3 Tips For Washing Appliance Maintenance

Village Home Stores is proud to be your local independent appliance dealer. We are so thankful to also have trusted service technicians on staff to help keep your appliance investments working for you. We can send Jeff or David out to service and repair your appliances once they reach the point where they need an expert eye and hand. But did you know that minor maintenance on your part can help extend the lifespan of a kitchen or laundry appliance? Here are 3 maintenance tips from our service techs to keep your washing appliance investments cleaning for you with peak performance.

TIP #1 Keep Traps and Filters Clean

We each have so many devices, machines, and electronics in our lives. We schedule oil-changes for our vehicles, run routine virus scans on our computers, and update the apps on our phones. Did you know that there should also be a few steps you take to set up your home appliances for optimized performance? It’s true. Our service technicians visit so many of your homes and they see first-hand that you may not be giving your washing appliances enough attention. The good news is they don’t demand too much of your attention. Basic maintenance is all that is needed, like keeping traps and filters clean.

Wait what?! I have a filter in my dishwasher?!?! You may not have known this, but probably!  As your dishwasher cycle runs, food particles are broken down and processed through some sort of filtration process. This process, of course, varies by the model you have selected. Your dishwasher may have a chopper busy at work to help break down the food waste. You may have a model designed to filter and process waste as it self-cleans with each load. There could be a combination of these techniques or just a simple trap that needs to be cleared from time to time. Aside from a few entry-priced dishwashers, most of our recent models of dishwashers available are designed to have a removable filter that self-cleans. In this case, you may find and pull out your filter only to find that it is nearly empty or completely empty. That means it is working for you and doesn’t need to be cleared manually. Not sure where to find your dishwasher filter? Watch this quick TikTok David made to show you. 

What about a washing machine? Does it have a filter? Well, not always. Most washing machines are designed to filter internally during the wash cycle. Any filter or trap involved would not be accessible for the homeowner. Aside from a lint trap on your laundry dryer, recent laundry models do not have any filters that need to be emptied and cleared by a homeowner. There is an exciting new exception however with Maytag’s new Pet Pro series of laundry. That washer includes a pet hair filter/trap within the washer’s agitator design that you can empty each load. Learn more about that here in a past article we published.

TIP #2 Clean Your Appliances

Washing appliances like dishwashers and laundry washers are among the most used home appliances in your home. With the goal of cleaning your items, the machines themselves need to be clean to give you the best results. A dishwasher will have to work harder to sense that a load is finished if the interior of the unit has any build up. A washing machine may begin to leave buildup on your garments as another example. The solution? Run a cleaning agent through your appliances to keep them clean and to keep the parts and components inside as clean as possible. This will get you cleaner results and more efficient loads while protecting your investments to keep them running longer.

Village Home Stores sells cleaning products that you will need for your appliances including the #1 recommended product by KitchenAid, Whirlpool, and Maytag brands: Affresh. Appliance categories and directions are on every package of Affresh cleaners. Many washing machines we sell at Village will even have a wash and rinse cycle designed specifically for running a cleaner through your machine.  You can simply add the cleaner into the unit and run the cleaning cycle. This is recommended by our service technicians about once a month or every 30 uses. 

TIP #3 Mind Your Detergent Use

Use the correct type of detergent and only the recommended amount in your dishwasher and laundry machines. Repeat after me: more detergent doesn’t mean a cleaner load. Seriously. Your machines are designed to wash a load using the amount of water needed assuming you used only the recommended amount of detergent. Give your machine the space and water it needs to get to work cleaning your dishes or your garments. Don’t occupy your machine with excess soap suds to manage. This is especially important in washing machines. Repeat after me again: more detergent doesn’t mean a cleaner load.
Ok, ok we know we sound like a broken record about our Excelsior Laundry Detergent but for good reason. We wish every single one of our washing machine customers would use this product. Using a clean detergent and the proper amount of it can expand the lifespan of your washing machine. Period. What proof do we have? Well next time you see David or Jeff at our store or out in public, just ask them what the inside of a washer smells like when there is too much detergent built up inside of it. The face they make will make you a believer. Trust us. Want to learn more? Check out this video we made about stinky washers and our best-selling detergent.

So, what causes washing machines to stink? Using too much detergent is a surefire way to get buildup within your machine that can start to really stick over time. We normally like sharing beautiful images on our blog. However, we are willing to make one exception and share the nasty reality of what detergent buildup can look like. We are only showing you this out of love. So that you can avoid having this happen to your own appliance investments from Village Home Stores. Just be glad you can’t scratch and sniff a blog post because YUCK! 

Yeah, there is a reason we didn’t post this tip as #1 on our list. Had to bury that grossness in the end of this article. But sorry (not sorry). The truth is those are two actual washers from service calls that our service tech texted me photos of. We know that you love Jeff and David. We get a handful of positive reviews for them each week. We think, however, that you may rather run into them at the grocery store instead of in your home because your washer isn’t working well. So, our service team wanted to give you these three simple tips that you can follow to get the longest life and best performance out of your machines from Village Home Stores. You know where to find us when you need to replace your appliances, but let’s try and get what you have already performing at its best for you. Have a dishwasher or laundry washer or dryer in need of repair? Schedule a service call here on our website. Need some Affresh products or a refill on your Excelsior detergent? We stock plenty at our showroom located at 105 S State Geneseo, Illinois. Message us here using the chat or call ahead at 309-944-1344 and we will have it ready for you to pickup curbside.