From Mariette Mifflin,
Your Guide to Housewares / Appliances.
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We need all the help we can get, when it comes to saving time and making our appliances work better for us. Many of our products have really neat features that we often overlook, or defer learning how to use them, only to forget overtime that they are even there. Here are five features and how they can benefit us.

Cooking Range Programmable Timer

Your range timer could be preset to start cooking your roast in the late afternoon, for your main entree to be ready shortly after you arrive home from shopping or your daily commute. This works especially well when your roast or main dish is frozen, and it will require several hours to defrost through the day.

Coffee Maker Programmable Timer

Many coffee makers have programmable features and you can prepare the coffee the evening before, set the timer and you can wake in the morning to the lovely aroma of coffee brewing - now that's a waker-upper. The time saved in the morning may be just enough to grab that quick breakfast.

Washer - Presoak Option

Most models of washing machines have presoak options. Once the soaking is complete, the regular cycle will commence. Utilizing this feature for your heavily-soiled laundry, may eliminate a second washing, and produce a cleaner washload.

Washer & Dryer Permanent Press Settings

It's so easy to just use the 'regular' or 'timed dry' options on your dryer, but the 'permanent press' or 'wrinkle-free' settings are designed to provide a cooling down period at the end of the drying cycle, and this is what lessens wrinkles, and can eliminate or really cut the ironing time required.

Likewise, washers generally have a shorter cycle with a low spin. This setting is designed for your dress clothing and permanent press fabrics. The wringing action is lessened, reducing the wrinkles considerably. Hanging these items, or drying on a permanent press cycle, will result in less ironing and your clothes will look better and last longer.

Bread Machine - Delay Start Timer Setting

This setting can provide for wonderful baked-bread aroma just when you want it. I've set it at night, and woke to the smell of baked bread. One hint though, it's not wise to use a bread recipe with eggs when delaying operation for several hours. Delay start is also a big help when you're planning a special guest dinner and have many things to prepare - set it and forget about it.

If you're not sure whether you have any of these neat features, or how to use them - refer to your product manual. Experiment with some of these until you are comfortable with the results. Many other appliances have such settings - make them work for you, that's what they're designed for.