Three Holiday Appliance Checks to Ensure a Good Time

Imagine this: It’s the morning of Thanksgiving. Your guests are due in an hour, and the meal will be served promptly at 3 p.m. Your turkey is thawed, stuffed, basted, and ready to cook. You go to preheat your oven, but when you hit the buttons, nothing happens. No heat. Not so much as a spark. What are you to do?

What you should have done was conduct some holiday appliance checks. In a survey of more than 381,000 appliances, Consumer Reports calculated that 6 percent of respondents reported problems with cooking elements not lighting or heating up on ranges, while 5 percent of people reported refrigerators that didn’t cool properly. An even larger 11 percent of people said their dishwashers stopped properly cleaning. 

With the holidays upon us, the last thing you want is a broken appliance standing between you and a good time with your family. Fortunately, these problems are avoidable: Here are three holiday appliance checks to ensure a good time. 

Conduct Deep Cleaning

One of the simplest ways to care for your appliances is to keep them clean. Before you start inviting your (small) group of holiday guests, take some time to give your appliances individual attention. For example, pull the fridge away from the wall and clean the dust from the mechanical coils . For your oven, break out the oven cleaner and make sure are all the burners fully ignite. And give your dishwasher some love by running a full, dish-free cycle with a single cup of white vinegar on the top rack. Cleanliness is second to godliness, they say, and the blessing will do your kitchen good. 

Have a Cooking Test Run

Maybe you don’t cook too often, or maybe some appliances just get more use than others. There’s no shame in that. You just don’t want to get a rude surprise after assuming the oven you haven’t used since last Christmas would work. Just to be safe, give each appliance a test run on a low-stakes meal to make sure the food cooks evenly or the dishes come out clean. With enough notice, you can be sure any problems get fixed with plenty of time to spare.

Reach Out to the Maintenance Crew

The minute you notice anything wrong with your appliances, find a professional to come in and fix it. Many of these larger appliances require skill and experience to properly repair, so it’s best not to attempt a DIY approach.

At Countrywood Apartment Homes, we want your holidays to go off without a hitch. Our on-site management and maintenance teams are there to help if you are having any sort of problems with your appliances. If you find that your oven isn’t heating properly or that the refrigerator isn’t chilling the way it should, simply visit Countrywood’s Resident Portal and submit a work order. Our team will schedule a time for the repair, removing the obstacles between you and a happy holiday.

There are enough holiday stressors without last-minute appliance malfunctions. Remove these hassles by conducting these three holiday appliance checks early. The entire staff here at Countrywood Apartment Homes sincerely wants your holiday wishes to come true this year!