Tower Housewares Black Friday bargains

 TOWER HOUSEWARES BLACK FRIDAY SALE EVENT 

13 – 27TH NOVEMBER 2023 

Tower Housewares who have been built for better with great British design, innovation and excellence since 1912.

Tower is an iconic British brand boasting over 100 years of quality in manufacturing and design  excellence, delivering high quality kitchen and housewares for over a century. A leading brand name for Air Fryers, Pressure Cookers, Kettles, Toasters & floorcare products online and throughout the high street. Tower is the UK’s fastest growing small domestic appliances and housewares brand loved by millions of  households. 

Simple & Easy Ways to Conserve Energy at Home.

With increasing concern for our planet’s climate and energy prices that are consistently on the rise, it pays to be prepared with ways to preserve energy at home. There are a number of different things you can do to reduce your power bills and your carbon footprint, both immediately and in the long-term.

Here are our top tips for conserving energy at home naturally - 

Appliances

If you’re not using it, turn it off. Keeping appliances turned on uses energy even when you’re not using them. TVs, DVD players and stereos all use energy even in standby mode. Make sure you turn everything off at the power point when you’re not using them to preserve energy and keep your costs down. To make it even easier, plug multiple appliances into a power board. You’ll be able to turn them off with just one switch.

Choosing the right fridge freezer.

For a little while now we have been slowly saving up to buy a new fridge freezer to replace our existing one which is unsurprisingly on its last legs having given us 10 years plus of loyal service after being given to me second hand.

Being a family on a tight budget the expense of buying a new fridge freezer is a large expense for us, and as such I want to make sure we buy the best fridge freezer for us and our budget. As there are so many brands and models of fridge freezers available on the market to narrow down our search and help find the right one for us, I have been looking researching what we should consider when buying a fridge freezer.

Fridge Freezer types

As I mentioned there is a huge array of fridge freezers available on the market, with the choice of styles and sizes being a vast one, but when looking at fridge freezer types there are 3 basic types to consider -

Freestanding fridge freezers: can be fitted anywhere in your kitchen/pantry and come in a range of sizes and colours. They are type of fridge freezer that is popular and plentiful on the market and often is the cheapest type of fridge freezer.

American-style fridge freezers: are large with fridge and freezer side-by-side, and as they are large they take up a lot of floor space. Not only are they expensive to buy they can also be expensive to run. Thanks to their large size they hold a huge amount of food and often have lots of extra features.

Integrated fridge freezers: fit behind kitchen cupboard doors rather than being on display. Integrated models tend to have a higher price tag than freestanding models with fewer models available on the market.

Whilst the novelty of an American-style model is appealing due to funds and lack of space they are not an option for us and as we cannot fit an integrated fridge freezer into our kitchen we are planning on getting a freestanding fridge freezer (this type is what we already have) which has the added benefit of being a model that would be easiest to take with us and fit in a new kitchen if we move.

Cleaning your washing machine.

I am a strong believer in looking after the things you have and regularly servicing appliances to help them last as long as possible.  One appliance in particular that I like to treat well with regular servicing and cleaning so that hopefully it will serve us well for many years is our washing machine. 

Even though washing machines are cleaning machines they still need to be looked after and regularly cleaned and serviced as dirty clothes, detergent, clothes fluff, grime, odours and in our case full loads of stinky cloth nappies will leave their mark, leaving the washing machine looking worse for wear and in need of some loving attention and a good old scrub.  Also as we often wash clothes at 40 degrees or less which is great for saving money on energy bills and being better for the environment compared to hot washes there is a downside as low temperatures will not rid the machine of mould and bacteria like a hot wash would so I make sure that I regularly clean our machine.

To kill germs and bacteria, get rid of mould, banish bad odours and prevent limescale build-up in your washing machine, turn off your machine and get cleaning with my tips for cleaning your washing machine and giving it a new lease of life.

*  Clean the exterior of the washing machine.

Help make your washing machine feel like new by cleaning the exterior with a damp cloth and vinegar (or all-purpose cleaner).  At the same time as cleaning the exterior of the washing machine give some attention to the door, inside and outside, to get rid of any detergent build-up, grime and mildew. 

Getting the best value from your fridge freezer.

As money is tight for us I try my best to be frugal and cut costs where possible.  One way I try to be economical is by getting the best value from our fridge freezer.

Fridge freezers can be very heavy on energy consumption and as they are unavoidably always switched on they can cost a lot to run.  Thankfully there are several simple things that I do to get the best value from our fridge freezer, reduce the energy consumption of the fridge freezer and help save money.

Tips for getting the best from your fridge freezer.

*  Clean the fridge freezer’s coils.

Inevitably over time dust gathers on the coils underneath and at the back of the fridge freezer and when dust builds up on the coils the appliance does not run as well or as economical as it would if the coils were dust free, in fact a fridge freezer with coils thick with dust could reduce efficiency by up to 25%.  Dust covered coils make the fridge freezer work harder, making the condenser kick in more often which uses up more energy, costing more to run and wears out the condenser quicker which would be costly to fix or replace. 

To prevent the fridge freezer having to work harder, I make sure that I keep the coils dust free.  This simple little job of turning off the fridge freezer, pulling it out and dusting the coils and vacuuming excess dust means the condenser works more efficiently and economical.

Hot, hot, hot.....keeping cool thanks to fridge freezer technology.

Even though we have been enjoying the lovely weather of late I have welcomed the cooler weather that has arrived over the past few days.  Both Bug and I found the sweltering heat a tad unbearable.  In an attempt to cool down a little and find cooling relief to the oppressive heat we have been savouring cold drinks and icy-cold homemade ice lollies.

With our excessive consumption of cold drinks and ice lollies during the overbearing heatwave our fridge freezer has taken a hammering.  Our poor old fridge freezer has been working excessively hard keeping our drinks refreshingly cold and freezing our yummy homemade ice lollies for us to enjoy as an icy-cold refreshing treat.

I have been extremely grateful that our fridge freezer has not conked out on us with it being so old and struggling to keep up with our demand of cold and frozen food and drinks.  Our fridge freezer is years old, I have had it a number of years and was given it by a family friend who had it for a number of years before then, so it is surprising that it is still working.