Dry your clothes better!

Many people throw their clothes in the dryer, then when the cycle is done, they discover their clothes are just partially dried.

Below are some ideas to ensure your clothes are dry...the first time you dry them:

• Make sure your exhaust vent behind dryer isn't kinked. The shorter the better.
• The exhaust duct should be metallic, and made of semi rigid or flexible material. Avoid vinyl -- it's easily crushed and won't withstand heat as well as metallic ducting.
• Check and clean the outside vent hood, outside your home. Doing so will keep rodents and birds out of your exhaust.  The best vent hoods have a flapper that opens when the dryer is in use and closes when off.
• Faithfully clean the lint screen between dryer loads.

Keep Your Meat Fresh in the Freezer for Years

Properly freezing food will help save you lots of money and ensure tasty food in the future.

To effectively preserve meats or other foods, you need to ensure several things:

1. Check the freezer's temperature.  It should be at zero degrees.

2. Make sure to have an alternative means of powering your freezer in the event of a power outage. A common misconception about frozen foods is that once they are frozen and thawed, they can't be re-frozen. This is false.  Foods that are thawed can definitely be re-frozen.

3. When you package your food into freezer bags try to remove as much air as possible in each bag before sealing them.  For best results, purchase a food vacuum sealer. Anytime you can remove the air from food and reduce the moisture, you guarantee a much longer freezer shelf life.

Following these tips can ensure your meat is edible for the long stretch, staving off freezer burn and ensuring tasty meat for future meals.

Naturally Cleaning Your Oven's Innards

Have you ever noticed that black, sticky grime on the inside of your oven?

You can clean that off and out of there by running the auto-cleaning setting. But all that does is turn up the heat to a point where anything left inside will be burnt to a crisp, leaving you to wipe out the residue once it cools. The bad news: doing this may actually set off your  smoke detectors.

You can also buy oven cleaner sprays that have chemicals that eat through inner oven debris.  Those tend to work.

However, if you're looking for a non-toxic, safe alternative, try a little vinegar, baking soda, and elbow grease.

1. Mix a 1/2 cup of baking soda and 3-4 tablespoons of water in a bowl.  
2. Adjust the consistency until it's a paste.  
3. Then spread the paste all over your oven's interior (NOT the heating elements). As you do this, it's natural for the baking soda to turn into a brownish color. 
4. Let it sit overnight.  
5. Afterwards, wipe or scrape out as much of the dried baking soda paste as you can with a damp dish cloth or spatula. 
6. Next, spray a little vinegar everywhere you still see baking soda residue in your oven (the vinegar will react with the baking soda and gently foam).  
7. Finally, wipe out the remaining foamy vinegar/baking soda mixture. 

How Express Appliance Goes The Extra Mile For You

Do appliance repairmen actually go the extra mile in serving customers?

In this video, Express Appliance customer Darin Maughan describes how we go "above and beyond" the call of duty to ensure you have the best appliances possible for your home...

Dryer Lint Traps = Heating Unit Burnout?

It's been an internet rumor for years:

Fabric sheets can create a light film on your dryer's lint filter, then burn out your dryer's heating unit.  The remedy? According to the internet rumor, is soaking the filter in warm water and soap.

Ummm, partially true.

We're big fans of regularly cleaning your lint trap.  Doing so may help your dryer work more efficiently.  But we doubt that not cleaning it will eventually make your dryer's motor burn out.

Consumer Reports says,

"At Consumer Reports we've tested hundreds of clothes dryers for our ongoing dryer Ratings and recommendations. CR's appliance director, Mark Connelly, says it's possible that over a long period, fabric sheets, fabric softeners, and laundry detergent ingredients contribute to an unseen film or waxy buildup on the dryer lint screen. But 'it's highly doubtful,' he said, 'that any such invisible buildup alone leads to heating-unit burnout or a fire.'" (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appliances/laundry-and-cleaning/clothes-dryers/truths-and-myths-of-dryer-fires/overview/index.htm)

We always recommend you remove the lint from your lint trap after every load, and clean out your dryer vent at least once a year (more on that later)...