A hood with clogged filters greases the doors above it. A dishwasher opened hot steams the panel beside it. A fridge with dusty coils works twice as hard behind a cabinet that holds the heat in. Look after the machines and you are looking after the kitchen around them.
Appliances come with their own manuals, and the manual for your model always wins over a general guide like this one. What the manuals do not tell you is how the appliances and the cabinets affect each other. Nearly every appliance in a kitchen makes heat, steam, grease or water, and it makes it right beside a cabinet edge. A few minutes of routine on each machine keeps it working longer, keeps the power bill down, and keeps steam and grease off the doors. This page is that routine, machine by machine, with a schedule at the end you can stick inside a cabinet door.
Run the hood every time you cook and wash its metal filters about once a month (every two weeks if you fry or wok-cook a lot); charcoal filters on a recirculating hood are replaced every three to six months. Clean the dishwasher filter monthly and let the machine cool before you open it. Vacuum the fridge’s condenser coils once or twice a year, keep it at 4°C or colder and the freezer at −18°C, and change its water filter about every six months. Wipe cooktops once they are cool, keep foil off the oven floor, and clean stainless steel along the grain with soap and water — never steel wool, bleach or scouring powder.
Everything a hood does not catch lands on the nearest cold surface, which is the underside and doors of the cabinets around the range. A sticky film on those doors is the hood telling you it is overdue.
An over-the-range microwave is a small hood: it has its own grease filters underneath, and a charcoal filter if it recirculates. Same routine. A hood that is too small or vents into the room will never keep the cabinets fully clean; the appliances page covers size and venting for the next kitchen.
If the edge banding beside the dishwasher has already started to lift, the steam page shows how to put it back and keep it there.
Warm water and a drop of dish soap on a microfibre cloth, wiped along the grain — the faint brushed lines in the steel — then dried with a second cloth, also along the grain. For streaks, a cleaner made for stainless steel or a few drops of mineral oil on a dry cloth. Never chlorine bleach, steel wool, scouring powder or abrasive pads.
One exception: many newer appliances have a fingerprint-resistant clear coat over the steel. On those, the manual usually asks for soap and water only — stainless polish and oil can spoil the coating. If the fronts never seem to show fingerprints, assume that is what you have and check the manual before you polish.
The small appliances do more harm to a kitchen than the big ones, because they are the ones that end up tucked under a wall cabinet.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Every time you cook | Hood on before the pan, off ten to fifteen minutes after; wipe cooktop spills once cool |
| Every week | Wipe stainless fronts and handles; empty the toaster crumb tray; wipe the dishwasher door edge |
| Every month | Wash the hood’s metal filters (two weeks for heavy frying); clean the dishwasher filter; check under the sink |
| Every 3–6 months | Replace charcoal filters on a recirculating hood; look under the dishwasher behind the toe kick; descale the tap aerator |
| Every 6 months | Change the fridge water filter; vacuum the fridge coils (or yearly if it stays clean) |
| Every year | Check the fridge door seals with the paper test; deep-clean the oven; check the hood duct and outside flap for grease and nests |
About once a month for metal mesh or baffle filters, and every two weeks if you fry or cook with a wok several times a week. Soak them in very hot water with dish soap and a little baking soda, brush gently, rinse and dry them fully before refitting. Some can go in the dishwasher, but only if the manual says so.
Yes. A recirculating hood, one that blows the air back into the room, uses charcoal filters for odour, and they cannot be washed. Replace them about every three to six months, or sooner when cooking smells linger. Its metal grease filters still need washing every month as well.
On most modern dishwashers the filter twists out of the floor of the tub. Rinse it under the tap, brush it gently with a soft brush to clear grease and food, then twist it back in until it locks. Do it about once a month; a dirty filter is the usual cause of gritty glasses and a bad smell.
Once or twice a year. Unplug the fridge and vacuum the coils with a brush attachment; on most models they sit behind the bottom grille or on the back. Dusty coils make the compressor run longer, which costs energy and adds heat inside a built-in enclosure.
Health Canada recommends 4 degrees Celsius (40 degrees Fahrenheit) or colder for the fridge and minus 18 degrees Celsius (0 degrees Fahrenheit) for the freezer. Check with an appliance thermometer on a middle shelf rather than trusting the dial.
Wait until it is cool, then wipe with a damp soapy cloth. For marks, use a cream cleaner made for glass cooktops with a soft pad, and lift burnt-on spots with a cooktop razor scraper held at a low angle. On a radiant glass top, sugary spills should come off while still warm, carefully, because sugar can pit the glass. Lift pots rather than sliding them.
Yes, used as the manual describes. Take the racks out unless it says they can stay, wipe out loose debris, open a window and run the hood, and keep pets, especially birds, out of the kitchen because the fumes can harm them. The outside of the oven gets very hot, so the clearances to the cabinets in the installation instructions matter.
Wipe along the grain with a microfibre cloth, warm water and a drop of dish soap, then dry along the grain with a second cloth. For stubborn streaks use a stainless steel cleaner or a few drops of mineral oil. Never use bleach, steel wool or scouring powder. If the steel has a fingerprint-resistant coating, use soap and water only.
Grease and oil, bones, fibrous peels such as celery and corn husks, and large amounts of rice, pasta or potato peel, which swell into a paste that clogs the drain. Run cold water before, during and after grinding. If it hums but will not spin, switch it off and use the reset button and the hex key socket underneath.
The appliances will tell you when they are overdue: grease on the doors, gritty glasses, a fridge that runs all night. The schedule means you hear it first.
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