What scares you most at Halloween? Ghosts, zombies or perhaps witches?  Probably not your household appliances. But it’s actually quite scary how poorly your appliances could be performing if they’ve never been maintained.

Fear not. Here’s how to get rid of anything lurking in your appliance that could be draining its efficiency and sucking its power.

Bad Smells

Cleaning appliances should have a fresh scent. Sadly, bacteria and mould can build up in your washing machine, dishwasher and vacuum cleaner and cause a stink. You might get a fright if you look inside your washing machine soap dispenser to find mould growing all over the tray and the housing.

The key to fresh smelling appliances is to clean them on a regular basis, removing dust in the case of your vacuum and mould in the case of your washing appliances. Make sure not to use too much detergent in your machines either as undissolved powders and soaps are breeding grounds for bacteria and mould.

See our video to effectively rid your washing machine of both:

Lint Blockages

If you don’t already clean your tumble dryer lint filter after each use we recommend starting. Otherwise lint can build up inside your machine and both be a potential fire hazard and stop your appliance from drying efficiently. Every so often it’s also a good idea to clean the lint filter housing with a vacuum, check the vent hose and even take the sides off your tumble dryer to clean it if necessary.

Here’s our video showing how to give your tumble dryer a thorough clean:

Blocked Filters

Most filters in your appliances are designed to be rinsed out or replaced regularly. Vacuum cleaner, cooker hood and tumble dryer filters need the most frequent maintenance. As well as cleaning your tumble dryer lint filters after every use, we recommend checking your vacuum and cooker hood filters every month or so to stop cooker hoods getting clogged with grease and vacuum filters with dust.

Keep your vacuum well prepared to tackle all those Halloween cobwebs!

Excess Ice

Ice build up in your freezer is normal and your appliance will need defrosting from time to time, otherwise it will use energy unnecessarily. If your frost free fridge freezer is cooling the freezer, but not the fridge compartment, this may be due to a build up of ice too, inside the back panel out of sight. Try defrosting your appliance to fix the problem.

How a fridge freezer works:

Limescale Deposits

If you live in a hard water area limescale will be a problem for any appliance that heats water, such as washing machines, kettles and steam cleaners. Machines like your steam cleaner will need regular descaling to keep them at their best to prevent blockages or heater element failure.

Watch our video on protecting your appliances against limescale:

If you keep your appliance free of gory build ups inside them they’ll work much better. On our site we’ve got all the dedicated cleaning products and parts you need to keep your washing machine, vacuum cleaner and all your other household machines working well.

Tags: appliance care, Appliance Maintenance