News & Advice

  • /
  • News & Advice
Spoon in microwave

Five Common Microwave Problems & How To Fix Them

Microwaves are great inventions and have simplified cooking and heating certain foods by the simple push of a button. Despite their simplicity, though, they can have faults, just like other appliances. To know whether or not there’s an easy fix for your microwave problem or if you need to arrange for your microwave to be repaired, you first have to establish what the problem might be with it. Here are five of the most common microwave faults: Microwave sparking Sparks in a microwave can be a scary sight, but generally it’s not a cause for worry, if the cause of the spark is remedied as soon as possible. The most common reason for a sparking microwave is caused by the presence of a metal object…

Read more ...
fridge thermometer

How To Measure Fridge Temperature

It’s important to keep food stored at the right temperature to avoid meat and dairy products from developing or growing unwanted bacteria or enzymes. Or, freezing and damaging foods such as salad and dairy products. A fridge that won’t cool down, or one that’s too cold, won’t do its job properly, meaning the food you store in it might have to be thrown out. Although, generally, fridges do a good job of maintaining temperatures, there are a range of issues that can cause too high or low temperatures in your household fridge. Knowing how to check a fridge’s temperature will help you determine whether it is suffering from a temperature keeping issue and decide whether you need to repair it. What makes a fridge cold?…

Read more ...
lint filter washing machine

How To Stop Lint From Sticking To Your Clothes

Lint is the word used for the tiny fibres of fabric that are shed from the edges of clothes, most often when you wash them in a washing  machine. These fibres tend to stick to the surfaces of other clothes and make it so that they don’t look fully clean, even straight after they’ve been washed. Fabrics made of natural fibres like wool and cotton generate more lint than fabric made from synthetic materials, and some washing machines might be more likely to create lint problems than others. This can be symptomatic of a faulty washing machine, or it can just be a problem with your washing processes. Lint shed from lighter clothes onto darker ones and vice versa can give clothes a worn, faded…

Read more ...
best washing machine type

What Type of Washing Machine to Choose?

Washing machines have a range of different features depending on what brand you choose and what price you’re willing to pay, but three specific features are important enough to make them useful for categorising washing machines. If you’re wondering which washing machine to buy, find out which of these types of washing machine best suits you and learn what its specific benefits are. The three types of washing machine we’re focusing on today are integrated washing machines that can be hidden away in a cupboard, quiet washing machines with low operating volume, and budget washing machines that can be bought without breaking the bank. These three categories of washing machine proved highly popular in 2018, and we expect that popularity to continue into 2019. Integrated…

Read more ...
cleaning an extractor hood filter

How To Clean Your Extractor Hood And Filters

Grease, grime and dirt love to build up on extractor hoods. It’s one of nature’s laws. Because your cooking hood lives right above your hob and its primary purpose is to draw up the smoke or steam that your cooking food gives off, there’s no avoiding it getting slightly greasy over time. What can be avoided, though, is a thick layer of grease building up and making it both dirty and less effective. The longer you put off cleaning your extractor hood and filter, the less effective it will be and the harder you’ll have to work to get it clean. Be proactive and get your extractor hood back to full working order by following our guide to cleaning both the hood itself and the…

Read more ...
fridge not cooling

How To Troubleshoot A Refrigerator Not Cooling

A fridge not cooling is one of the most frustrating household problems because it can make all of the food you currently have go off and leave you without a way to store any more. Your refrigerator isn’t necessarily a write-off if it has an issue with cooling, however. It might look as though it’s working fine – the light comes on, it’s still making that familiar soft humming noise – but there are a number of internal problems that could have led to the cooling mechanism failing. Here are a few of the most common refrigerator faults so if your fridge isn’t cooling you can figure out if you need a fridge repair service or not. Make sure that you turn off your appliance…

Read more ...
electric oven benefits

Choosing Between A Gas Or Electric Oven

There are a huge range of choices to make when it comes to fitting out your kitchen, from the colour of the walls to the storage solutions, the % split between fridge and freezer to the trade-off between worktop space and cooking equipment. One of the most important decisions you’ll make in terms of cooking appliances, however, is choosing between a gas or electric oven. This choice is normally driven by the flat or house you’re furnishing – if there’s no gas then your decision is made for you. If you do have the choice between these two different oven types, though, this article is for you. There are several factors you need to consider when you’re choosing an oven, here are what we consider…

Read more ...
washing machine problems

Common Washing Machine Problems and Solutions

Like all household appliances – there are a range of things that can go wrong with your washing machine, leaving you without a way of cleaning your clothes. From water leaking onto your floor to holes mysteriously appearing in your favourite clothes, washing machine problems can be some of the most frustrating. Often, these issues will only get worse if they’re not repaired straight away, so make sure to diagnose and troubleshoot any washing machine issues immediately using our guide to common washing machine problems and effective solutions. What’s the problem if my washing machine won’t spin? If your washing machine isn’t spinning, the first thing you should check is that the switch on the door or lid is not broken. This switch controls the…

Read more ...

The UK’s Top Food Imports And Where They Come From

Click the map to view full size image It’s no secret that the UK is a huge importer of food and drink, it’s not like we can grow exotic fruit in our allotments and we’re not exactly known for our vineyards! Just how large scale our import demand is might still come as a surprise to you though, as it did to us when we carried out research on the top food and drink imports to the UK from 191 countries. The import data for the first 6 months of 2018 was collected from HM Revenue & Customs and broken down into countries and categories. What it revealed was that we import a huge amount of food and drink from pretty much every country in…

Read more ...

Smoke Coming Out Of Your Oven? Here’s Why

The last thing you want when you’ve got guests over for dinner is smoke coming out of your oven. Aside from the embarrassment it can cause, smoke isn’t exactly a flavour you want accompanying every meal you serve. There are a number of reasons why you might have smoke coming out of your oven, so if your gas or electric oven is smoking right now and you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, read on to find out what it could be. Causes of Smoking Ovens Factory coatings or chemicals burning If your oven is new, this is the most likely reason that it’s smoking. When being manufactured, it’s common practice for ovens to have an oil based coating that can cause smoke as…

Read more ...

Is An Appliance Service Plan Worth It?

Everybody has domestic appliances in their home, from ovens to washing machines and everything in between, so we all know that they can break down at the least convenient times. Sometimes the appliance breakdown itself isn’t even the worst of it – being hit with a large but unavoidable repair bill in a tough month can be expensive. Instead of waiting until your appliance breaks down to think about how you’d deal with doing without or having to pay for a repair, making use of an appliance service plan can give you peace of mind and save you time and money. Benefits of an Appliance Service Plan Cheap – From as little as £2.60 a month, you can have the guarantee that any time your…

Read more ...

Five Uses for Your Microwave

We all use our microwave for a few regular things; heating up food, reheating our forgotten coffee and defrosting frozen products. But there are other uses for our microwave that you might not be aware of. Here are five tips and tricks to get the most out of one of our staple appliances: Stop those onion tears When we’re cutting up onions, we spend the majority of our time wiping our eyes to ensure we can see what we’re cutting. If you’ve tried all the hacks – including putting a wooden spoon in your mouth – you might be happy to hear that your microwave can help! To banish the tears, put your onions in the microwave for a few seconds before cutting. This will…

Read more ...

Categories

Archives