Each year, we sell many homes to many great clients, and 90 days to six months later, we hear about something breaking in their house—usually a major appliance.

To avoid this situation, here are 9 tips and tricks you can use to extend the life of your home’s appliances and improve their performance.

  1. Keep your refrigerator and freezer clean. Change the filters, make sure calcium doesn’t build up inside the tubing, and empty the ice trays.
  2. Defrost your freezer. So many of us have items that have been in our freezer for many months, so throw that stuff out and remove the frost so your freezer isn’t working so hard to produce ice.
  3. Scrub the bottom of your oven. When you have an oven, crumbs and other food particles tend to accumulate at the bottom. Don’t set tin foil down to remedy this—that’s bad for your oven. Instead, use a little elbow grease and scrub that part of your oven down.
  4. Replace any filters in your AC unit or any other appliance that has filters. As filters get clogged, their machines have to work harder to pass air and energy through them, which can lead to them breaking down sooner. Whether it’s an HVAC unit or a water filtration system, not replacing their filters can cost you thousands of dollars.
  5. Use detergent instead of soap in your dishwasher. Use only the types of goods that are prescribed by your appliance for that appliance.
  6. Scrape your dishes before putting them in your dishwasher. Don’t just throw all of them in there without scraping off the gunk and grime first.
  7. Don’t overload your washer or dryer. They each have a capacity, so if you’re washing and drying a lot of clothes on a regular basis, buy a new washer and dryer. If you overload them, they have to work a lot harder, and they can be very expensive to fix and replace.
  8. To improve your dryer’s circulation, make sure its exhaust system is cleaned once a year. People usually just pull the lint tray out and clean that, but a lot of lint can also get stuck in the tubing that leads to the exterior of the house, and many people invest in a boost fan to push that lint out.
  9. Don’t pour stain remover into the washer or store any bottles like that on top of it. These bottles can get hot and melt while the washer is in use and spill all over the machine.
“Not replacing your filters can cost you thousands of dollars.”

If you have any questions about these tips and tricks or you’re looking to buy or sell a home in the San Diego area, feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. I’d be glad to help.