With the current inflation situation affecting consumers across the U.S., everyone is looking for ways to save money. One way is on your grocery bill. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a family of four spends about $1,000 per month on food. Although this number pales in comparison to rent/mortgage, health care and taxes, it is one number consumers have control over. Buying a standalone freezer can help you save significantly on your grocery bill — but only under certain circumstances. The appliance repair technicians at Kimball Appliance Parts & Service explain.

Investing in a Standalone Freezer

If your goal is to save money, your first consideration should be how much you are willing to pay for a freezer. A small freezer can be as little as $200, while a large freezer can be more than $1,000. The longer you have it and the more you use it, the better your return on investment.

Additionally, you must pay for the extra electricity to operate your freezer, but it is not nearly as much as some people would have you believe. According to Sears, the average freezer will cost between $25 and $150 per year to run. Compare that to the average refrigerator at up to $250 per year. Utah also has one of the lowest electricity rates in the U.S. at less than 11 cents per kilowatt hour.

Upright freezers use more energy than chest freezers; however, the cost may be worth it to those who live in a home where space is at a premium.

Keep in mind that there are vast differences in efficiency of your appliances based on how old they are and what their Energy Star ratings are. Further, your freezer will be more efficient if you keep it packed with food, versus leaving it half full.

Will You Use All That Food?

While freezers have an undeserved reputation for being expensive to run, the real cost of keeping an extra freezer is that of not using the food you have stored in it. Consumers must be disciplined about buying food in bulk, on sale, and then keeping to a plan of cooking and eating it. If you save money on 10 pounds of hamburger and then allow it to sit in your freezer for years untouched, you have not saved any money.

Although it is not impossible for a single person or a couple to benefit from having a freezer, generally speaking, the more people you have to feed, the more money your freezer can save you. You can use your freezer not only to buy food and store it in bulk, but also to cook it in large batches and freeze it in single-serving sizes so kids and teens can easily grab a healthy meal rather than order Uber Eats.

Freezer Repairs

Since upright freezers are expected to last 10-15 years and chest freezers up to 20 years, you will likely need freezer repair at some point. That’s the time to call Kimball Appliance Parts & Service. Whether you have a mini freezer, upright freezer or chest freezer that’s giving you trouble, our appliance repair techs can help. We have locations in Salt Lake City, Utah; Kansas City, Missouri; and Denver, Colorado.

At Kimball Appliance Parts & Service, we sometimes get calls from customers complaining that they cleaned their oven and now it won’t work. We’re sorry we can’t tell you to avoid cleaning your oven so this won’t happen to you, but we do have some advice for you when you’re cleaning this important household appliance.

Self-Cleaning Ovens

Most ovens today are self-cleaning. That means no more scrubbing, fumes or mess. Simply turn on the cleaning function and walk away.

If you have never had a self-cleaning oven, you may not be aware that once you turn this function on, it could be as long as six hours before it is complete. During this time, your oven door will be locked and you will not be able to open it. So avoid cleaning your oven an hour before you have to start dinner.

Tips to Get Your Oven Working Again

Some ovens allow you to cancel the cleaning function, but even then you may not be able to open the door right away. That is because when the oven is in self-clean mode, the temperature may rise above 500 degrees. You must wait for your oven to cool down before you can open the door again.

If your oven is cool to the touch and still won’t open, try unplugging it or switching the circuit breaker on and off to reset it.

If this doesn’t work, you may need to call Kimball Appliance Parts & Service for oven repair.

Common Oven Repairs

Because the self-clean cycle is so hot, it is possible that other components of your oven have become damaged, such as the wiring in the control board. Another common oven repair after cleaning is replacing the oven’s thermal fuse.

While having to pay for a service call to replace a thermal fuse or a wire is admittedly annoying for homeowners, we believe it’s still better than cleaning your oven by hand with oven cleaner year after year.

Recommendations for Oven Cleaning

Some online sources will advise you to clean your oven every three months. But as oven repair technicians, we know that every time you use the self-cleaning feature, you’re exposing your oven’s important mechanisms to extremely high heat and potential damage.

Unless you use your oven every day or it frequently gets thickly coated with splatter, you may want to limit using your self-cleaning oven feature to once a year. Or you can split the difference and clean your oven with oven cleaner in between self-cleanings.

As odious of a reputation as this chore has, the truth is that oven cleaner has come a long way over the years. When you use it, just remember to follow the directions carefully. Coat the inside of the oven completely and allow the chemicals to penetrate for the recommended time period. Rushing this job will result in some of the burned-on food particles stubbornly remaining.

Regardless of what caused your oven to break down, call Kimball Appliance Parts & Service for oven repair.

Don’t you hate it when you go to put your laundry in the dryer only to find that the washer is still full of water? It’s not uncommon, however, and there are a number of reasons that could be cause of the problem. The professional technicians here at Kimball Appliance Parts & Service have some tips for you to try before calling us for washer repair service at your Salt Lake City home.

1. Unplug Your Machine

This tip is like the one you get from tech support for your computer — turn it off and turn it back on again. It doesn’t make much sense, but it often works and you have nothing to lose by trying. Today’s washers — as well as most appliances — are made with computer chips, so the problem isn’t always something you can fix with a wrench and a pair of pliers.

Unplug your machine, wait at least 30 seconds and then plug it back in again. Set it to drain and spin and see what happens.

2. Check the Hoses

Your machine can’t drain if the water has nowhere to go, so check the hoses to see if anything is wrong. It’s hard to imagine the drain hose behind your washer suddenly got a kink in it, but we’ve seen it happen. What more often goes wrong with a hose is that something is clogging it. It could be pet hair, a sock or another small item. Especially if you have small children, those tiny socks can get sucked into the hose during the spin cycle.

3. Check the Drain and Spin Function

When the washer won’t drain and spin, it could be a mechanical issue or it could be a computer issue. There is usually a plastic piece on the inside the lid of top-loading washers that fits into a space in the machine when you close it. This is what allows it to drain and spin. Manufacturers make washers this way so that users are not injured reaching into a washing machine that might be spinning at a high speed.

Check to see that the plastic piece has not broken off and that the piece inside the space in the machine is intact. If it is, with the lid open, insert a pencil or other object into the space to see if you can get the washer to drain and spin that way. If you can, this is a short-term solution and you should still call Kimball Appliance Parts & Service for washer repair ASAP.

Other Reasons Your Washer Won’t Drain

There are a number of other, more complicated reasons a washer won’t drain, including malfunctioning parts. If you were unable to get your washer to drain using the above tips, call Kimball Appliance Parts & Service to make an appointment for us to come out to your Salt Lake City home. We offer not only washer repair, but also all types of appliance repair, including ovens, stoves, refrigerators, freezers and more to clients in Salt Lake City, Denver and Kansas City.

Lots of customers call our appliance repair shop because their refrigerator is not cooling the way it should, but we also get our fair share of calls about refrigerators that are too cold. Salt Lake City homeowners who are frustrated because their refrigerator is freezing food should call the experienced repair techs at Kimball Appliance Parts & Service for refrigerator repair.

Refrigerator Temperature

Most homeowners and apartment dwellers are aware that somewhere inside their refrigerator is a dial that allows them to set the temperature. You should keep your refrigerator at 40 degrees for optimal food preservation. You can check your refrigerator’s temperature with an oven thermometer or even a regular outdoor thermometer. Or, you can simply adjust the setting based on your tastes and preferences.

Once you get your fridge at the temperature you like, it’s smooth sailing — until your temperature sensor malfunctions. You’ll be able to tell when you get up one morning and grab the orange juice only to find out it has frozen solid overnight. You’ll want to blame someone else in the house for tampering with the controls, but you can see that it’s on the same number it’s always been on. That’s when you need to call us for refrigerator repair.

Freezing Can Ruin Some Foods

It’s true that a refrigerator that won’t stay cold poses a greater hazard than one that is too cold. Many foods can spoil quickly without proper refrigeration, especially meats, fish, chicken and dairy products. Most foods can withstand having been accidentally frozen. You can simply thaw your OJ and other items and they will taste almost the same.

The exception would be leafy greens, herbs, eggs, soda, cooked pasta, jelly, potatoes and some other types of vegetables like peppers and celery. Your cheese might get a little weird if it freezes, but it’s probably still OK to eat.

Still, no one wants to have throw away any food that spoiled due to a refrigerator malfunction. It’s disappointing and annoying.

Refrigerator Repair in Salt Lake City

When you call Kimball Appliance Parts & Service for refrigerator repair, we’ll ask you what brand of fridge you have and what’s wrong with it to help ensure we have all the parts we might need to complete your repairs without having to make a trip back to the shop.

Your technician will arrive promptly, diagnose the problem and make the repair. Afterward, he will check the temperature of the fridge to make sure it is functioning properly.

Our technicians provide skilled repairs quickly and with a smile. We also offer freezer repair, oven repair and all types of appliance repair to customers throughout the Salt Lake City area. We also operate locations in Denver and Lakewood, Colorado; and Kansas City and Lees Summit, Missouri. Call us whenever you need appliance repair.