Angie's List: Home appliances - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

The busy holiday season is upon us - are your appliances ready to work overtime? Angie's List explains how to prevent appliance repair from topping your holiday wish list.

We rely on our household appliances each and every day to help make our lives simpler, but all too often we don't treat them right.

"People that haven't tried their ovens for a month, two months, three months, or six months. The day before Thanksgiving they want to cook a turkey and their oven doesn't work so we get emergency calls all the time," said Rick Cantleberry with Turner Appliance.

Holiday meals can be ruined, so before you host - test.

"Do it at least two weeks ahead of time. Cook a nice meal to make sure the oven is working properly," said Angie Hicks, Angie's List.

A basic service call on an appliance can cost anywhere between $60-100, but that doesn't include parts and labor. To get the most out of your dishwasher, clean your filters at least twice a year and always rinse off food.

As for your garbage disposal, keep the blades sharp by running cold water and putting a cup of ice down the disposal. Cold water helps solidify grease and fat.

One thing you shouldn't do before the holidays is run your oven's self-cleaning cycle. Self-cleaning cycles cause the oven to run at extremely high temperatures, which could cause them to fail. Another way to keep your oven clean is to wipe it down after each use with soap and water.

Also, don't forget simple maintenance on your refrigerator.

"The only thing you can do besides wiping it down and keeping it clean, your kick plate down here, you can pull it off. If you have coils underneath there, you can vacuum them and keep them clean. Some are on the back behind the back panel and you have to pull out and take the back panel off to do some cleaning, but be sure you unplug it when you do that. If they are on the back wall, if the condenser coils are on the back wall, just dust them off, that's all you got to do," Cantleberry said.