Summer is finally here, and if you’re like the majority of people out there, your annual vacation will happen sometime within the next few months. What many don’t realize is there is some essential preparation necessary for your appliances before you walk out the door. Not only will these steps ensure that you don’t arrive back home to smelly appliances, it will ensure that you don’t arrive to something even worse – a flooded house!
A flooded house is exactly what happened to Don DeFore, when he went on vacation without adequately preparing his appliances. The damage estimate was $26,000 dollars! You can read his story here. The sad thing is this is not an uncommon occurrence; you can find thousands of stories like Dan’s out there. We want to make sure nothing like that happens to you. Here are a a few tips on how to ready your appliances for your vacation, starting with how to avoid flooding your house!
Preventing House Floods:
First off, for all appliances connected to water, turn off the water source at the wall. This is quite simple and will be a huge step towards preventing flooding. While you are turning them off take a look at your water valves and check for corrosion and leakage. If you see any signs of corrosion, postpone that trip until you have a plumber take a look. You might thank me later! You’ll also want to check how old your hoses are. If older than 5 years, they are due for a replacement. Even if they are newer, make sure they are in good condition with no weak spots, bulges, or abnormalities.
Refrigerator & Freezer:
Fridges are possibly the most important appliance to ready for a vacation. With the loads of perishable food inside, having your refrigerator break on you could be disastrous. If you’re gone for longer than a week you will want to get rid of the perishable food in your refrigerator so you don’t come home to a moldy mess. Remember though, if your fridge is empty it’s much harder for it to maintain its temperature. Consider adding a few gallon jugs of water to help it maintain proper temperature. That will also keep it from running excessively, putting stress on the appliance.
Turn off the ice maker in your freezer because it can malfunction or jam with a full ice bucket, and the damage can get worse when left for a while – plus you won’t be needing ice while you’re gone. While doing that check on your freezer make sure everything is frozen solid as Murphy’s Law dictates that if your freezer is going to die, it’s probably going to die at the worst possible time, which of course would be while you’re on vacation!
Check the coils on back or on top and make sure they are clean. This is especially important for an outdoor unit, because they get dirty fast! When the coils are dirty your unit will get overworked and be more likely to break. Remember, clean them every year!
Keeping Water-Using Appliances Fresh:
For your dishwasher you should run an empty load, and after the load is done, leave the door ajar so any moisture can escape. For front-load washers you will want to run it through a cleaning cycle with possibly a cleaner specifically made for front-load washers, and then leave it ajar. These are made especially to fight mold, which front-load washers can be prone to.
There you have it, some relatively simple steps that will ensure you don’t arrive home to a smelly, flooded disaster of a house. Happy vacation everybody!
