Christmas, a time when we rely on our cookers more than ever as we attempt to cook the Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Yet, the way we’ve cared for our cooker over the year will have significant repercussions on how it works this festive period.

With that in mind, if you’ve been a bit lackadaisical looking after your cooker over the last 12 months, now is the perfect time to bring it back to shape.

The first thing that you should do, to help ensure your cooker is able to work to its full potential is to make sure that you give it a thorough….

Clean:

Each time your cooker and hob are used, dirt builds up. This can be caused from food spilling, grease spitting out and pans overflowing. Whilst such dirt, grease and grime is likely to be minimal, overtime it will build up and can hind the performance of your appliance.

Every area of your cooker can harbour dirt which will need to be tackled if you want to keep the appliance working to its full potential. And with the extensive range of oven cleaning products available there is no excuse for your cooker to be left dirty.

Utilising such products and spending the required ten to fifteen minutes cleaning will return your cooker’s sparkle. But it isn’t just the cooker which needs regular cleaning, the cooker hob can also be susceptible to a build up of dirt.

To find out the best way to clean a ceramic hob, we’d recommend that you read our “How to Clean a Cooker Ceramic Hob Top” article.

Furthermore, it’s important to make sure you clean the cooker hood. A clean cooker hood will help ensure cooking odours, condensation and steam are removed from your kitchen.

When it comes to cleaning your cooker hood, it’s important to incorporate the filters as these play a role in keeping your cooker hood running. Despite this, few of us take the time to replace them as often as we should. The grease filter should be replaced every six months, and takes no more than a couple of minutes to do so.

Whilst cleaning your cooker, you may have noticed that some parts have become worn and damaged.

In such a situation, instead of going out and purchasing a new appliance, save yourself some money and have a go at repairing the appliance yourself – often it’s easier than you think!

Repair:

As with all appliances, your cooker is susceptible to various faults. One of the most common faults you’re likely to experience is overheating.  If your oven is overheating, the fault is likely to lie with the thermostat, but this can be replaced by yourself.

The first thing you’ll need to do, once you’ve unplugged the appliance, is locate the thermostat. This can usually be found at the back of the cooker and once the thermostat has been located, move the cooker into a workable space before removing the door.

Door removed, you should be able to see the thermometer’s capillary tube which you’ll need to unclip.

The next step is to take the back panel of your cooker off, pull the capillary tube out of the cavity and remove the fixing bracket. This will provide you with access to the thermostat control, which will enable you to unclip the wire and remove the control knob.

All that is then left to do is remove the old thermostat and put the new thermostat in place before reversing the steps you’ve just taken.

Taking the time now to clean and repair your cooker will ensure that come this festive period there is no excuse for your cooker to cause you any unnecessary stress.

Tags: Cooker Hood Filter, Cooker Spare Parts