Keep the Holidays Magical by Checking Your Appliances

It’s no surprise that most of our holiday traditions revolve around food. That means your kitchen appliances need to run smoothly. While you are making your holiday list and checking it twice, be sure to schedule a holiday appliance maintenance checkup to ensure your dishwasher, refrigerator, and oven are ready when you are. Here’s how. 

Dishwasher

During the holiday season, a well-running dishwasher is a big part of keeping your plans on track. To save on time, you need dishes to come out clean on the first try. To ensure your dishwasher is properly cleaning dishes, run your kitchen faucet until the water turns hot. Then, start the dishwasher. 

To keep your dishwasher smelling holiday fresh and running efficiently, add a dishwasher-safe cup of white vinegar, positioned upright on the top rack, and run the hot cycle. This will eliminate those pesky “bah humbug” odors. To simplify holiday appliance maintenance, be sure to regularly remove those food particles collecting in the basket at the base. This will reduce the risk of contaminating recently washed dishes. 

Refrigerator

There’s nothing festive about a refrigerator that isn’t keeping its cool. According to the FDA , your fridge should maintain a temperature at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit to keep food safe. Before your holiday plans start, schedule time to clear out the entire fridge, then wipe down the shelves, walls, and drawers with a cleaning solution. We like to combine one tablespoon of baking soda with one quart of warm water. If possible, roll the refrigerator away from the wall to check the cords and tubing and vacuum away dust and dirt. 

Stove Top/Oven

You want your holiday recipes to be magically delicious, so it’s important to understand how your oven behaves. Joy Wilson of joythebaker.com has a helpful tip to check your oven temperature: Place six slices of white bread in a cold oven, then set the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Check the bread slices at 12 minutes, 18 minutes, and again at the 20-minute mark. 

“After 18 to 20 [minutes] take the bread out of the oven and place on a baking sheet on the counter in the same configuration as the oven shelf,” Joy says. “Take a good look. What pieces of bread have more browning?” Depending on the shades of browning, you can identify the oven’s hot spots and uneven temperature. If it looks too brown, it’s time to call for appliance maintenance help. 

Reach Out to Our Maintenance Crew

At West Fifth Apartments , we want your holiday celebrations to be as magical and memory-filled as you envision. To help ensure that seasonal magic, our on-site management and 24-hour maintenance teams are ready to help if you are having any sort of problems with your appliances. 

If you have discovered that your garbage disposal or a stove burner has quit working, simply visi t West Fifth’s Resident Portal and su bmit a work order. Our team will schedule a time for the repair, getting you back on track to holiday happiness. 

Simple holiday appliance tips simplify the holiday season. But if you need repairs, reach out to our maintenance team as soon as repairs are needed. The entire staff here at West Fifth Apartments sincerely wants your holiday wishes to come true this year!