Maybe your grandma used to use tinfoil to line her oven floor to aid cleanup.
But times have changed; tinfoil is no longer made of tin. The stuff you use to shield your ham is actually aluminum foil, which has a lower heat tolerance.
The high temperatures of your oven floor can actually cause the foil to melt right onto that oven surface.
And you can’t clean it off.
We’ve had Warners’ Stellian customers spend hundreds of dollars replacing the oven floor on relatively new ranges because of this well-intentioned mistake.
Instead, aluminum foil-makers suggest you line the oven rack you’re using with aluminum foil rather than lining the oven itself.
Just like you might get an oil change before going on a road trip, you might have considered cleaning your oven before hosting a holiday party.
Here’s some advice:
Don’t.
Every holiday we get a panicked call from a well-meaning customer who ran the self-clean on her oven and afterwards, the oven didn’t unlock (in this cautionary tale, Northland Service was able to unlock the oven in the nick of time). Of course, this isn’t what’s supposed to happen; the self-clean mode should just work like a charm.
But we all know that things don’t always turn out as they should, and if it’s going to malfunction, Murphy’s Law dictates that it will be right before your in-laws show up.
Gasket, seal, “rubber thing” — whatever you call it, keep it moistened.
If you’ve noticed ice crystals on your frozen foods or condensation in your fridge, check your refrigerator seal. After some troubleshooting, you might be able to repair your refrigerator seal without having to resort to a refrigerator gasket replacement.
Test Refrigerator Seal
First, open your refrigerator’s freezer door and slip a dollar bill against where the gasket seals to the freezer cabinet. Then shut the door to hold the bill in place.
If the bill slips out, your seal isn’t tight.
Repair Refrigerator Seal
Fortunately, in many cases there is something you can do about it. In the past, some manufacturers and care books recommended using Vaseline (petroleum jelly) to help keep the seal in top shape. And while you can still use small amounts of the stuff to help break in a new gasket against the frame, it’s no longer recommended as a long-term fix.
Instead, try our current recommendation. Simply heat the gasket with a hair dryer or warm water, close the door and keep it closed for an hour or so to let the magnet align the gasket. And presto! It should help to extend the life of your refrigerator seal.
In most cases that should do the trick and revive the rubber grip of your fridge’s youth AND keep your foods nice and chilly.
When buying appliances, people often focus on two days of the year: Thanksgiving and Christmas.
What matters at that moment to you is finding a range whose oven accommodates a massive turkey.
Or, thinking about overflow casseroles and Christmas cookies, you opt for double ovens.
But what about the other 363 days of the year? If you’re not a serious baker, that second oven sits cold. And warming up that range with the huge oven capacity for a couple of baked potatoes wastes time and energy.
Appliances that Multitask
Instead, a trend we’re seeing is assembling a team of appliances that can work alone during normal operations but also can multitask for occasional holidays and parties.
So instead of a giant range, combine a double oven range and convection microwave.
The smaller upper oven of the range can be used for one-dish meals. Come Christmas, you can bake a dessert up top while a roasts monopolizes the lower oven. The convection microwave can bake a casserole. A convection microwave also works overtime when paired with a single oven, perfect for those who won’t make enough use of a double oven.
Better yet, make that second oven a speed oven for the ultimate versatility.
This GE Advantium cooks up to 4 times faster than your grandmother’s oven – covering all 4 bases: warming/proofing, true convection, sensor microwave (that can rotate a 9×13 casserole on its turntable!) and of course, speed cooking.
The people behind the Parade of Homes (the Builders Association of the Twin Cities) awarded 14 of the best homes on the tour with the coveted Reggie Award, as chosen by peers and the members of the public.
Because of our help with two of those projects, we’ve got a Trillium Award for each hand (in case one gets jealous).
Carla Warner, VP/Director of Sales; Bob Rohweder, Contract Sales Representative
We’re so proud to be involved in these award-winning projects and honored to be recognized. Thanks to all involved!
Maybe your grandma used to use tinfoil to line her oven floor to aid cleanup.
We’ve had Warners’ Stellian customers spend hundreds of dollars replacing the oven floor on relatively new ranges because of this well-intentioned mistake.
