Bonnie Woolsey is the owner of All American Appliance Service Inc. in Stafford, Virginia. With more than 20 years of experience in the appliance business, she has gained the technical skills and the business knowledge to run a thriving company. Here, she gives us some tips on how to properly maintain a washer and dryer.
The longevity of a washer has a lot to do with proper use and care. The way you use your washer and how you take care of it is going to really impact how many years of use you can expect to get out of it.
For washing machines, we recommend running the washer through a cycle with just vinegar and/or bleach with no clothes, and with the hottest water possible, at least once a month. The reason for doing this is to keep the drum and other working parts free of soap buildup which is a big problem that can lead to a machine not working properly over time. Although doing that once a month would be ideal, doing it just once every two months is more likely to be how often most people actually find the time to do this. Unfortunately, most people do not ever do this, which is part of what contributes to a lot of the problems that we see when we visit people’s homes and look at their broken washers.
When we visit homes to repair washers, a lot of what we find are things like build up from too much soap, hard water, and that type of thing because the washer has not been thoroughly cleaned with a bleach or vinegar rinse in a long time. So what happens is the water becomes restricted because those ports get clogged, and the whole idea behind the cleaning aspect of a washing machine is sort of decreased. So if you have a restricted water flow into the unit, then you are probably not getting your clothes as clean as you should be.
Additionally, if there is any sentiment build up or anything of that nature then that may actually come off and rub on your clothes. That kind of thing tends to make white clothes a little bit less white. So if you have noticed that problem, then a sentiment build up might be the culprit.
On the topic of dryers, obviously people need to clean their lint filter often. And when I say often, I mean that they need to do it before every single load that they put in the dryer. People are really bad about cleaning the lint filter every single load, which absolutely has to happen to keep a dryer running well.
We recommend pulling the dryer out from the wall once every three months, or even more depending on the volume of clothing. If you have pets, dogs, or things of that nature, then you need to be pulling it out from the wall and looking at what is back there even more frequently than once every three months. But nonetheless, homeowners should be pulling their dryer out and making sure that no lint build up is behind it.
At the same time, people should kind of lift up on that venting catch, because a lot of the venting tends to go from right where it is hooked up and then make a slight 90-degree angle before going up and out. And so lint and things of that nature tend to get built up in that venting over time. So to fix that, you might just want to pull the venting catch straight out to make sure nothing has built up.
I do all of these things often with my dryer, because I want it to run as efficiently as possible. When people push their dryers up against the wall and let the lint get built up in the back, that restricts the airflow. So to maintain the dryer well, you need to pull it away from the wall from time to time and make sure that the vent is getting as much clearance as possible. In addition, I recommend that people vacuum behind the dryer at the same time they are pulling it out from the wall.
Once you have done all of these things, you will actually be able to hear the difference once the dryer finally gets a good amount of airflow and you will notice how much more efficiently it starts running.
