[00:00:00] Intro: It's around the house when it comes to, and

[00:00:23] Intro: this is around the house.

[00:00:26] Eric Goranson: Welcome to around the house with Eric G, this is where you get all your home improvement advice every single week. Thanks for joining me today. This. A midweek special. This is that show that we add in the middle of the week to make sure that well, we get you the latest and greatest information that maybe didn't make last weekend show, or won't make this weekend show.

[00:00:46] Eric Goranson: Now we've got some great tips today, and this is one that came up, you know, I see trends and trends sometimes mean that there's a lot of questions. And now that we're getting into fall, this is one of them. And it all came down [00:01:00] to how do you deal with that self cleaning? Do you use it? Do you not use it?

[00:01:07] Eric Goranson: And I've had two people that had self cleaning of an issue question this week. So I wanted to dive into this for a minute because this is some pretty good information for you that could save you money. Now here's my advice. If you have a brand new range that is in warranty, I would make sure you follow the directions a couple times and use the self-cleaning function within that warranty period.

[00:01:33] Eric Goranson: Because I tell you what I see more often than not. Somebody will have that brand new oven arrange, they'll have it for over the year warranty or two year warranty, whatever it is, and they'll go to use it. They'll use it all year long and 12, 16 months or 25 months in, depending on the warranty period, they used the self cleaning oven for the first time and it overheats and melts something.[00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Eric Goranson: now I like the self cleaning oven feature, but if there's one thing you can do in that oven that exposes any issues that maybe were missed in production or a design flaw on it, it's a self cleaning feature. That's gonna do it for you. So it's something to really pay attention to. Now you're gonna risk every time you do it, especially if you just bought a house and you moved in, you know, you're gonna assume that that self-cleaning function has.

[00:02:27] Eric Goranson: You know, worked over the years and you're gonna hope it's gonna be okay, but this is just one of those things that, you know, I don't ever recommend doing it right before the holidays. You know, if you're looking at it going, man, I got a week or two before I really need this oven for something big, great time to clean it.

[00:02:43] Eric Goranson: Now, some of the things to do when you're self cleaning, first off, if you're ever making a mess in the oven, it's always good to let it cool down, wipe it out, get as much out of the inside as you. and then second follow the directions. You can always get online. If you don't still have the book on the self-cleaning [00:03:00] feature, most of the time, they want you to take the racks out of the oven and put them to the side, because that gets so hot, it will weaken the racks.

[00:03:09] Eric Goranson: So in almost every case, they say to remove the racks out of the oven. So of course follow those instructions to make sure that you're doing it correctly and then go through the cycle. But here's the thing I don't like baking something quality right after that. Because they're still, even though you wipe it out afterwards, you kinda lose the quote unquote seasoning in there.

[00:03:31] Eric Goranson: It can be a little char, a little smoky in there sometimes. So even when you use it days later, so just keep in mind. You probably don't wanna do the big dish right after that. Cuz it can be a little brutal in there. So you make sure you do it, but just follow the directions. And if you've got a range, you know, here's another tip too.

[00:03:50] Eric Goranson: If you've got painted or Thermo foil or a vinyl covered. Door right next to it. Take those doors off, open the drawers up, make sure [00:04:00] that none of that stuff is near that because all it takes is a little bit of a door leak and you can bubble paint, or you can take the vinyl off the front of those cabinets and cause a bigger problem.

[00:04:11] Eric Goranson: So make sure that you do that. Um, when I've had kitchens with Thermo foil in the past, I would actually pop the doors off real quick and just set 'em aside. So I didn't bake those in case there was any kind of a heat leak because quite frankly it gets darn. So it's something to consider, but, uh, when in doubt, go ahead and use it, but just make sure that there's a chance to note that it might not work after.

[00:04:34] Eric Goranson: So it's probably the riskiest move you're gonna do on that thing for not working later. So just careful with the holidays and stuff coming up. Well, one of the other things I wanted to talk about today is some things you can do around the house to save some money on your electricity bill. Now, our power.

[00:04:52] Eric Goranson: All of these things are getting more expensive. I don't think anywhere it's getting cheaper. So I. Cover some tips. Now I did create a video that [00:05:00] I did with sense it's over at, around the house, online.com, where I give you some really good step to step instructions on how to save some money around your house and how to do it.

[00:05:09] Eric Goranson: So there's a great tip over there. Just go to the bottom of the page around the house, online.com. Look for the sense video and sense is that home energy monitoring system that I have at my house that I've had for a number of years, that tells me exactly what every appliance, every light, every fixture that has electric.

[00:05:24] Eric Goranson: Is doing inside my house so I can see what my energy usage is. And then I can measure to see is that beer refrigerator out in the garage costing me more than if I got a new one. What's it gonna pay off? What's my energy use here and there. So these are all things that we should all take into account and sense does great job for me on that.

[00:05:42] Eric Goranson: And, uh, that's a video I created, but let's talk about some of those things in case you didn't catch the video. Now there's a couple things that you should keep in mind on. Heating water. If you have electricity is one of the most expensive things on your power bill, unless you've [00:06:00] got a heat pump water heater.

[00:06:01] Eric Goranson: Now, of course, if you've got an electric water heater and you change over to a heat pump water heater, that's gonna be a huge savings in my house. When I did it, I went, uh, to a 80 gallon heat pump water heater, and that saved me about 200 bucks a year. In costs to do that. So that's a huge difference when it comes to saving energy.

[00:06:24] Eric Goranson: And so that was good. But if you've got that regular water heater and you don't want to change it out, or it's in a space where a heat pump, water heater doesn't work. Here's some of the tips I wanna see, I wanna make sure that you're maintaining that water heater. You know, if you've put it in a few years ago, make sure that you're flushing it.

[00:06:41] Eric Goranson: You turn the power off. Open up the drain valve down below. Make sure you drain that water out into a good space that can take it. If you put it in the yard and it's hot water, you're gonna burn it. So maybe get it running down the driveway or another place. Uh, just be careful with plants cuz you can bake those plants with 130, 140 [00:07:00] degree water coming outta that water heater.

[00:07:01] Eric Goranson: So be careful where you put it, but flush that out, get it all cleaned up. And, uh, make sure if you're on a well, it's even more. So if you've got hard water, it's even worse, but make sure you flush that. Um, every couple of years, if you've got decent water and if you've got really hard water on a well, I've had to do it every six months.

[00:07:20] Eric Goranson: And so what can happen is, is that sediment can get built up and now you're lower element is just heating sediment. It's not heating water and, uh, you'll have, uh, low, hot water coming out of that thing. You won't have the capacity. And that's just something to consider. So make sure you've got that. Make sure you've got it adjusted correctly.

[00:07:39] Eric Goranson: And when in doubt, you know, here's one thing to keep in mind. I, I get worried on water heaters that are 10 years old or older. Cause you know, that's about the average lifespan is about a decade on a water heater. Eight to 10 years is pretty average out there. But if you go take a 10 year water heater, that's not been maintained and you start cracking that thing open and doing, you could be open on a can of worms.

[00:07:59] Eric Goranson: [00:08:00] You're probably best just to leave it until you replace it. Because, uh, you could open up a bigger problem with that. Uh, all of a sudden things are rusted in. Things are corroded and now things don't want to come apart. You know, the, the sediment could be so built up underneath. I've had this before, where the sediment's so built up in the bottom of that thing that I turned the valve on the bottom.

[00:08:20] Eric Goranson: And nothing comes out and I literally had to sit there, turn the water off to it and open the, uh, pressure valve on it and use an air hose and, uh, burp air up into it to create a spot, just to be able to get water, to come out. And then it took out all this calcium outta the inside of it. It was a mess.

[00:08:36] Eric Goranson: And I actually had to go back in through one of the holes where I took the element out with a, uh, with a hose, little tiny, thin garden hose. Uh, duct taped onto my ShopVac to get all the junk out of the bottom, just so I had some place clean, cuz I had, like I said way too much sediment in the bottom of it.

[00:08:57] Eric Goranson: Uh, at that point I probably should have replaced the water heater, [00:09:00] but I made it last couple years until I ended up having to replace it. So just be careful with that. That's one of them right there. Another one is those heating, um, you know, those cooling actually, if you talk about refrigerators, let's get into that first before get into heating and cool.

[00:09:13] Eric Goranson: When was the last time you popped off that lower grill on the refrigerator. You know that one down at the bottom. When did you pop that off and vacuum that out and get all the dust bunnies outta there. If you've got that thing loaded up with pet hair, dust, lint. Guess what that refrigerator is using a lot more electricity because those coils are how it transfers heat.

[00:09:32] Eric Goranson: And if you've got a blanket around it, guess what heat doesn't transfer well. So it's costing you more money there. So little ShopVac down there, be careful not to damage the coils. Just get down there around them. Don't really touch 'em cuz they are very delicate. So be careful when you put anything down there, make sure, uh, when I doubt unplug it out of the.

[00:09:51] Eric Goranson: Uh, and just make sure you don't do anything to do damage to that unit. And the other one here too, is making sure. When was the last time in your front load, washing machine [00:10:00] you changed or checked the filter? Yeah. Most of these have a filter. You can jump online, take ature model number and see mine. I've got an LG unit, uh, stack unit.

[00:10:11] Eric Goranson: That's pretty cool. And it's right in the front. There's a little panel. That I can go in and how you do this is make sure that you, uh, you know, get the cycle drained, follow the directions on it. But I get a little pan. I drain the water out of it and then loosen this plug out. And that is where you find all the hair pins, bolts, screws, pennies, dimes, nickels quarters.

[00:10:34] Eric Goranson: And anything else that got caught up in there because what happens, this is where this can save you money. And this is a pretty cool little tip right here. If you get that stuff out of there, if it's all plugged up, what happens is, is you're putting wetter clothes in the dryer. So instead of it spinning getting all the water out of there, it's not, it's only getting so much water outta there.

[00:10:52] Eric Goranson: And so you're putting very wet clothes in the dryer. So the dryer has to work twice as hard to do it. So make sure every six months to a year you're changing that [00:11:00] filter out there. Now I had a GE. It was just durables all get it. I had that thing for probably 12 or 15 years front loader, but I had to take the whole front panel off on that thing.

[00:11:11] Eric Goranson: So there were screws and, and bolts and stuff to get to it. But, uh, I did that about every year and it made a huge difference. So if you pull those towels outta your outta your front load washer, and they seemed to be. A little damp or a little heavy time to check that filter and get that taken care of.

[00:11:28] Eric Goranson: Now I've got a whole bunch other tips on that video, which you can find it around the house, online.com across the bottom of the website. There you'll find it right there and you can watch it with my tips on what to do there, to keep that energy build just a little bit down. Now, the other thing I wanted to talk about today was electric vehicle charging.

[00:11:46] Eric Goranson: There are so many people out there that are looking at plugin electric vehicles and, you know, I love them. I wouldn't mind having one that F-150 lightning or the Silverado looks really cool. Uh, of course I'm not gonna tow with it. [00:12:00] We're we're years away from that making a ton of sense, but I'd love to do something like that.

[00:12:04] Eric Goranson: However, I wanna warn everybody before you go out, looking at that. you need to look at your house first to see if it's going to be able to charge that correctly because yeah, they do have a lot of these have a charger. You can plug into a regular outlet, but guess what? That could take 24 hours or more to charge.

[00:12:24] Eric Goranson: That's not gonna work really well for you so many times you want to have at least a 50 amp charger, but here's the problem. There are so many homes, millions of homes out there with a hundred amps or less. Charging capacity coming out of that. Well, not charging capacity, you've got a hundred amps or less power coming into the house completely.

[00:12:45] Eric Goranson: So if you take half of that and put it towards your charger, you have got a world to hurt. So if you've got a hundred amp panel, basically you need to plan on making sure that you do a panel upgrade. That could be 2000. That could be $10,000, depending on what has to. [00:13:00] So make sure that you have that in your budget to do that.

[00:13:03] Eric Goranson: Now, if you've got a 200 amp panel and you've got a large house and you pop open that breaker panel and go, wow, I have absolutely no room in the panel. Now you could have a problem. So that's when you call your electrician and see, you might have to put in a 400 amp service, you might have to do some changing around on that panel.

[00:13:22] Eric Goranson: Put a bigger panel in that'll accept more breakers. If that works. Maybe you don't have enough slots in there, but these are things that you should explore. The first thing before you go by that, make sure that you've got the ability to charge it at home or maybe down the street, you've got a super charging station or something like that, where it makes sense where you can go down there on the way home or during the evening, pop it off over there and, and, uh, do some email follow up while that's charging.

[00:13:45] Eric Goranson: So there's a lot of different things you can do, but just make sure that you've got a plan for that, because that's my biggest concern is, is that there are so many homes out there. And so many people don't understand that what they need to do to be able to have a fast [00:14:00] charging solution. And that's something you gotta keep an eye on and make sure because here's the problem.

[00:14:04] Eric Goranson: If you don't have enough power in that panel, one, you're gonna overload the system two. It's not gonna charge the car as fast as you think. You're not gonna get as many, you know, miles per charge outta that whole thing. So it's gonna really slow down your charging. And then three, that could be a fire. So you wanna make sure and get that dialed in.

[00:14:21] Eric Goranson: So take a look at that panel before you buy that. EV make sure you've got it ready. And if you've got it, if you're gonna buy two of them, Man that's gonna take even more power. So you're looking at a, you know, probably at least gotta have a hundred amps going out to that. So many times you are gonna need that 400 amp service to put two independent car chargers in there.

[00:14:42] Eric Goranson: So you can charge both cars at the same time. So if you've got, uh, two people in the house that are charging plan for that to be expensive as well, and make sure you've got that in the. Because guess what? That's not covered as part of the price of the car. All right, everybody. We've got a great show ahead this weekend that you don't wanna miss.[00:15:00]

[00:15:00] Eric Goranson: We've got Robin Daley. We're gonna talk interior design, color furniture, all that stuff. And then hour number two. We've got my buddy, Dave. Sellinger. From deep Sentinel, we're gonna talk home security and a lot of tips to keep that house all tidied up and safe for you and your family and friends. All right.

[00:15:18] Eric Goranson: Ready? Have a great rest of the week. Happy midweek. Special. We'll talk to you on Saturday. Thanks again for listening to around the house