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A new water filter cartridge lying beside an old one on a kitchen counter.

Read first, book second

Appliance
guides,
read first.

A home appliance maintenance guide is only useful if it answers the question you actually have, so these are split by what you are trying to find out — is this worth paying for, what is that noise, what can I check myself — rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns.

(844) 879-5178

Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • 18 guides
  • 6 sections
  • No booking needed

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Work out what
you are dealing with.

Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by what part of the appliance it concerns.

All 18 guides
A refrigerator's dusty condenser coils seen close behind its kick plate.
What slow wear looks like before it becomes a breakdown

Signs an appliance is due

A finger on the control panel of a washer, the display dark.
Ten-minute tasks with the appliance unplugged

Checks between visits

A soft brush lifting lint from a dryer's lint screen, seen close.
What is due when, across the whole house

Routines and schedules

The closed gas shutoff valve behind a range, seen close.
Lint fires, gas at the burners, hoses and wiring

Fire, gas and water safety

An older and a newer refrigerator side by side in a garage workshop.
A yearly plan, a visit when due, or a new appliance

Plans, visits and replacement

A braided stainless supply hose and its shutoff valve behind a washer.
Clearances, shutoffs and leveling that make service easy

Set up for easy upkeep

Reading did not fix it?

The work itself

Every guide here ends in the same place: what a technician actually does about it, in the order it gets done.

10 kinds of workCheapest cause firstWhat a visit costs See what we do

Wondering what a visit might cost? That has a page of its own, because the figure depends on how many appliances are on the list and what state they are in — appliance maintenance cost.

Not sure
where to start?

Homeowners booking upkeep tend to ask the same handful of things. The four guides below are for the homeowner who worries about lint behind the laundry, wants a calendar for the whole house, is weighing a yearly plan against calling when needed, or owns an appliance old enough to wonder whether upkeep still pays, and several of them end with a task you can do yourself.

Or start from the symptom

Lint in the exhaust run is a fire riskLint, exhaust runs and fire risk behind the laundry closet

The screen catches most of the lint and the duct collects the rest. How long a run may be, what it should be made of, and how to tell it is choking before it overheats.

What falls due in which monthA yearly upkeep calendar for the whole home, job by job

Every load, every month, every six months, every year, every five: the makers' intervals laid out as four checkpoints a household can actually keep.

A yearly plan or a visit when neededA service plan or one-off visits: matching upkeep to the appliances you own

A maintenance plan books the cleaning before anything fails; a repair contract pays after it does. How to tell which one is on offer, and when a single visit is enough.

When upkeep stops paying offKeep maintaining or replace: when upkeep stops paying on an aging appliance

Age alone decides little. What the next visit can still restore, what the design year has locked in, and what the old unit's disposal involves decide more.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in a guide did not settle it, a technician picks up from there. The visit, stop by stop.

What services cost
  1. 01A walk around the house first
  2. 02Cleaned, checked and adjusted
  3. 03Wear parts before they fail
  4. 04A service record for the house

When there is
no time to read.

These five signs mean upkeep has waited too long and a hazard has started in the home, so the appliance stays off until it is looked at: a hot or burning-lint smell from the laundry, a gas smell at a cooking appliance, a supply hose leaking or bulging, a burning electrical smell, and a breaker that trips when the appliance runs. Each page puts the causes in the order worth checking, and says when to stop and book.

All 17 problems
A quiet home laundry room with a front-loading vented machine standing still, its door closed and its display dark, a faint thin haze of pale smoke hanging near the round metal exhaust collar on the wall behind it, a crushed silver foil duct visible at the back, the power cord unplugged and lying on the floor, seen from the doorway. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Hot or Burning Lint Smell in the Laundry Room: Stop the Cycle

6 causes, cheapest first

 An empty home kitchen at dusk with a stainless gas cooktop and a wall oven, every burner dark and every knob at off, the kitchen window and the back door both standing open to the evening, a yellow-handled gas shutoff valve visible low in an open cabinet beside the cooktop, seen from the hallway. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Gas Smell Near the Oven or Burners: Get Out, Then Call

6 causes, cheapest first

 Low view behind a front-loading washer pulled slightly away from the wall in a home laundry room, a black rubber fill hose with a visible swollen bulge near its fitting and a thin stream of water spraying from it onto a tile floor, a spreading puddle, the hot and cold wall valves above. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Supply Hose Leaking or Bulging Behind an Appliance: Shut the Water Off

6 causes, cheapest first

 Close view of a white wall outlet low behind a stainless kitchen appliance, a plug half-seated in it with a faint brown scorch mark on the outlet face and a thin wisp of gray smoke rising, the dim kitchen beyond out of focus. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Burning Electrical Smell From an Appliance: Breaker Off First

6 causes, cheapest first

 An open gray electrical panel door on a garage wall, one breaker in the row sitting in the tripped middle position, a white upright freezer standing dark and silent on the concrete floor nearby, soft daylight from a side window. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Appliance Tripping the Breaker Every Time It Runs

5 causes, cheapest first
A family sharing breakfast in a bright, well-kept home kitchen.
For the heart of your home.

Questions about
the guides.

Can a guide replace a maintenance visit?
For some tasks, yes. Emptying a lint screen, rinsing a dish-care filter, wiping a door gasket, changing a water cartridge or soaking hood filters are jobs most owners can do with the appliance unplugged. The guides show those, and say plainly where a coil behind a panel, a long exhaust run or a gas burner belongs to a technician.
Do the upkeep guides follow a single brand?
Mostly not. A condenser coil sheds heat, a lint screen catches fibers and a hood filter traps grease much the same way under any badge, so the guides follow the part. If one company asks for a different routine, the guide points it out, and the care chapter in your own manual wins over anything we write.
When is a guide more useful than a problem page?
When an appliance has started behaving differently, the problem pages are the quicker route, since each begins with the sign itself. The guides suit planning: a calendar for the year, which filters fall due when, whether a yearly plan pays, and when upkeep stops making sense.
Where do the facts in the upkeep guides come from?
Every checkable fact names its source: a maker's owner's manual or care chapter, ENERGY STAR or DOE energy pages, the US Fire Administration and NFPA on laundry and cooking fires, the CPSC on venting, or USGS data on water hardness. Anything uncited is drawn from what our technicians see in homes, and the text makes that clear.

Back to your everyday

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