You will ordinarily spend a significant amount on the building and furnishing of your home. While several aspects might flush your investment down the drain, none will be as devastating as a fire. Other than lost lives, most of your cherished possessions lost in a fire cannot be replaced even with the highest compensation. Since homeowners understand this, they will ordinarily take the necessary steps to prevent house fires. These include having fire extinguishers and alarms in the house as well as educating your home’s occupants on fire safety.
Refrigerator repair in Salt Lake City might, however, be all you need to prevent a house fire. This might seem far-fetched, but research attributed about half a million house fires annually to faulty appliances. The fires resulted in about 200 deaths, 13,000 injuries, and property damage of over $10.3 billion. Based on statistics, varying degrees of house fires are reported every two minutes. With these statistics, it makes sense to protect your home from deadly fires through prompt and professional repair of your appliances. The following are among the common appliance issues that start house fires.
Dishwasher
If you open a dishwasher just after its cycle ends, the heat that filters out will be overwhelming. This is because a dishwasher has heating elements for the drying of your dishes. The elements will be heated then cooled each time you use the dishwasher. Faulty and old heating elements might, however, cause a fire since they will not automatically cool after the dishes are dry.
Microwaves
Damaged rack and waveguide covers are the common causes of microwave fires. The waveguide, for instance, conveys heat waves to the food when a microwave is in operation. It can get blocked by food particles and grease. The heat waves burn the stuck food particles and emit a spark. The spark, in turn, further damages your microwave’s waveguide and causes more frequent sparks and high risk of fires.
Refrigerators
Few people associate a refrigerator with heat. Even so, your fridge has a compressor that might overheat and cause a fire. Refrigerators are also common causes of electric circuit overload when connected using DIY methods. Even if the short circuit does not cause a fire, it can damage all the electrical appliances in your home.
Dryers
The leading cause of a dryer fire is a lack of maintenance and thorough cleaning. The lint trap in your appliance is meant to catch the lint in your clothes and guarantee an optimal clean. Even so, this trap is not fail-safe. High amounts of accumulated lint may catch fire in the dryer’s exhaust ducts or heating elements. To compound the issue, most homeowners have their dryers outdoors. This means an installation of a long vent pipe that should twist to accommodate your home’s turns. This twisting increases the odds of lint accumulation.
Maintenance is Key
You can hardly do without the above household appliances. It is thus advisable to be safe through the prompt repairs and professional installation for them. Remember that your insurer will not compensate you if your house fire was caused by the lack of repair or maintenance of your appliances.