Adulting means care and maintenance of giant, electronic appliances that you were probably not too psyched to purchase in the first place. Some people, I presume, do know exactly what refrigerator they want and have the money to buy it, but as for my husband and me, we bought what we could afford and what fit our space. Now I am just trying to make it last.
Same with our washer and dryer, which have cost us hundreds in repair fees over the years. I just keep trying to fix them rather than replace them because, ugh, I don’t want to put those machines in the landfill, nor do I want to put new ones on a credit card.
And so, in the spirit of keeping appliances going, I’ve learned that there are some easy and cheap products on Amazon that help keep household appliances humming.
1. Affresh Dishwasher Cleaner
I have a mom friend who was shocked when a guest at her house let her know that her dishwasher needed a cleaning. She was like, “You need to do that?” Hey, I didn’t know either. But all you need to do is run a load with one of these tablets about once a month and your dishwasher can do its job better. The brand says you can use a tablet while dishes are inside, but I run the dishwasher with Affresh once a month while the machine is empty.
2. Refrigmatic Surge Protector
A sudden electrical surge can blow out the control panel or the compressor of your refrigerator. I know because it happened one time at an Airbnb I was staying in. The caretaker had to empty his own garage beer fridge and lend us that one for the rest of our stay! Plugging a fridge into this surge protector — made specially for refrigerators — will shut off electricity for a few minutes if there is a surge. A green light will glow when it’s back to working normally.
3. Frost King Foam Foil Cleaner
The key to keeping your window air conditioner, your refrigerator, or your freezer humming along efficiently is to keep the coils clean. I have tried to wipe them down with paper towels (I can go through an entire roll with the air conditioner) and have tried microfiber cloths, but some coils are impossible to reach. The brilliance of this is it’s a spray you don’t need to wipe — you just aim it at the gunky coils, and it “self-rinses,” which means the gunk drips out, and then you clean that up. You can use this on fan blades, too.
4. Holikme Dryer Vent Cleaner Kit
So, several times, we have called the dryer repair man only to watch him vacuum out the dryer and then tell us it’s working again… while handing us a bill for $200. Suffice it to say we have taught ourselves how to vacuum the thing ourselves. This kit helps because it reaches deep into where lint bunnies hide. Even if your dryer vents to the outdoors, like ours does, lint gets stuck in there! It also comes with a flexible bristle brush to loosen lint or fish out a missing sock.
5. Linda’s Essentials Over Liners
A dirty oven can’t work to the best of its ability, so you want to keep it clean — but actually scrubbing off baked-on gunk is a drag and a time suck. These fiberglass oven liners can catch all of the dripping liquids and cheeses, and then you can simply clean the liners in the dishwasher. Or replace them. It’s especially nice that these can be cut to fit if your oven is small.
6. Kitchen Basics 101 Range Hood Filter Replacement
Speaking of ovens, if you have a large one, you might have a hood that draws smoke and odors up and out. To keep that working smoothly you have to occasionally replace the range hood filter — they’re easy to find on Amazon, and this Kitchen Basics 101 fits many brands, like Amana and Maytag. Just check the list to be sure it fits the exact hood you have.
7. Affresh Washing Machine Cleaner
Affresh has a washing machine cleaner, too. It’s a slow-release tablet that works to even clean residue that’s built up in the hose and other places outside of the main drum. Running a cycle with bleach can kill bacteria; running a cycle with one of these can scrub. I do both. With this one, you definitely want to run the machine with no clothes inside — just the Affresh tablet.
