Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Save on Home Cleaning Products by: Sarah Russell

Although your mother always said that cleanliness is next to godliness, she never mentioned how expensive it would be. If you listen to advertisements today, you know that you need separate cleaners for your kitchen counters, bathroom counters, mirrors, windows and so on. And at $3-7 for each bottle, the costs of being clean add up quickly. But you can save money by making your own household cleaners with these easy recipes. In addition to being expensive, commercial household cleaners can be dangerous. According to the EPA, many of the products we frequently use contain harmful toxins such as chlorine, ammonia, and formaldehyde. These chemicals may cause a variety of health problems, from lung and skin irritation to endocrine disruption and possibly even cancer in the case of formaldehyde (commonly as a glue and preservative). In all cases, our bodies are not equipped to neutralize the toxic chemicals which may seep into the air from these products, leading to health problems over time. You can save your money and your health by making your own cleaners using products commonly found in the kitchen. Try out some of the following recipes:

* All-Purpose Cleaner: To create a basic all-purpose cleaner, warm one pint of water and stir in two tablespoons of baking soda. Add a splash of lemon juice or vinegar to help cut through grease. Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and use it as you would any commercial cleaner.

* Glass Cleaner: Mix one cup of white vinegar with one cup of distilled water and spray on windows using a spray bottle. Wipe down the glass using old newspapers for the best streak-free finish.

* Oven Cleaner: Mix one part white vinegar to four parts water and spray onto your oven. Let it set for several minutes to penetrate the grease and gunk before wiping away. You can also use baking soda to scrub through the tough parts.

* Drain Cleaner: Pour one-quarter cup baking soda down a clogged drain and follow with one-half cup of vinegar. Carefully cover the drain tightly and wait for hissing to stop, then rinse the drain well with hot water. Be careful when using this recipe – baking soda and vinegar are highly reactive together!

* Air Freshener: To eliminate odors, sprinkle plain baking soda in trash cans, kitty litter boxes and other stinky places. House plants can also help absorb odors as they take in oxygen from the environment. Purchase potpourri from a craft store to give your home a fresh scent that lasts longer than spray air freshener. You may find that a stronger concoction works for you. Experiment with the proportions of each cleaner until you find the concentration that works best for you. For more recipes and information on alternative cleaning methods, visit http://www.home-safe-home.org.
About The Author
Sarah Russell, aka "The Sexy Secretary," is a connoisseur of living the good life on a budget. Check out her website at http://www.thesexysecretary.com for more fabulous ideas on how to trim down your expenses without reducing your quality of life.


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How To Change Your Furnace Filter Or Air Conditioning Filter

by: Bill Whitworth

Analogous to change in technology and the ever-increasing pollutants in the atmosphere, home air filtering technology has undergone a massive change. Today, many home air filters are layered with chemicals for killing the mold and dust spores, and sanitizing the filter to dispel impurities. If you live in a heavily populated vicinity, there is a high possibility of dust particles collecting in your air conditioner. These filthy dust particles may probably hold up the condenser of the air conditioner and compel it to work intensely. As this would hamper the longevity of the air conditioner and affect its performance in the long run, make sure you steam-clean the air conditioner at least once in two years. Besides, if you live in a highly polluted area, a yearly clean up would do you good. Furnace filters and air conditioning filters not only screen out debris and unwanted pollens from the heating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, but they also increase its productivity.
If you replace them often, your air would stay healthy and clean without any allergens and all other types of bacteria that could be harmful to the lungs. Moreover, fresh replacements help in keeping the HVAC system running efficiently by prolonging its lifespan and reducing the utility bills after regular maintenance. Make sure you check your furnace filters and air conditioning filters, the need for replacement or cleaning every month and particularly during cooling or heating season when the system is continuously used. If these filters were not changed on a routine basis, your system would have to work extra hard, increase expenses and reduce performance. How to Clean or Replace Your Furnace Filter or Air Conditioning Filter Following are some common steps followed for changing the furnace filter or air conditioning filter:
• Turn off the HVAC system and look for the service panel. You could either use a screwdriver or your hand for removing these panels
• Locate the home air filter close to the intake-outtake blower; it might be behind a panel or door that swings or lifts open. Remove the filter.
• Before you install the new filter, look for an arrow (arrow indicating the direction of airflow) along the edge of the new filter. Install the filter, ensuring the arrow is pointing toward the blower motor and other related machinery. Make sure you don’t install the filter in a backwards airflow manner as this decreases the efficiency of the home air filter.
• Turn your system on and check whether it is functioning properly. Conforming to the above given steps you would easily be able to change the home air filter. If you are unable to change the air filter, call for a heating contractor and watch how they change the filter.
Furnace filters and air-conditioning filters are available in permanent (with metal framing or fiberglass) or disposable (with cardboard frames). Disposable models are very cheap, but need to be replaced within a time span of a month. Therefore, it is better if you have spare filters on hand to save time during the course of the year. On the other hand, permanent brands are cost-effective. All furnace filters and air-conditioning filters come with a MERV (Minimum Efficiency Report Value) Rating that denotes the capability of the product in comparison with the other various brands. The higher the MERV rating, the more beneficial your filtration will be.
Learn more about furnace filters at http://www.webproducts.com/Categories.bok?category=Furnace+Filters.
About The Author
Bill Whitworth writes air quality articles for http://www.webproducts.com Web Products, Inc., the Internet’s premier supplier of http://www.webproducts.com/Detail.bok?no=70 furnace filters, air filters, replacement filters, and custom filters.

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Cleaning Your Dryer Vent Means A Savings Of Time And Money And Avoiding a Fire Hazard

by: Rick Pocock

Have you noticed that its starting to take longer and longer for your clothes to dry? Does a load of towels now take 2 or 3 drying cycles, and maybe still feel a little damp? If so, you’re probably also paying higher gas and electric bills than you used to. The solution may be simpler than you think. And less expensive. Most people automatically think that the dryer itself is the problem, but it usually turns out that the venting pipe that exhausts the dryer to the outside of the house has become clogged with lint. If your dryer can’t vent out that heat and moisture in the clothes, then your laundry can’t dry. Over time, running the dryer this way will eventually create enough extra wear and tear on the dryer parts that it will ultimately lead to expensive dryer repairs. Worst of all, it also turns your dryer into a potential fire hazard.


Most dryers now have a safety feature that will either turn the dryer off or turn the dryer’s heat off if it senses that it’s overheating, which will happen when there’s a buildup clogging the venting system. That’s why it takes forever for your clothes to dry--the clothes will keep spinning but there’ll be no heat. This feature is not completely reliable to depend on, and the older dryers are also not as likely to have adequate safety systems which will shut it off or stop the heat. Who do you contact to get the venting system brushed out and inspected? Believe it or not, most appliance technicians will only deal with the dryer itself and want nothing to do with what it vents through. Generally the people to contact are chimney sweeps, and it is highly recommended to use one trained as a C-Det Certified Dryer Exhaust Technician if they are in your area. In addition to cleaning out the accumulation in the venting system, there are other ways to help keep you safe when using your dryer. One of the main causes for buildup in the dryer venting system is from forgetting to pull the pieces of paper, wrappers or Kleenex from the pockets before doing the laundry. Then add to that the hair (human and pet), sand, jewelry, money, and just about anything that you can think of, and you can see what it will lead to.


The more of this kind of stuff that can be caught ahead of time and not allowed to get into the dryer, the better. It’s crazy what winds up in there! In 1998, the last year reported, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that there were 15,600 fires, resulting in 20 deaths and 370 injuries from dryer fires. The fire hazard, in many cases, is caused by the lint and paper that gets past the lint screen landing inside the dryer below the drum on the dryer floor. Have a qualified appliance repair person out to clean the interior of the dryer several times a year to minimize the chance of fire. Watch how the repair person does this. In some dryers, there’s an access panel in the front of the dryer that can be easily removed so that the homeowner can do this.


Clean the lint debris behind the dryer and keep combustible materials away from the dryer as much as possible. Lint should be removed from the lint screen before each load of laundry. In addition, the fabric softener pads or sheets are fine to use but they leave a chemical film on the lint screen which will make your dryer harder to exhaust. Every few months, take the lint screen out, bring it to your kitchen sink and wash it with water, liquid dishwashing soap and a tooth brush. The flexible connector hose between the dryer and the wall should be made from aluminum and not from flammable plastic. It should not be kinked or crushed, since this will also restrict the dryer’s ability to vent properly and will cause the dryer to overheat. It’s preferable that the connector hose only be long enough to go between the dryer and the wall with just a little bit of slack so that if the dryer is pulled out, the hose still stays connected. If your dryer is located in a laundry closet or small room, the door to that room must be open while the dryer is running. A dryer needs make-up air--whatever amount of air it’s exhausting out, it needs to bring the same amount of air in, without having to work for it. If the dryer cannot get that make-up air, it may overheat. A dryer needs at least 100 square inches of oxygen, the equivalent of a 10" x 10" window. Also, if there is an exhaust fan in the laundry room, the fan should be off when the dryer is running. Because of the high incidence of dryer fires, never leave the house if the dryer is on and never go to bed with the dryer running either. We are all a nation of multitaskers and what better way to multitask than to put wet clothes into the dryer, run some errands and come home to a load of dry laundry. This is really taking chances and just not safe to do. When looking for a company to clean the dryer vent system, make sure that the technician will use a brushing method to clean out the dryer venting system. Many companies simply use a vacuum or blower, which will not remove the lint accumulation in the venting system. This becomes that much more essential if the lint is moist, since it takes on a consistency close to paper mache and will otherwise stick like paste to the inside of the pipe. So if you are in need of this being done, just think about how much money you will be saving and how much joy it will put back into doing the laundry! Well, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but at least it will be a little less of a chore.
About The Author
Rick Pocock and his wife Terri have been in the chimney sweep and dryer vent business in San Diego, California for over 14 complaint-free years! Please visit http://www.swedesweep.com and http://www.dryerventsbyswede.com for more information about the importance of having these services performed.


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