H.D., West Roxbury

A. I doubt it, because the day you did not see the steam was one of those 80- to 90-degree days during the mini-heat wave. Since it was that warm water vapor in the warm, moist exhaust, air could not condense, just as you can't see your breath on a warm day. But, to be sure about this, I suggest you check the duct to make sure it is clear and to clean out any lint buildup that might be there. One way to tell if there is a lint buildup is to use your nose; if the dryer smells of slightly scorched cloth, its heat is cooking the lint.

Q. My refrigerator is getting rust spots. I remove them with Brillo but they come back. How can I get rid of them permanently?

H.W., Lexington

A. Scrubbing with Brillo or any steel wool will inject bits of steel into the enamel, causing more rust spots (see answer above). That might not be the reason you got the rust spots in the first place, but not using steel wool will certainly help with the new ones. Soft Scrub may help, or cut a lemon in half, sprinkle salt on one half and rub the rust spots.

One thing you should try to find out is where those rust spots are coming from. One cause is chipped enamel, revealing steel that will rust. If so, once you clean off the rust, give the refrigerator a coat of furniture wax. Or, spray paint the refrigerator. Depending on the color of your appliance, you can touch up the spots (after sanding all rust off) with appliance touch-up enamel.

Q. A ballpoint pen was left in the jacket in my washing machine. It survived that, but it broke in the dryer, smearing a lot of ink onto the dryer drum. It does not rub off on clothes in the dryer, but I would just as soon get rid of it if I can before anyone sees it.

P.W., Roslindale

A. I can understand why you want to get rid of it before anyone else comes home, but you may have to take your medicine. Rubbing alcohol is the solvent for ballpoint ink. Try wiping the stain with rubbing alcohol. If some comes off, repeat as needed.

Q. My new dishwasher is sending steam into an adjacent cabinet made of some rather flimsy cardboardlike material, and I'm afraid the steam will ruin the cabinet and everything in it. A repairman was told to wrap duct tape around the insulation around the water inlet. Would this work?

M.W., Agawam

A. It might work, but it is a jury-rig at best, not the way to correct an expensive new appliance. It sounds as if the dishwasher was installed wrong, and I suggest finding a manufacturer's representative to have it fixed right. It might also be a design flaw; if it cannot be fixed properly and safely, get another brand.

Q. Water stays at the bottom of my dishwasher after each wash, and when it gets stagnant it smells awful. I tried adding a little vinegar, then, separately, adding bleach. Neither helps much. The washer is 13 years old and still works well enough except for that standing water. What can I do about that water?

EVELYN MAURICI, Boston

A. Check for a blocked or kinked discharge hose, and if you can't find any, a plumber might be able to. A plumber might find something else wrong, too, but generally it is a kinked hose or partially blocked line that leaveswater in the bottom. Since the washer is 13 years old, it is two years beyond its expected life span, so if repairs are impossible or too expensive, it is time to replace the washer.

And, call the Bay State School of Appliances in Hyde Park, which may be able to answer your question, 617-364-3434.

Q. You wrote recently that you bought one of those plastic cord winders for winding an extension cord, the type that takes the place of hand winding, which gets everything tangled up. You also said you forget where you bought it. Have you remembered?

R.M., Milton

A. Are you questioning the handyman's memory? Well you might. No, I have not remembered, but I can't see why places like Home Depot and Home Quarters wouldn't carry them. Check them out.

However, we received a call from Avram Silverman of Wellesley, who said that coiling a cord in an oval creates sharp turns, which could put kinks in the cord. With kinks, you can get a break in the cord, and a burnout, which is an obvious hazard, Silverman said. It would be better to coil the cord like a rope, in a circle, not an oval, preventing sharp corners and kinks.

Good point, Avram Silverman, and we will put that in our memory bank. Thanks for the tip.

Q. I have a good stove with a marvelous griddle in the middle of the top, which I like very much, but I don't like the harvest-gold color. A professional charges $145 for a paint job. Can I do it myself and achieve a decent look with a better color?

JUDY LAWSON, Groveland

A. Yes, you can, and how it will look depends on your technique. That $145 for a professional job is not unreasonable; you are paying for skill.

To do it yourself, sand the finish, wash with a strong detergent solution, spray on a primer sealer, and finish with two thin coats of a Krylon spray enamel.

Q. The top of my cast-iron stove in the basement has a patina that I don't like -- rust. How can I get rid of it?

L.S., Rowley

A. Try sanding off that patina with fine sandpaper. If it is just a dusting of rust, it should come clean. Then apply stove polish. Or, if you get all the rust off, you can spray on a HHR (high-heat-resistant) flat black spray paint.

Q. I have three 100-foot-long extension cords, and when I wind them hand-to-elbow style, it's OK until I go to unwind them. They always become hopelessly entangled. How can I wind them so they can be stored easily and more important, unwound without chaos?

S.S., Brockton

A. I know what you mean. It's as bad as the old-fashioned Christmas tree lights; it took hours, it seems, to untangle them, and of course I got the job in the good old days, while big brother and big sister did the fine arts work.

But there is hope. You can buy a plastic cord winder, a simple device with two parallel sides, a cross-brace at each end connecting the sides, and a notch for inserting the plug end of the wire. Then wind away, and it will come out neat and, most important, able to be unwound without a Houdini performance. If your cords are particularly thick, you may need two such winders, or an extra big one. I forget where I bought mine, but it has been a real convenience.

Q. I'd like to have my dishwasher racks redipped. The plastic is wearing off and the racks are rusting. Where can I find a dipper?

THERESA AMUZZINI, Randolph

A. Try Automatic Appliance on Route 9 in Framingham. Or, use ``Tool Dip,'' rubberized dip for tools, sold in hardware stores. Dip or brush on rack tines.

Another way to go is with little plastic sleeves that slip over the tines; that is, if only the tines are rusting. They are sold in the Walter Drake & Sons catalog (719) 596-3853; the Sears Repair Depot in Norwell; and the Improvements catalog (1 (800) 642-2112.

Q. A refrigerator given to me has a bit of glue on the door gasket, and this makes the door hard to open. How can I get rid of the glue and allow the door to open and close more easily.

FRANK CAPRARELLA, North End

A. If alcohol or DeSolvit do not work, then try ordinary oil such as corn oil or any other cooking oil. Apply this to the glue, leave it for a n hour, then wipe it off with a rough cloth. Or, take a dull knife and carefully r un it down the gasket. I think it is important to remove the glue because it may be making the gasket thicker than normal, interfering with the opening and closing. If that is the case, covering the glue with a piece of duct t\ ape or other thin tape to keep the glue away from the door is not likely to work.

Q. Someone put dish detergent in my dishwasher, and now the suds are all over the place. How can I get rid of them?

STEVEN MADDEN, Lexington

A. Cold water will do it. A lot of cold water. If you can get the dishwasher to run on cold water, do so, empty, and without anything in the dispenser. If that is not feasible, pour cold water into the dishwasher drain, and keep this up until the suds are gone. Vinegar will work, too, because vinegar dissolves soap. Fill the dispenser with white vinegar (it is least likely to stain) and put the dishwasher through the rinse cycle, empty. Repeat until the suds are gone.

Q. I have a choice to get an electric or gas dryer. Which would be best? I do one or two loads a week. There is gas on the street but not hooked up to the house.

J.R., Dorchester

A. Gas would be best under most conditions, mainly because it is much less expensive to run than an electric dryer.

But, since it is expensive to hook up gas in the house, and you run so few loads each week and don't expect to use the dryer more often, then I suggest using an electric dryer.

Be sure to vent that dryer to the outdoors; in fact, a gas dryer must be vented outdoors.

Q. The front of my refrigerator has been scrubbed and scoured so much that the enamel has worn off. The house is 500 feet from the ocean, so the refrigerator gets a lot of moisture. A professional enameler said he would do it, but gave no guarantee that it would work. Could I do it myself?

TOM CARROLL, Ipswich

A. Of course you can, and with some care and luck it will look good and last for years. On the other hand, if you mess it up it will look pretty awful, and you would have to live with it until you got another. You might check with an appliance store to see how much a new door would cost. Unfortunately, it has been the experience of many people that such replacement parts are expensive, sometimes a large percentage of the cost of a new refrigerator.

To refinish, spray on the primer and enamel. Krylon makes many kinds of enamels for this purpose. Of course, how good you are with a spray can or gun will dictate how the job will come out. Be sure to sand heavily, in fact get as much of the old paint off as possible, and also all rust. To make the work easier and to avoid spraying the whole house, take off the door and spray it in a workshop or other convenient area. Of course, you will have to empty the fridge to do so.

And lay off the Ajax, Comet, and other scouring powders.

Q. The drip pans and grids of my gas stove are in pretty bad shape, but only with burned food. How can I clean them? The stove instructions say that it is not recommended to cook them in a self-cleaning oven.

BILLY FITZGERALD, Neponset

A. OK, no self-cleaning, so the next best thing is to soak them in a strong solution of baking soda and water or ammonia and water, but don't mix ammonia with the baking soda. Let them soak overnight, then scrub with Brillo pads. Soaked long enough, very little rubbing will be necessary. The grids you can scrub like crazy; go easy with the drip pans.

Q. I'm kind of new at this home-ownership business, so bear with me. My house is eight years old, and I've been in it for a year. There's a washing machine and a dryer on the second floor, and when the washer spin dries, it vibrates the floor like crazy, and I can feel the vibrations all over the house. Is there any hazard in this? I'd hate to see my newly occupied house fall apart.

S.D., Framingham

A. Never fear, your house will last longer than you. Vibrations won't hurt it; in fact, being wood, it will resist vibrations more than a masonry house would, but that is not to say a masonry (brick, concrete block, etc.) house would fall apart. Sometimes the vibrations are greater, or downright terrifying, if the clothes are a little off center and the spinning creates a clatter. To correct this, simply rearrange the clothes or remove some of them. You also can put medium-hard rubber pads under the washer feet or a large pad under the entire washer to dampen the vibrations.

Q. How can I clean my dishwasher? There are brown stains all over the inside. I think you've answered this question before, but I didn't save it. Could you run it one more time? I can't stand my dishwasher the way it is!

JUNE KENNEDY, Beverly

A. Never fear, here's the information: Zud or Lime-Away will do it. A lot of other things will, too, as collected from faithful readers who took the time to inform the handyman:

- Rita Moon of Marshfield: 16 ounces of hydrogen peroxide and a box of cream of tartar. Dump them in the empty dishwasher on the short wash-rinse cycle.

- Bernie Feld of Woburn: Glisten, a product sold on the detergent shelves at the supermarket. Let the machine run full cycle with no dishes, and use it every few weeks.

- Barbara Ebert of Wayland: The powdered orange drink called Tang. Just throw it in the washer and put in on full cycle, with no dishes.

- Barbara MacPhee of Newton: Buy a small bottle of sour salt in the Jewish food section of a supermarket. Put in the sour salt and any dishes with stains. No silverware. Run through full cycle; dishwasher looks like new.

If the stains are rust, try Whink Rust & Iron Stain Remover, sold in hardware stores. It's a powder, and removes rust stains from interiors of water softeners, dishwashers and washing machines, and lots of other appliances and surfaces. Whink may not be widely available, so you may have to look around for it.

As you may have guessed, the handyman never throws anything away.

Q. The gasket on my refrigerator is in good shape, but it has folded over a bit in a small area when the door is closed. How can I fix it?

DAVID FRISIELLO, Billerica

A. I don't think it is fixable; trying to adjust it so it won't fold over would be difficult, and it is likely to fold again sooner or later. But if that folded gasket is not leaking air, I see no reason to fix it. To see if the gasket is leaking air, put a crisp new dollar bill on the edge of the frame where the fold is, then close the door. If you can move the bill up and down with the door closed, or it pulls out easily, the gasket is, indeed, leaking air. If you can't, it's tight.

The only real fix in my opinion is a new gasket. You can buy gaskets at appliance repair stores. Trouble is, parts for appliances are notoriously expensive.

Q. Sometimes the pilot light in my gas oven goes out, but I am able to relight it -- usually -- with a piece of (now don't laugh) spaghetti. But sometimes a draft blows out the pilot light and the spaghetti. How can I prevent that?

M.W., Arlington, Mass.

A. My, using spaghetti as a taper? I think it's a brilliant thought to do so. The spaghetti (dry, of course) makes a thin flame, however, which is more prone to blow out than, say, a long fireplace match.

As for the pilot, there must be a breeze or draft somewhere that is blowing it out. Sometimes you can devise a metal baffle to keep the draft away without interfering with the oven. I know a man who had difficulty keeping the pilot burning on his instant hot-water heater, until he put a metal baffle in. Short of that, it might be worth a call to a gas appliance maintenance man.

Q. I can't find a replacement gasket for my 20-year-old Norge front-loading dryer. The gasket keeps the clothes from catching on sharp metal edges. Even the distributor in Woburn could not find a gasket.

SARKIS TOOMAJIAN, Winchester

A. It's wonderful, isnt it? You get a good appliance, and it serves you well for 20 years or so (far beyond its life expectancy), then replacement parts are discontinued for such old machines. Pooh.

So, you will have to play it by ear. If the gasket is flapping in the breeze (not entirely gone), you could wrap it with duct tape. If the gasket is totally gone, put the tape in its place. Duct tape has a reputation of drying out and loosing its grip under heat, but the new stuff, which is harder to work with, may stick better. At least it is unlikely to ooze any of its adhesive onto the clothes.

One source you might try to see if they have a gasket: Bay State School of Appliances in Canton; telephone 781-828-3434.

Incidentally, with or without a gasket, the dryer owes you nothing and you owe it nothing, because the life expectancy of an electric dryer is 14 years, and of a gas dryer, 13 years.

Q. My 1 1/2-year-old Amana refrigerator makes a high-pitched sound every 30 to 45 minutes. A service man came twice and told me it is normal, due to a new type of coolant used these days. Is this true? If so, what can I do about it? Should I buy a new refrigerator?

ATTILIO CERALDI, Mooresville, N.C.

A. A fan noise in a refrigerator is normal, but I don't think it is because of a new coolant, but rather is part of the no-frost system, which circulates the air through a fan. These systems have been in refrigerators for the past 30 years. Maybe some appliances are quieter than others, but I don't think it is worth replacing the present refrigerator, unless of course you can determine that another model or brand is much quieter. Mine doesn't whine but sometimes makes the strangest moaning noises.

You can try muffling the sound. I did it successfully some years ago for a unit that had a high whine. Build an alcove that you can insert the refrigerator into, as deep as practicable and with enough room at the top and sides for air circulation. Line the sides, back, and ceiling of the alcove with acoustical tiles, which absorb sound. A few tiles on the floor will help, too. Put the refrigerator on medium-density rubber pads to help reduce the vibration.

Q. I have a gas stove top, which works fine except that when I open the cabinet door under it, the pilot goes out. How can I prevent that? Also, I painted my furniture, and now everything sticks to it, despite the paint having been left to dry for several days. How can I unstick that paint?

NANCY ROGERSON, Framingtham

A. Call the gas company or one of the new gas appliance companies to see if one or the other could make a modification to prevent this. Obviously, when you open the door you are pulling air out of the cabinet, making enough of a breeze to put out the pilot. For starters, open the door slowly, but you shouldn't have to do that to accommodate a defective device, or at best a poorly designed one. Actually, the open door may create enough of a draft to put out the pilot.

Or, put a piece of plywood at the top of the cabinet, covering it completely; it would be below the stove top unit, but it might prevent that draft when the door is open.

Another alternative is to install a stove top with electronic ignition.

The furniture paint job might have become sticky if a primer was not used, or if you used old paint. To fix it, sand the paint as thoroughly as possible, wash with paint thinner, apply a thin coat of latex enamel undercoat, and finish off with eggshell finish latex paint or indoor-outdoor oil enamel.

Q. I think I'd better clean out my dryer duct because it is a 10-foot run from dryer to the outdoors, and it certainly can get plugged with lint, especially since it is an accordian type duct. But how can I get that far in to clean it?

GEORGINA MORENEY, Florence, N.H.

A. I think I mentioned using the biggest bottle brush you can find with a long handle, and do the cleaning from both ends of the duct. When I mentioned ``bottle brush,'' I did not mean that you could find a real bottle brush that big, but a round brush shaped like a bottle brush. Such a brush might be hard to find. At any rate, I was browsing through a new Improvements catalog, and wouldn't you know, a new item in the catalog is a dryer vent brush. It is 4 inches in diameter with a flexible handle 10 feet long. It is item No. 131839, and it's $10.97; call 800-642-2112.

Q. Sometimes the pilot light in my gas oven goes out, but I am able to relight it -- usually -- with a piece of (now don't laugh) spaghetti. But sometimes a draft blows out the pilot light and the spaghetti. How can I prevent that?

M.W., Arlington

A. My, using spaghetti as a taper? I think it's a brilliant thought to do so. The spaghetti (dry, of course) makes a thin flame, however, which is more prone to blow out than, say, a long fireplace match.

As for the pilot, there must be a breeze or draft somewhere that is blowing it out. Sometimes you can devise a metal baffle to keep the draft away without interfering with the oven. I know a man who had difficulty keeping the pilot burning on his instant hot-water heater, until he put a metal baffle in. Short of that, it might be worth a call to a gas appliance maintenance man now that the gas companies are out of the service business.

Q. Some of the metal on the inside of my microwave door is showing, and I'd like to paint it to match the regular cream color. Is this possible, and permissible? I called the manufacturer, who referred me to an appliance company who could paint it.

ANNE AHERN, Tewksbury

A. If an appliance company can do it for a fee, you can do it for the cost of the enamel, and a little of your own time. If that bare metal is exposed to the inside of the microwave when the door it is closed, I suggest using an HHR (high-heat resistant) spray enamel, which comes in an aerosol can. You won't be able to get the exact color with the HHR enamel. If you want a color match, use an oil-based spray or brush enamel. Mask off ares you don't want to paint, and use thin, thin coats.

Q. My stainless-steel stove top is heavily stained, mostly from baked-on food stains. How can I clean it and make it shine like the original? I tried a metal cleaner from Home Depot, and while it shined up the stainless steel, it did not clean it. What can I use?

M.T., Boston

A. If it is baked on food, drench it with water and baking soda, and let it soak off. But if it is a stain from the baked-on food, it's another matter, even though stainless steel is not supposed to stain, but does anyway.

Here are things to try: Cameo Aluminum and Stainless-steel Cleaner, sold in supermarkets; Soft Scrub (smear it on, let it sit for an hour or so, then scrub and rinse); Never Dull Magic Wadding, sold in hardware stores in a blue and red can.