Dishwasher spots are most commonly caused by, among other things, a dirty dishwasher. Get rid of dishwasher spots with help from a seasoned home improvement expert in this free video clip.
Drawing with charcoal is a great way to give your art a unique and interesting look that you just can't get with a regular pencil. Learn how to draw with charcoal and find out about a few tricks that you may not already know with help from an artist in this free video series.
Just because a pot is "stainless steel" doesn't mean that it is immune to getting dirty. Find out how to clean stainless steel brushed mirror polished pots with help from a cleaning expert and national lecturer in this free video clip.
Bounty sheets make a great tool to have when cleaning burnt pots. Learn how to clean your burnt pots with Bounty sheets with help from a cleaning expert and national lecturer in this free video clip.
One of the many things that can build up on a waffle maker is a sticky residue of sugar. Clean sticky sugar from a waffle maker with help from a cleaning expert and national lecturer in this free video clip.
Discovering a burn on fine silver can be discouraging, especially if you have plans to use it for a dinner party or other joyful event. Ordinary silver polishes are an excellent choice for cleaning and polishing silver, but correcting a burnt piece of silver requires some ingenuity with common household items. In just a few minutes, the burn mark on your silver can be reversed and it will gleam once again.
Oven drip pans can quickly become a no-man's land of burnt food grease. Find out how to clean up drips with the help of a cleaning coach in this free video.
Broiler trays tend to build up burnt-on grease and food, and it's not always easy to get them clean. With a little ingenuity and elbow grease, however, getting a broiler tray clean does not have to take too much time or effort. The trick is to battle the broiler's grime with a combination of scrubbing and oven cleaner. The result will be a sparkling clean broiler, ready to take on your next cooking project in style.
The reservoir of a coffee maker is the part where the water is stored. Clean a coffee maker reservoir with help from a cleaning coach in this free video clip.
If you’ve enjoyed the fun pleasure of testing your reflexes against a frenetic pinball machine, then you’ve probably stared right at Mylar -- a polyester film that provides a resilient layer of protection to a variety of surfaces. Mylar was invented in the early 1950s and is used in a growing number of applications, including clock and computer displays, X-ray film, test strips and even university ID cards. It’s better to be safe than sorry when cleaning Mylar film so that it does not peel or crack. So get back to basics to get your Mylar film back to its…
When people buy a home, it's common for them to want to give the home's bathroom a complete renovation. While saving as many elements of the bathroom as possible is ideal, some parts are too dated to salvage. Glass shower and tub doors with brass hardware are common in homes, but they are a dated, simple style. Instead of just pulling out the doors and throwing them in the garbage, you can get rid of them in several useful ways.
If you refinished a piece of wood furniture or floor, you likely protected it with several coats polyurethane or urethane. These two terms are used interchangeably by the average do-it-yourselfer. No matter what you call it, your final coat or layer might have some rough spots, which are often caused from dust that settles as it dries. You can easily remove these rough spots with steel wool without having to apply another coat of urethane.
Cast iron pipe is very rarely installed in modern homes. However, it was commonly used in the sewer systemss of older homes. If you have a rusted cast iron sewer pipe, the damaged area should be replaced with plastic pipe. The weight of the pipe places additional stress on the rusted weakened area of the pipe and increases the chances for further damage. You can replace the entire pipe to forestall future repairs; this is a major operation. You also can replace only the damaged section using a banded coupling to connect the cast iron pipe to the plastic pipe.
False ceilings -- also called suspended ceilings -- can do more than just hide pipes, electrical wiring and heating and air conditioning ducts. They can also provide insulation, better acoustics and allow a variety of lighting options as well as make a design statement. In addition, false ceilings can make use of several different materials to obtain the desired effect; they can also work well in almost any setting.
Aluminum pans have a tendency to leave silver scuff marks on all kinds of surfaces, from the kitchen sink to your black glass cooktop. These stains aren't difficult to remove but the methods by which you remove them from a glass cooktop must take into account the needs of the surface. You can clean an aluminum pan mark and other stains off your black glass cooktop stove by using supplies and methods safe for the appliance.
You know it’s time to take action when you’re rinsing a lobster under the kitchen sink in hot water and you can’t tell the reddish-pink lobster from your reddish-pink, dry hands. Hot water is superior to cold and even lukewarm water when it comes to cutting through food stains and oil from dishes, but it can take a harsh toll on your hands. As long as you’re in the kitchen anyway, reach for an assortment of homemade remedies, choosing among quick topical treatments, 15-minute soaking treatments and overnight treatments. Don’t throw in the (kitchen) towel until you find some personal…
Removing unwanted grease from a clutch is essential for maintaining optimum performance levels of your motor. Clutches are responsible for transmitting power from one set of mechanical components to another. A clutch will often cut -- or transfer power in a rough manner -- when grease, dirt or additional grime causes build up or decay to clutch mechanisms. Clutch hardware can pick up grease from a mechanic's fingers, for example, or through dirty tools.
Cleaning the outside of your Crock-Pot slow cooker keeps your appliance looking good and prevents long-term damage. While the stoneware insert can be washed by hand with a mild cleanser or be placed in the dishwasher, care must be taken to avoid temperature changes that can crack or shatter the insert. The heating base of a Crock-Pot should never be placed in liquid, however, which makes soaking the pot out of the question. Clean the outside of your slow cooker carefully to avoid damaging the electrical components.
Your KitchenAid stainless appliances and cookware require special care to keep them in top condition. Improper care can cause scratches, dings and stains in the surface. Stainless cookware can scratch or stick without proper maintenance. Understanding how to care for these products will ensure that you get the most from your investment.
Fermenting crocks are stoneware pots used to make pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi and other tangy delicacies. Because successful fermentation requires the growth of specific types of bacteria, it’s essential to clean your crock thoroughly before and after each use. In some cases, mold can grow in your fermenting crock. To avoid this problem, you must take particular care when cleaning the plate and weights that keep the vegetables submerged in brine.
The full panes of sliding glass doors provide an abundant amount of sunshine into the home, while providing an expansive view of the backyard. However, some homeowners may not care so much for glass doors -- for security reasons, for example, or because they're afraid the kids could break the glass. If you've soured on your glass doors, replace them with solid exterior ones.
Clad cookware is made from layers of different metals, so it requires different care and cooking techniques than other types of cookware. It requires a gentle cleaning before its first use to remove any oils or other residue from the manufacturing process. Because clad cookware offers greater heat distribution than some other types of cookware, it requires a lower cooking temperature. Using the right cooking tools and cleaning methods protects the finish to extend the cookware's life.
Deep surface scratches create a serious blight in the appearance of a platinum steel refrigerator. Because any fillers used on a steel refrigerator surface are generally visible after repair, when deep scratches mar the steel face, you should rub out the scratches instead of filling them in to get an unmarred finish.
The first electric slow cookers, designed primarily to cook beans, came on the American scene in the early 1960s but became popular for cooking a variety of foods when the Rival company developed the Crock-Pot in 1971. The first Crock-Pot could not be submerged in water for cleaning, but within a few years, the company released one with a removable liner. Most modern slow cookers now offer a removable liner, making cleanup much easier, but some one-piece models are still available. Even with a removable liner, cleaning a slow cooker liner can be a daunting task if food is stuck…
Using cast iron plates is an excellent way to add iron to your diet, but you need to treat your plates carefully so that they will not rust. Rusty cast iron plates may have a high mineral content but these are not the minerals that you want. However, if you season your cast iron plates carefully and treat them properly you will find that they give you a reliable nonstick surface and cook food quickly and evenly.
Oven cleaner sprays are used to help remove durable deposits from inside the oven. Because ovens create high temperatures over long periods of time, they can bake stains and oils into the inside surface, making them very difficult to get out. Some ovens have cleaning cycles designed to help remove the deposits. You should not use an oven cleaner spray with a self-cleaning cycle -- even with normal ovens, the spray may cause damage.
Wallabees are a type of shoe introduced by the Clark shoe company in 1965. These moccasin-like shoes have a unique outsole made from plantation-crepe, a type of natural rubber with a crinkled appearance. Because all shoes eventually get dirty, it's important to understand the best ways to clean the unique soles of the wallabee shoes.
If you've got the mother-in-law coming to stay at short notice or are expecting potential buyers to drop by for a speedily arranged viewing, it's unlikely you're going to have the time to completely refurbish your dowdy bathroom. You can, however, make the most of what little time you have in an effort to make your bathroom look and feel more pleasant.
The Crock-Pot brand of slow-cooking appliances contains a stoneware bowl that is heated with an element on the base and sides of the unit. This process leads to some creative cooking, but the nature of the cooking method means some food likely will stick to the hot sides. Keeping your Crock-Pot clean is key to the performance of the cookware. It's also important to remove food debris from the inside of a Crock-Pot to maintain the sanitation of the device.
The "best" way to clean supermarket-cut mushrooms is open to debate. One thing most experts agree on, however, is that the old-fashioned method -- submerging them and then running them under a hard stream of water to remove dirt -- is probably the wrong approach, since mushrooms are very porous and soak up water like sponges. However, there are several ways to clean mushrooms without exposing them to a great deal of water, depending on your preference, the condition of the mushrooms -- and your tolerance for dirt.
Rust is a sign of corrosion that eats away at iron until a hole appears, and eventually, the iron disintegrates. Rust is also a patina that iron objects develop over time; adding a few rusty objects to your decorating scheme adds a shabby chic, rustic look. Decorators looking to create a distressed or antique look and feel to a home using iron-based products can do so without inviting the destructive corrosive; instead, you can apply a faux patina. This is a project a DIY decorator can accomplish in a few days.
Whether you're cutting carrots for a light snack or including them as part of a big dinner, learning how to diagonally cut them thinly will not only offer a new texture and presentation to your meal but will also expand your food preparation skills. In order to maximize the proficiency with which you diagonally cut carrots thinly you must always keep your eye on your knife and carrot, as well as keep safety your top priority.
After using and cleaning your crock pot's removable ceramic liner, there occasionally will be a white film encircling the inside of the liner. This film is most likely caused by hard water. While this white film is unsightly, it does not affect the usage of the crock pot. Most instruction manuals warn against using harsh abrasives and scouring pads on the ceramic liner, so you must use a gentler approach to remove the film. This can be accomplished by using a combination of two things most people keep in their kitchens: lemon and vinegar.
Stainless-steel appliances are expensive items, so scratching one is likely to cause you some stress. GE says stainless-steel scratches cannot be repaired, and it advises appliance customers to replace the damaged parts. The Specialty Steel Industry of North America says purchasing a replacement part is usually more cost-effective than hiring a professional refinishing firm to restore the appliance to its original condition. If you can live with a less-than-perfect finish, you can try to cover up the scratches yourself. While abrasive pads can help hide scratches, they can also cause them, so you should never use abrasive pads or cleansers…
The Google search engine has been known to make or break a business based on the number of potential customers it directs to that business's website. Google search uses a ranking search algorithm that prioritizes Web pages based on several factors, such as relevant and original content, keywords, neatness and accessibility of layout, the frequency of updates and others. To obtain a prominent spot on the coveted first page of a Google search,create your Web page with a few vital considerations in mind.
Drip pans are the concave metal disks that lie beneath the coil on your electric or gas stove, though they are more commonly found on electric stoves. These drip pans will catch food spills and other debris, but a small hole on the center of each drip pan allows the food to fall through the stove top beneath it.
While necessary for cooking, oil tends to leave a nasty residue behind on glass dishes. Baked-on oil seems to borrow from a cockroach’s survival skills and is impervious to many traditional cleaning solutions. But oil does meet its match when a bit of baking soda is introduced. Where dish detergent fails, baking soda and water eat through baked-on oil and leave your dishes clean and residue-free.
The drip pan underneath your refrigerator catches water that drains out of the refrigerator compartment above. These pans may need to be emptied occasionally, otherwise they could overflow. The process of evaporation, where water is converted to water vapor, also helps to keep the pans from overflowing.
Burnt spaghetti leaves a mess in a pot that is difficult to remove through normal washing. You can achieve results using only dish detergent, but you will have to soak it at least overnight to remove the burnt pasta, and even then, you will likely have to scrub. Adding just one extra ingredient, common to most households, makes the job easier.
The Swiffer WetJet cleaner makes washing the floor simple and convenient. There's no need to pour floor cleaner into a bucket or mix it with water. The Swiffer cleaner bottle contains all that's needed to clean the floor along with the Swiffer pad. However, the Swiffer cleaner bottle is not refillable and is difficult to open, forcing consumers to purchase a new bottle of Swiffer WetJet cleaner every few weeks. But persistence pays off, and you can remove the cap on a bottle of Swiffer cleaner to refill it with your own cleaning fluid.
Stainless steel is rightly touted as a hard-wearing and chic cladding for kitchen appliances, making it a desirable choice for buyers. Stainless steel has a long, useful life and is generally low maintenance, however, it is not impervious to scratches and scrapes that stand out and detract from the pristine appearance. General Electric recommends a specific product and process to remove scratches from their stainless steel refrigerators and other kitchen appliance products. Known as Scratch-B-Gone, this scratch repair product is sold directly from the parts shop at GEAppliances.com.
During the course of cooking in a home kitchen, it is possible to get burnt residue on a refrigerator. However, the surfaces of most home refrigerators do not make cleaning it off easy. While ovens and stovetop surfaces can withstand hard scrubbing with an abrasive scouring pad, refrigerator surfaces may scratch with such treatment and burning it off under high heat — how ovens are cleaned — is out of the question. Nonetheless, it is possible to clean burnt residue off a fridge with the right cleaner.
Over time, stainless steel doors can become scratched from normal wear or when something hard rubs up against it. Small surface scratches found on a stainless steel door can be repaired, however, deeper scratches may require professional help removing. Small scratches are commonly found on stainless steel appliances, but can be made to look like it is part of the natural grain of the door.
Liquid chlorine is a chemical often used in cleaning products and widely used in swimming pools. Regardless of whether you use chlorine in your pool or as a cleaning agent, the surrounding area likely contains glass items such as glass tabletops, windows and light fixtures. If the chlorine splashes onto these glass surfaces and is not promptly wiped away, the moisture in the chlorine evaporates and leaves behind a cloudy, white residual spot. This residue is simply and effectively removed using products you may already have in your kitchen.
While using a Crock-Pot is simple, cleaning the handy kitchen appliance can be challenging, especially if food becomes baked on the heavy, heat-retaining ceramic crock. The crock is especially difficult to clean if food is allowed to cook too long and moisture evaporates. Older slow cookers with a crock built in are harder to clean and are treated differently than newer slow cookers, which usually have removable ceramic crocks that are lifted out.
Ubatuba granite also goes by the names ubatuba green and verde ubatuba, among others, and is manufactured in Brazil. It comes in base colors of gold, black, green and gray and contains lighter-colored speckles throughout. Like all other granite, ubatuba is porous and absorbs stains such as wine and acidic drinks. If your ubatuba granite has glass rings on it, removing them requires creating a poultice to draw the stain out.
Sterling silver tarnishes when you stop wearing it. If you leave your sterling silver bracelet in your jewelry box for two months, you won't be able throw it on just as you walk out the door. Small spots of tarnish or an entire patina will have developed on the metal. If you keep a silver polishing cloth handy, you won't need smelly or messy silver polish to brighten your jewelry. Even if there is only a small area of tarnish visible, polish the entire piece. Removing the tarnished area will leave a noticeably shinier spot of silver than the surrounding…
Removing shiny spots from velvet can make or break an important appearance. Picture this: you are a hosting a house party with a velvet couch as your centerpiece. Guests arrive this evening and, on accident, a drink spills on the surface. Time is of the essence before the shiny spot hardens into a crusty mess. Not to fear; employ several household products to remove the spot in no time.
Etching, a slightly iridescent, hazy manifestation on glass surfaces, is actually many micro-scratches and not a removable film. If your dishwasher has etched your glassware, you can’t fix the glasses on your own. As a last-ditch effort, take the glasses to your local glazier for an acid bath, which may reduce the appearance of light etching. You can, however, prevent the problem from reoccurring. Get rid of dishwasher-related etching on your glassware by tackling its most common cause: improper selection or use of dishwasher detergent.
A scratch on the stainless-steel finish of your grill doesn't have to be the end of the world -- you can always fix the damage, especially if the scratches are fairly superficial. Most hardware and home improvement stores carry stainless-steel care products, such as finishing pads and polishes designed to help remove scratches. Finishing pads have several grades, similar to sandpaper grading, so you can purchase the proper pad depending on how severe the scratches to your grill are.