Maintain Your Refrigerator Properly
Refrigerator has now become a necessity for any middle class family.
It becomes all the more important during the summer season. When the atmosphere becomes hot, we just cannot manage without it.
It comes handy if we want to serve chilled water, make sharbat, prepare ice cream, prevent milk from getting spoilt or preserve food.
A costly and essential gadget like refrigerator may break down early due to lack of proper maintenance. It may pose several problems. Now when summer has begun, importance of refrigerator has increased considerably.
No housewife ever likes her refrigerator to break down during summer posing problems for her. To ensure this, we need to use refrigerator in proper manner. If we use refrigerator in a proper manner and pay attention towards its maintenance, no doubt it will serve our purpose for a long time.
If you want your refrigerator to last for a long time, you must take following precautions:
Always keep refrigerator at levelled place so that it does not dwindle. This increases efficiency of its compressor. Besides, it ensures that there is no extra weight on the refrigerator.
Never allow refrigerator touch any wall. Always keep it at an airy place. There should be a distance of at least six inches between back of the refrigerator and wall and distance of at least four inches between side panels of refrigerator and wall.
Still better, keep refrigerator at a distance of one foot from wall. This is needed because the distance ensures that the hot air blown out of compressor does not bounce from wall and hit the compressor.
This increases efficiency of compressor and ensures there is no variation in temperature.
Never keep refrigerator at heated places.
Keep it at a distance from the place of heaters, cooking gas, stove etc. Even if you want to keep refrigerator in kitchen, ensure that it is at least five feet away from stove or cooking gas.
Never keep hot food and beverages in refrigerator.
First let them cool down and then keep these in refrigerator.
Similarly never heat up anything that you take from refrigerator directly.
Let that become warmer and when its temperature becomes normal heat it up.
When you open refrigerator door, do not keep it open for more than 20 seconds. This too increases temperature in the refrigerator.
Also one should not open refrigerator door again and again. Otherwise more electricity is consumed to make it cool again.
Don’t let frosting take place on outer side of the refrigerator.
If ice forms on outer surface, you should defrost refrigerator.
Never scrape ice with any sharp or pointed object like a knife.
That may damage refrigerator.
Do not increase or decrease temperature of refrigerator instantly.
Do it gradually.
If the refrigerator is not cooling, it means the gas in its compressor has leaked.
In such case, you must show refrigerator to a good mechanic.
Do not keep fruit and vegetables, which are already cut, in refrigerator for several days. Their taste will reduce because of it. To ensure that there is no odour in refrigerator, keep a bunch of mint (Pudin Hara/ Pudina) or a cup containing baking salt, lemon juice, rose water or mustard soaked in water in the side shelf .
Rubber components of refrigerator last longer if methyl spirit is applied to them once a month. Refrigerator remains efficient if it is cleaned once a week.
Never open refrigerator with a jerk. This would damage bulb in it and the rubber packing on its door frame.
Applying salt to all sides of refrigerator prevents formation of ice on it.
Adopting these cautions will ensure long life span of your refrigerator and you need not look for a mechanic every now and then to repair it.
Anand Kumar Anant
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