6 Cleaning Tips to Keep Your Appliances In Top Shape Over Time

Cleaning your appliances isn’t just about appearances. With a regular wash schedule, your appliances will run more efficiently and last a lot longer than they might have otherwise. It can potentially solve some problems, too – a lot of appliance troubles start with clogs or build up that you can eliminate with a deep cleaning. Motivated to maintain your appliances with cleaning? Great! Pull on those rubber gloves and grab a sponge. In this article, we’re setting you up with six tips to keep your appliances in top shape through cleaning.

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1. Manage Hard Water Build Up

Hard water doesn’t just leave behind stains, it can impair the use of your appliances, particularly your dishwasher. Those mineral deposits left behind by hard water can build up on just about anything, leading to less efficient draining and even clogging in your dishwasher’s spray arms. Luckily, you don’t need anything fancy to get rid of hard water build up. A bottle of vinegar will do!

Here’s how to conquer hard water deposits in your dishwasher:

1. Start a normal dishwasher cycle and let it go for three to five minutes. You’re letting the dishwasher basin fill with water.
2. Open the door to disrupt the cycle and pour about a gallon of white vinegar into the water in the bottom basin.
3. Close it up and let this vinegar and water mix sit for at least 12 hours. This will dissolve any build up in the base.
4. After 12 hours have passed, turn the dishwasher back on and let the cycle finish to fully clear out the spray arms and drain everything.
5. Optionally, you can wipe down the interior with a sponge once everything’s done, but this may not be necessary.

You can use similar methods on other appliances that are exposed to hard water:

• Build up in your washer? Pour four cups of white vinegar into the empty basin, then run the washer on the hottest, longest wash setting without detergent. Wipe out the interior with a sponge, and then do one more no detergent run to clear your washer of that vinegar smell.

• Hard water deposits can stop the flow of water in your ice maker or water dispenser. If you can maneuver a cup or tray of white vinegar into place, you can soak the part that’s blocked. Otherwise, wrapping it in a warm vinegar soaked rag and letting it sit for a while can help to break down some of the build up.

Keeping your appliances clear of mineral deposits will help them run more efficiently and prolong their lifespans. If you’re fighting hard water, it’s a good idea to incorporate a vinegar cleaning session into your regular cleaning schedule for all your appliances.

2. Keep Clear Of Clogs

Clogs can happen in all sorts of appliances, and when they do, they can look an awful lot like a broken appliance. Keeping your dishwashers, dryers, and washers clear of debris can make them run more efficiently and protect components from damage like overheating. Lets take a look at some specific examples:

Check your dishwasher top to bottom for clogs

If your dishwasher isn’t getting your cutlery clean, you may just need to check for clogs. Dishwashers work by cycling the same water through a pump system over and over. This water is filtered with each pass through, but sometimes particles can get through, or those filters will fill and stop up. Check your dishwasher’s basket and strainer filters for food debris and clean them out. You can also remove the sump cover and check for clogs in the intake. Finally, take a look at your dishwasher’s spray arms. The individual jets could be clogged. If they’re stopped up, you can clean them out with a toothpick.

For a deeper look at a dishwasher deep clean, why not check out our how-to guide?

Clothes taking too long to dry? Clean the vent

A regular load of laundry shouldn’t take more than 60 minutes to dry. Often, it can take even less time, especially when using things like felt laundry balls. If your clothes are still damp at the end of a dryer cycle, it could be that the heating element or another part is bad, but just as likely – and easier to fix – is a clog in the vent.

For proper drying, make sure your dryer vent is completely clear of debris. That’s right, the whole line. Be sure to check outside, too. The exit could be covered by leaves or other debris, or if it’s missing the cover, it might’ve become home to a squirrel or other critter.

Clear your vent regularly, and check the outside every once in a while to make sure the passage isn’t blocked.

Keep on top of lint

Cleaning out your dryer’s lint trap after every load of laundry will ensure your clothes dry more quickly and you avoid a fire hazard, but that’s not the only thing to consider. You should also regularly clean out the accordion hose that comes off of the machine.

Keeping these clear of lint is as much about safety as the efficiency of your appliance. Lint build up can leave your clothes linty, cause clogs, overheating, and fires.

3. Clean Your Refrigerator’s Condenser Coils

Is your freezer compartment unusually warm? Refrigerator seem like it’s running constantly? These are problems you could potentially fix with a bit of dusting! Dust, debris, and hair will collect on the condenser coils over time, insulating them. This makes them work less efficiently, making your fridge work harder to cool everything off and weakening other components. If the condenser coils are particularly bad, you could even find that they’re causing parts to overheat.

So, clean your refrigerator’s condenser coils and the area around the condenser every 6 months to a year – more if you have pets, that hair really adds up fast.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how to clean condenser coils:

1. Start by unplugging the refrigerator. You shouldn’t need to relocate any food as this won’t take long at all, but if you’re concerned about something getting to warm, be sure to move it to a temperature safe spot.
2. You’ll find the condenser coils either right on the back of your fridge or behind the kickplate on the front.
3. Start by vacuuming the area to get any of the big dust bunnies out of the way.
4. Next, use a condenser brush. This is a long bristle-covered tool you can get for a few dollars at just about any hardware or appliance store, and it’ll allow you to easily clean harder to reach parts of the coils. Use a back-and-forth scrubbing action to clean out any build up.
5. Time to vacuum everything up again! You’ve probably freed up a whole lot of dust and debris.
6. At this point, you can also wipe down the condenser itself, or use the vacuum to clean the blades of the condenser fan.

Keeping your condenser coils clean can improve your refrigerator’s efficiency by up to 30%. Not only will you find that the interior temperature of your freezer and fridge are maintained better, you might notice some savings on your electric bill, as well! For a more in-depth look at caring for your refrigerator’s condenser coils and a video, check out our how-to guide!

4. Replace Your Refrigerator’s Water Filter Regularly

Most manufacturers recommend you replace your refrigerator’s water filter once every six months. If you’re experiencing issues with your fridge’s ice maker or water dispenser and that filter is more than a year old, it’s probably the source of your issue. If you’re noticing unpleasant smells in your freezer, your ice, or your drinking water, it’s definitely time to replace that filter.

An old water filter will saturate, allowing contaminants and impurities through into the water you drink and ice you make. Mold and mildew can start to grow in the filter if it’s particularly old, and in extreme cases, you may find that build up can clog or damage the whole system, stopping everything from working. Unfortunately, there’s no way to effectively clean a refrigerator water filter. You just need to replace it. It’s super easy to do, though. Take a look at our how-to guide and walkthrough video for instructions.

5. Keep Your Clothes Smelling Fresh By Cleaning Your Washer Regularly

Your washer is basically a breeding ground for bacteria and mold. Those stink-makers thrive on dirty water, detergent deposits, and the hot, damp environment left behind right after a wash cycle has ended. Front loading washers, in particular, can start to smell very bad if you aren’t keeping things clean, but we’ve got some tips that can help you to cut back on bad smells.

• Make sure you’re using the right amount of detergent, especially if you have a high efficiency washer. Using too much is bad for your washer’s components and will leave behind deposits that can cause mold or bacterial blooms.
• Don’t let your clothes sit for too long in the washer once the cycle’s done. It doesn’t take long for bacteria to start to bloom. Moving them over to the dryer soon after the cycle has finished will keep your clothes from picking up foul smells.
• After you’ve moved the laundry to the dryer, leave the washer door or lid open until the interior is completely dry.
• On front-load washers, focus on the door boot. That rubber gasket has a lot of folds and crevices that can collect water and grime. Check it for water after every wash and wipe it down if you find any. If you’ve already got foul smells, clean the door boot with vinegar, and then run a hot wash cycle with vinegar or Affresh.
• Clean your entire washer, tub, gasket, and detergent dispenser, monthly to keep it from smelling bad.

If you’d like an in-depth guide to getting your washing machine smelling fresh, we’ve got a how-to for you on our blog. Give it a read!

6. Front Loading Washer Leaking? Clean The Door

If your front load washer is leaving behind a small puddle of water after a cycle, you might not need to buy a replacement door. Instead, try cleaning the door, particularly the bottom, glass and all. This problem can happen to anyone, but if you have pets, especially, their hair can collect at the bottom of the door glass, weakening the washer door’s seal and allowing water to leak through.

Wrapping Up

At AppliancePartsPros.com, our goal is to help you keep your appliances looking and working great. Now that you know where to start on appliance cleaning, why not check out some of our other guides? We’ve got tips and tutorials to help you clean and maintain your appliances and lawn equipment on our blog and YouTube channel. And when it comes time to replace a broken component, head over to our storefront to find what you need. Not only will you find genuine OEM replacement parts, you can get advice from our friendly staff or other do-it-yourselfers just like you.