In the Kitchen

Your Dishwasher

“If you want appliances to last longer” says Dean Jenkins a repairman for General Electric “keep them clean.” He recommends scraping off all food from dishes before loading the dishwasher. Likewise remove the metal wick holder from the bottom of your glass candleholders if you wash them in the dishwasher. Also run the water until it’s hot before turning it on.

Like all appliances adds Tova the dishwasher should be used at least a couple times a month (usually not a problem in a busy frum household).

Your Refrigerator

To ensure proper cooling Mr. Jenkins strongly recommends cleaning the condenser — the coils on the bottom of the refrigerator — every six months to a year.

Assistant manager for many years at Centerof Town a housewares store in Lakewood New Jersey Sora Tova Konovitch recommends buying appliances that perform only one task. “The more a machine can multitask the less efficient it is. If you want a juicer get a juicer not a juicer-food processor and dough-maker. In my home we even have a separate refrigerator and freezer. I find that for example milk that would have lasted only five days in my old combination fridge-freezer can now stay fresh for ten in the refrigerator.”

“The only machine I have found that performs all functions well” Mrs. Konovitch claims “is a copier-printer-fax-machine.”