Should I buy an extended warranty on my new appliance?

The advice I am giving may sound biased, coming from someone who has owned an appliance repair company for 23 years, but I believe that I have a unique perspective on this issue. From where I sit, extended warranty companies, or TPA’s (third party administrators), used to be great to work for.
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“Factory-Authorized Service.” What does it mean?

These days — and when I say, “these days,” I mean post economic meltdown — more people are out there vying for your business. It seems that every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a wrench and a tiny bit of knowledge of appliances has hung out his shingle as an appliance service technician.

There are many sneaky ways that they try put out to the consumer that they are authorized to do factory service appliance repair. That leads the consumer to have more trust in the technician or company, as they believe they have been trained by that manufacturer to do their work. Not so!
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Should I Self-Clean My Oven?

Many folks believe that with the self-clean feature, you turn it on and, viola, all sparkly clean inside. Unfortunately, that is just not quite how it works. There is prep work involved. You MUST clean it out, removing the crumbs and drips and such, or you will have a smoky house as a result. Your oven will also get up to some serious temperatures, which means that you will have a lot of heat coming off your unit, consequently heating up your house. Using your self-clean cycle can also cause some components to fail, due to the extreme temperatures (up to 800 degrees!) over an extended period of time.

If you are going to use this feature before the holidays, make sure to use this cycle weeks before the big day. Many folks wait until the day before Thanksgiving, then
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Going Green and Your Appliances

If you have been a long-time customer of Cody’s Appliance Repair and made an appointment recently, you may have been surprised when you were asked for your email address in addition to your other information. Or you may have noticed our technicians carrying around laptops instead of notepads. These aren’t just our methods of making our company more “tech-savy.” We are trying to streamline our process and save some trees! We know it’s not much, but it’s a step in the right direction toward saving our planet.

Across the country and around the globe we are seeing efforts in increasing efficiency and decreasing our carbon footprint. And what better place to begin than with your appliances? These pieces of equipment take up a great deal of power. In fact, about 13% of the power you use in your home every day goes into your appliances!
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How often should I replace my water filter on my refrigerator?

In our business, we hear that question so often. And I cringe every time I hear it. Your water filter should be changed every 6 months to a year. Your owner’s manual will be helpful in determining how often to change your filter. It might be time to drag out the warranty booklet and see just what you have. Many water filters are underneath the unit, behind the kick panel, so you might have no idea you have one. And it really is important to know.

Under FAQ’s on our website at CodysApplianceRepair.com, we have lots of information about your water filter, but in a nutshell, your water filter can only hold so much in the way of impurities and minerals. After the filter is  saturated, they either leach the bacteria back into your glass or the membrane is eliminated, so the water will just pass through the yuck. If you have ever tapped an old water filter on the counter and seen the black and green gunk that comes out, I assure you, you would replace your filter right away.  City water is pretty good, but as we all now, there is a good reason why people drink filtered and bottled water!

When Cody’s Appliance Repair replaces a customer’s filter, we log the date of replacement and send you a reminder in a year, so you don’t have to think about it again. We have most all makes of water filters in shop and our technicians carry them in every truck.

So, at minimum, change that water filter every year, without fail, for your continued good health!

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Sorting Laundry

I am a big advocate of sorting my laundry. I am particular about my washer loads. I generally separate my loads by whites (hot water), dark loads (cold water), and mixed (warm water). My college-age daughters, they just make one load out of everything. Each to his own, I suppose, but I like my whites, white, and my darks, dark, and no weird bleeding of one color onto another.

However, not to throw a monkey wrench into things, but the TYPES of laundry you sort will make a big difference on the wear and tear on your clothes. If you just love that white T that you bought, you might not like it so much after it has been in the load with towels a couple of times. Towels, and the friction of the nubby cloth rubbing on other types of clothing can cause stretching and pilling that can age your clothing more quickly.

Jeans, specifically unsnapped jeans, jacket zippers, etc., think about that swishing or flipping around with your stretchy yoga pants and you get the picture.

Your friend in all is this is the laundry bag! It’s not just for bras and baby socks! Use it for those tissue T’s that everyone is wearing. Look at how delicate they are and you will understand. Anything that feels remotely delicate, stretchy, or really soft to the touch will last you so much longer with the use of a few laundry bags. And with the bags, you are far less likely to inadvertently toss your favorite shirt into the dryer accidentally. I so hate that!

So, invest in 4 or 5 laundry bags and extend the life of your clothing! Cheers!