Advice
Kitchen appliance advice: how to actually do it
Procedures rather than opinions. Each page covers one thing end to end, says which step matters most, and links to the equipment it assumes rather than the equipment we would like to sell you.
Getting started
First appliance, first batch, and the order to buy things in so nothing sits unused in a cupboard.
Technique
Preheating, batch sizes, resting, and the published temperatures each machine is actually built around.
- Why a single layer matters in an air fryer An air fryer moves hot air past food. Food that is not in the path of that air is not being air fried — it is steaming.
- Preheating, and what it is for Preheating is not a ritual — it is the difference between a surface that sears and a surface that warms slowly while the food sits on it.
- Weighing into the bowl with a kitchen scale Every washed-up bowl in a bake is a step that a tare button or a scale with a pull-out display would have removed.
- Using a probe thermometer A thermometer measures one point. Everything useful about using one comes down to choosing that point well.
Cleaning
Coatings, dishwashers and the parts that must never go in one — the five minutes that decide whether a machine reaches year ten.
- What must never go in the dishwasher Dishwasher-safe is a manufacturer's declaration about a specific part, not a property of a material — and the difference is where coatings, rollers and seals die.
- Nonstick coatings, and what kills them On most kitchen appliances the motor outlives the coating by a decade. The coating is what you are actually replacing when you replace the machine.
- Cleaning a pressure cooker sealing groove A pressure cooker that will not seal is more often a dirty groove than a worn ring — and the groove is the part every routine skips.
Buying
How to spend a budget so the money lands on the bowl, the hub and the plates rather than on the box around them.
- How to read a kitchen appliance listing The number in the headline is almost never the number that decides the purchase, and the absent one often matters more than the present one.
- Stated capacity against usable capacity Every jar, pot, bowl and basket in this category is sold on a number measured to its rim — and used at a level well below it.
- What a program actually is A program is a temperature, a duration and sometimes a pressure, with a label on it. Counting labels tells you almost nothing.
- European parts, American prices Several parts on this site are made for European machines. On Amazon.com the same reference is missing, listed with no price, or sold by an importer at a markup.
Parts & care
Which seal, which plate, which blade. The reason most kitchen appliances only appear to be broken.
- The parts that wear first Almost nothing in this category breaks. Things wear, in a predictable order, and each of them is a part.
- How to read a compatibility list Four kinds of compatibility claim appear on replacement parts, and only three of them can be checked before ordering.
- When a machine is not broken The commonest repair in this category is a ten-dollar part, and the commonest diagnosis is a new appliance.
Space & capacity
Liters against portions, countertop against wall units, and the clearance figures that are published in the manual rather than the listing.
- Measure before you buy a kitchen appliance Almost every returned kitchen appliance fits the counter and fails on something else: the depth, the clearance above, or the width inside.
- Appliance clearance above and behind An appliance that fits the counter and not the space above it is the most avoidable return in this whole category.
- Cord length, and where the outlet is Most countertop appliance cords are 2 to 3 feet long. A raclette grill is used in the middle of a table.
- Storing plates, bowls and attachments A three-in-one press is three plate sets to store, and a raclette set is a box of small pans to lose.