How To: Defrost your Freezer

 Appliance FAQ's  No Responses »
Aug 242011
 

Idler’s Ser­vice Depart­ment often gets calls from cus­tomers report­ing that their freezer has either stopped work­ing or it is run­ning all the time and not as cold as it used to be.

Exces­sive freezer frost-up can cause units to work harder, it reduces usable space, increases oper­at­ing costs and can even lead to them fail­ing prematurely.

If your upright or chest freezer isn’t a frost-free model then chances are you have seen some ice build up over time in your unit. (Hope­fully, not as bad as the pic­ture below!)

Frosted up freezer

In fact, it is rec­om­mended that once the ice build up in your freezer grows to a 1/4 of an inch it is time to defrost your freezer. (Pic­ture below is not to scale.)

1/4'' pointed out on a ruler

Now before you get too excited…

Don't Use an Ice Pick!

Never, I repeat NEVER use sharp objects to remove the ice build up! Doing this could lead to dam­ag­ing your freezer and then your quick main­te­nance job just became a $400 (or more) trip to you locally owned appli­ance store.

Here are 7 easy steps you can fol­low to defrost your freezer:

1) Unplug your Freezer.

Unplug your Freezer

2) Then take all of your exist­ing food out of the freezer and store it in another freezer or ice chest.  You should also remove any draw­ers, shelves and loose ice.

Ice Chest for Temporary Storage

3) The next step is to open up the freezer’s drain.  (How to do this varies by model, so you will need to con­sult your own­ers manual.)

Often times, Upright Freez­ers will have a drain plug on the floor inside the unit as well as an exter­nal drain.

With chest style freez­ers usu­ally there is  a drain plug on the front-bottom of the unit. Many times you can con­nect a gar­den hose up to the drain to route the water to a desired location.

Freezer Drain

Make sure to have a drain pan placed under the drain (when pos­si­ble) to keep water from hit­ting the floor.

Caution Thin Ice

Lastly, if your freezer does not have a drain, make sure to place tow­els at the bot­tom of the freezer to catch the melt­ing ice. (You can also put news­pa­per under the freezer as it is very absorbent and will help catch any spills.)  Make sure to replace the tow­els when they get too wet.

It is impor­tant that you plan for a fair amount of water to drain from your freezer. If not then you may need…

Rain Boots inside home

4) Now it’s time to heat things up!

Heat up some water.

Heat up water

Take a dish cloth and dip it in some hot water (Use kitchen gloves and do not burn your hands.) Then take the cloth and dab it on the ice that’s built up in the freezer.

Kitchen Gloves

Next, place a large bowl (or pot) filled with hot water under the largest areas of ice build-up and leave it alone.

Bowl in Freezer

Wait 30 min­utes and then check the progress.  If there is still frost remain­ing, remove any loose chunks of ice (no ice pick!), replace wet tow­els (if used) and change the water in the bowl with fresh hot water and repeat the process.

This could take up to a few hours. (Editor’s Note: There are other meth­ods for thaw­ing the ice build up in your freezer more quickly, how­ever cau­tion should be taken as to not harm the unit or your­self. We have found the above method to be one of the safest.)

waiting

5) Once the freezer is defrosted (No more ice) you should clean the inside of the freezer.

Idler’s rec­om­mends using a solu­tion of two table­spoons of bak­ing soda in one quart warm water.

Make sure to clean the door seals, bins, shelves and floor of the freezer. (Do Not use metal brushes, scour­ing pads, or abra­sive clean­ers as they can dam­age your freezer.)

Rinse with fresh water and dry the freezer thoroughly.

Clean Freezer

6) Replace your shelves, bins and food.

Try not to over­load your freezer and this reduces air­flow around the food and can reduce the effi­ciency of your freezer.

Over-full Freezer

7) Plug your freezer back in and check your tem­per­a­ture set­tings on the dial. (Most units have a rec­om­mended start­ing point. Con­sult your user manual.)

Freezer Dial

There you have it.  If you find that you have more ques­tions or are in need of appli­ance repair, just give Idler’s a call at 1–800-834‑4015

 Posted by at 11:22 pm  Tagged with:

How To: Improve Dishwasher Performance

 Appliance FAQ's  No Responses »
Aug 152011
 

Have you been feel­ing like all your efforts are in vain when it comes to get­ting your dish­washer to clean your dirty dishes?

DIRTY DISHES IN SINK

–You put your dirty dishes in the dish­washer. (After scrap­ing them off of course.)

–You add the appro­pri­ate amount of deter­gent. (The same deter­gent you have been using for years.)

–You make sure the rinse aid com­part­ment is full. (You should, even if you have a water softener:)

–You run the hot water in the sink before start­ing the dish­washer. (Your par­ents never needed to do this.)

–Finally, you start the machine. (A dish­washer should.… Wash Dishes.)

Only to find…

Stack of dirty dishes

So what’s the next step…

truck with dishwasher in back

Or just…

 

styrofoam-plates

Well before you go build­ing a wine rack in the hole where your dish­washer used to be lets look at a few recent changes that may be hurt­ing your dish­wash­ers performance.

 

1) The Great Algae Debate (Stay with me.)

String Algae

I real­ize the ques­tion “What does algae have to do with my dish­washer not clean­ing like it used to?” prob­a­bly just popped up in your head.

Well, the short ver­sion of the story is that phos­phates have been linked to increased algae growth in water bod­ies which, in turn, can cause harm to wildlife and our water sup­ply.  As a result phos­phates (which have been a key ingre­di­ent in dish­wash­ing deter­gents to help fight dirt and grime) have been banned in many states from being used in detergents.

sad dishwasher

 

2) The Great Energy Debate (Are you still there?)

EngeryStarLogo[1]

In order for dish­wash­ers to meet the newest Energy Star guide­lines, new machines must use less energy and water than ever before.  It’s not uncom­mon to have a new machine from a top man­u­fac­turer run for over 2 hours per load while using less water. (Some even run for 3.)  In order to con­serve energy, dish­wash­ers spend less time heat­ing the water once it’s inside the unit.

 

3) The Not-So-Great Issue of Hard Water (Not really a new issue, but very important)

hardwater

Hard water is hard on dish­wash­ers.  Hard water can block the spray jets with lime scale and cause deposits on the dish­wash­ers heat­ing ele­ment.  This can and will reduce the clean­ing power, effi­ciency and life of your dish­washer. Not to men­tion hard water can cause spot­ting on dishes and reduce the deter­gents abil­ity to clean your dirty dishes.

 

Now you may be ask­ing “What can I do to make my dish­washer clean my dirty dishes?” 

Well, for­tu­nately, Idler’s is here to help.

superhero

 

Here is the break­down of what Idler’s rec­om­mends that you do to get the best per­for­mance out of your High-Efficiency Dishwasher:

 

1) Scrape off your dirty dishes before putting them in the dish­washer. (For bonus points try start­ing a com­post bin.)

Also, if you are going to wait for more than a day before run­ning a load of dishes, it is a good idea to pre-rinse your dishes. This pre­vents odors and bac­te­ria from build­ing up.

main-food-waste

 

2) Use a high-quality HE dish­washer detergent.

Since phos­phates are no longer an option. High enzyme count deter­gents are now rec­om­mended. We rec­om­mend Excel­sior HE Dish­washer Detergent.

dish

 

This HE Dish­washer Deter­gent is Enzyme Based, 100% Phos­phate and Chlo­rine Bleach Free, Biodegrad­able and Sep­tic Safe. One bot­tle does 66 loads and is avail­able at all Idler’s store locations.

 

3) Use a high-quality Rinse Aid.  (You should be using rinse aid even if you have a water softener.)

Rinse Aid basi­cally causes water to sheet off your dishes and leaves your dishes spotless.

RinseAid

Idler’s rec­om­mends Excel­sior HE Dish­washer Spot Free Rinse Aid. Like Excel­sior HE Dish­washer Deter­gent, this rinse aid is Biodegrad­able, Phos­phate Free and Sep­tic Safe.  Just one bot­tle lasts for 133 loads!  Excel­sior HE Dish­washer Spot Free Rinse Aid is avail­able at all Idler’s store locations.

 

4) Use a hard water remover (If you do not have a water soft­ener).  Idler’s rec­om­mends Lemi Shine.

lemi

Lemi Shine keeps hard water min­er­als such as lime, cal­cium, and iron from build­ing up in the inter­nal com­po­nents of the dish­washer.  Just a lit­tle goes a long way.  (Ask us how we rec­om­mend using it in con­junc­tion with HE dish­washer detergent.) Lemi Shine is avail­able at all Idler’s store locations.

 

5) Pre­heat the water before start­ing the dishwasher.

Hot Water Handle

Run the hot water in your kitchen sink and let it get hot right before start­ing your dish­washer. This allows your dish­washer to fill with hot water, sav­ing you money in energy costs while increas­ing your dish­wash­ers per­for­mance.  (For bonus points save the water from the sink and, once it cools, use it to water your plants or animals.)

 

6) Clean your dish­washer once a month.

A com­mon myth is that your dish­washer cleans itself dur­ing the wash cycle.  Clean­ing your dish­washer will remove any grease and lime scale deposits which can build up on the inside of the machine.  As an added bonus you will get that “New Appli­ance Smell” after each clean­ing.  Idler’s rec­om­mends Dish­washer Magic.

dw-magic

Dish­washer Magic removes hard water and rust build–up from spray arms, hoses and fil­ters and is the only EPA–approved dish­washer cleaner cer­ti­fied to kill 99.9% of specif­i­cally tested bac­te­ria.  Dish­washer Magic is avail­able at all Idler’s store locations.

 

The team and Idler’s would like to thank you for tak­ing the time to read our post. If you have any ques­tions, please con­tact us.

 Posted by at 8:21 pm

Appliances

 Appliance FAQ's, General  No Responses »
Aug 112011
 

Paso-Robles-Store

The first Idler’s Appli­ance store was opened in San Luis Obispo, CA by Bud Idler in 1954. The fam­ily tra­di­tion of great cus­tomer ser­vice has con­tin­ued for over 57 years. Today, Idler’s has four stores cov­er­ing the Cen­tral Coast of Cal­i­for­nia with over 70 employ­ees to serve you. Idler’s Appli­ance show­rooms are located in Atas­cadero, Paso Rob­les and San Luis Obispo. We carry most major appli­ance, kitchen design, out­door liv­ing, bed­room fur­ni­ture and mat­tress brands.

Your kitchen is the heart of your home and at our Paso Rob­les and San Luis Obispo stores we have com­plete Kitchen Design Cen­ters fea­tur­ing fine cab­i­netry and coun­ter­tops. Our team of trained design­ers will help you plan and cre­ate the kitchen of your dreams.

In Atas­cadero, the Idler’s Appli­ance Out­let spe­cial­izes in fac­tory blem­ished, floor mod­els and dis­con­tin­ued mod­els of major brand appli­ances at dras­ti­cally reduced prices.

If you enjoy out­door liv­ing, visit the Idler’s Out­door Liv­ing cen­ter in Paso Robels. We carry the finest in out­door kitchens, bar­be­cues, hot tubs, swim spas and more.

Ser­vice is a major part of our busi­ness and we have our own team of factory-trained tech­ni­cians at Idler’s to care for every­thing we sell.

At Idler’s you will find the best prices and the best ser­vice. We look for­ward to serv­ing you.

 Posted by at 8:32 pm
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