Kitchen Essential

Fridges, fridge/freezers, freezers

These are today’s equivalent of the pantry and larder. These appliances do everything from storing vegetables and dairy products at ready to-eat temperatures, to deep freezing carcases of meat to be eaten months later. It’s an added bonus if they can defrost themselves or produce ice at the push of a lever, and even store all the packets that we buy. Isn’t it time, though, that fridges accommodated odd-shaped bottles such as Perrier water — after all that bottle has been in existence for 100 years!

The majority of fridges are simple upright oblong boxes. Sometimes small freezers are fitted inside the cabinet for storing already frozen food and ice cubes. Sometimes there is a separate freezer for freezing fresh produce, or a combination which has a chiller, fridge and freezer. A chiller is a self-contained cool compartment in the fridge which maintains dairy produce at ready-to-eat temperature.

One enlightened manufacturer has produced a combination of chiller, fridge, freezer and compartment that can operate as either freezer or fridge.

Doors can be hinged either left or right, so they can open most efficiently into your kitchen. Have you ever walked into a kitchen and found yourself unable to spot the fridge? It is finally discovered cunningly concealed inside a unit. This is a built-in model with a unit door attached to the door of the fridge. Or it may be a piece of matching laminate applied to the front of the fridge door. These are called decor panels. To fit inside a housing unit an integrated fridge is somewhat smaller than most and should it go wrong some years later, it is often a major chore to replace it with something of the same dimensions.

It is preferable to keep the freezer out of the kitchen if it is a separate unit, as it will use less electricity in a cooler room. An upright freezer is more expensive to run, needs defrosting more frequently and it is easier to leave the door open accidentally. Unless the interior is very roomy it won’t take huge lumps of meat or a large turkey that can be such a bargain. However, for a shorter height person, a chest freezer can be a big mistake. You can lose something forever at the bottom of a chest freezer!

Dishwashers

Only four per cent of British households own a dishwasher. Britain lags way behind Italy, West Germany and America, for example. An average of ten hours per week is spent in washing up by hand, drying and putting away. To stack, unload and store away the contents of a dishwasher only takes ten minutes per day. Tea towels and dishcloths harbour potentially dangerous bacteria which thrive on handwashed plates, even when hot water and powerful detergents are used. Research shows a seven-fold increase of bacteria on handwashed items.

Having given a dishwasher house room, people are loath to give them up. The majority of them are manufactured in West Germany or Italy even though they carry a British brand name. Even if you think you’re buying a British machine, you probably are not! Even so, the majority conform to high standards of performance and safety. Free-standing or built in, the dishwasher should fit under a standard 600 mm worktop, although sometimes the plumbing will push it proud of the units either side and a 650 mm depth worktop will be needed. Free-standing dishwashers may take a decor panel, but built- ins are designed to have doors and a plinth line to match the kitchen units. A 12-place setting is standard, but the free-standing worktop models take six. However, they can be more expensive than the lower priced 12-place machine.

As rack design varies from one machine to another it is wise to take a selection of your own crockery to the shop to ensure it fits into the dishwasher of your choice.

Except for lead crystal glass, antique china, wooden or bone handled cutlery, everything else can be put into the dishwasher. Unless pans need scouring, they too can benefit.

A programme lasts about 90 minutes. Most machines have a built-in water softener activated by coarse salt, which if not regularly topped up will result in cloudiness and grittiness. A rinse aid adds shine. Cold-fill machines ensure that the contents get extra rinsing while the water heats. A rinse-and-hold programme is useful for rinsing between full loads.

A hot-fill machine is economical if hot water is plentiful. The cycle is shorter, but there is no rinse-and-hold programme.

Washing machines

More than 80 per cent of British households now own a washing machine. Electronic technology added into them has increased the range of programmes and helped to conserve energy.

As fast as synthetic fabrics are being developed, traditional crafts of spinning pure cotton and wool are being revived. The washing machine has to cope with these variations. Research and development has to be done in conjunction with detergent and textile manufacturers. No machine can handle delicate fabrics unless the powder has the right chemical reaction with the temperature of the water used. Comments made in our survey revealed that people were often ignorant of the need for a careful sorting of any machine load and of correct programme choice, yet expected their washing to come out of the machine perfect every time.

Incorporating a micro chip into a washing machine enables it to trace faults in the mechanism and clearly display the sector which has the fault.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
What’s Right for You Equipment Design? Part 3

• Decisions about Kitchen Units and Appliances
• Kitchen Design Secrets
• The Ultimate Kitchen Planner Part 1 (Appliance)
• THE Perfect Kitchen Layout (Major Traffic Position)
• Kitchen Storage and preparation
• Small and Beautiful Kitchen
• Conquering Clutter
• Kitchen Renovation, relocate Cabinets and Appliances with U-shape Kitchen Design
• The Ultimate Kitchen Planner Part 4 (Decoration)
• What's Right for You Equipment Design? Part 1
• Conquering Clutter (continue...)

Trackback URI | Comments RSS