. You should still reinforce the floors if you’re converting a space for laundry, and if so, pedestals might not be the best bet*, but several manufacturers now guarantee that you’ll be happy putting their front-loader on your main floor.

If your existing washer is on the move, pick up a vibration isolation pad, like ShakeAway, at your local appliance parts dealer. I like Dey Appliance Parts, because I’ve had the number to its Snelling Avenue outfit memorized for about eight years now: (651)647-0171.

*Miele’s pedestals attach to the laundry units with bolts, making it the safest bet for elevated laundry on uncertain surfaces


Posted in FAQ, laundry, Washer | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 58 other followers