http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=287x8999Oh my.
amerikat (1000+ posts) Thu Dec-30-10 09:59 PM
Original message
Today I cleaned 2 kitchen appliances.
The first was my counter top water distiller the second was A juicer.
Every so often these appliances get to the point where they need to be disassembled to be cleaned properly. I'm not a clean freak by any means. But sometimes just wiping them down just doesn't really get them clean. I guess most people just buy a new one when they get too gross. Not me. A new distiller is $300 and a juicer is maybe $100.
The distiller has a bottom section which is pretty much a stainless steel pot, a heating element and a plastic cover. I didn't need to do much with that part. The top half contains a motor/fan assembly and a condenser coil, the fan sucks in air and blows it across the condenser coil. This is where the dirt is. The air inlets suck in pet fur and greasy kitchen air. Over a couple of years it gets pretty gross.
So the condenser unit had to be broken down into it's separate components. Down to the basement workshop it goes.
I have a deep sink between the washer and dryer. Big enough to hold a 5 gallon bucket of hot water with a bit of bleach.
Taking the condenser unit apart only required a phillips screw driver and a large needle nose pliers. I stripped it down to it's component parts(7) and washed all the plastic parts in the bleach water using a long handled artist paintbrush to get to the really tough dirt in tiny spaces. I set them on a towel to dry. All the parts were clean......like factory clean. I dried some of the parts with a dish towel prior to reassembly.
Got it back together with no leftover parts. Am I rambling?
As of now the water distiller has cranked out about a half gallon in the last 2 hours and looks and works like new. I call this a success
An appliance brought back to like new condition for an hours work.
The juicer went about the same way and took about the same time.
So I got 2 rebuilt appliances for 2 hours work. Saved 2 appliances and $400 with 2 hours work. Not to mention the amount of landfill space not used or the amount of new plastic not used.
Tomorrow I will clean the food processor, the blender and the coffee pot.
Recycle, reuse and re task.
Whoop whoop de do.
Yip yippety yay.
franksolich has always cleaned kitchen appliances by disassembling them and cleaning the separate parts.
Everything from the coffee percolator to the electrical fan to the toaster to the egg-beater to the.....
Of course, once in a while, franksolich can't manage to reassemble the thing right, and so into the trash it alas goes. But at least it's clean garbage.
trud (329 posts) Sat Feb-19-11 02:55 PM
Response to Original message
1. and then there's the dryer
I replaced the lint filter in my dryer because the old one had a smallish hole in it. In the process, I took a good look down underneath it. Holy crumb, An unbelievable amount of "felt" dust down in the machine. So much for thinking cleaning the filter itself was sufficient.
