Refrigerator - Preventive Maintenance

[alarmguy]

I would like to get my hands on the idiots who moved the coils to the bottom. The move was bad enough but they spaced them so that no brush or vacuum extension can be used to clean the coils. When they were on the back you could brush them and vacuum the crap up easily.

Leaf blower

 

[Lubener]

You cleaned out what you can and what I do is use my leaf blower to blow all the dust and junk out of there. If you haven’t done it in a long time, it will be a real mess, but then after that will be easier to handle.

Besides extending the life of your refrigerator, you will reduce your cost of electricity

That is laughable. That is fine if you live in a barn. Modern man has developed tools for such an occasion. That and a shop vac to "vacuum" the dust instead of blowing it everywhere. I have been using one for atleast thirty years now.

https://www.partsdiscount.com/10656...ce=googleshopping&utm_medium=cse&gad_source=1

 

[alarmguy]

That is laughable. That is fine if you live in a barn. Modern man has developed tools for such an occasion. That and a shop vac to "vacuum" the dust instead of blowing it everywhere. I have been using one for atleast thirty years now.

https://www.partsdiscount.com/10656...ce=googleshopping&utm_medium=cse&gad_source=1

Whatever works for you. Wouldn’t have worked for me, leaf blower is easy if you do it every 6 months and on our older refrigerator we put one of those window ac foam filters across the front of the coils.
Washing that off at the same time every six months.
Our Kenmore elite was still going strong at 16 years old when we recently sold the house, also didn’t look a day over 1 year old but that’s another story,

New home and fridge now a year old and this reminds me to get out the blower again. Though on this one will have to pull it out and look fir the coils under a panel someplace

 

[dishdude]

Yeah there's no way I'm taking a leaf blower into my kitchen.

 

[JTK]

That is laughable. That is fine if you live in a barn. Modern man has developed tools for such an occasion. That and a shop vac to "vacuum" the dust instead of blowing it everywhere. I have been using one for atleast thirty years now.

https://www.partsdiscount.com/10656...ce=googleshopping&utm_medium=cse&gad_source=1

Worthless for the majority of household refrigerators with the condenser coil in the bottom. You have no access to much of the condenser unless you can get completely under the refrigerator.

 

[John105]

Mine are underneath the Fridge ..... I'm thinking Air Compressor to blow out dirt because Vacuum wont work .

Mine too--I do have the special brush, and I try to be extra careful as well as to not poke any tubing, but I do think it's minimal what this accomplishes. And the condenser coils being on the bottom, one cannot flip the refrigerator over to get to them.

I would say be very careful about blocking airflow in the freezer and overstuffing the fridge.

Now, I know, because I monitor temps. The fridge can be a nice 39F, take too long to open and close? Or put something warm inside? The temp can rise to 45F and it will not recover for a very long time (as it's driven by the freezer's compressor and temp). A good example imho is coworkers placing multiple insulated lunch boxes into the work fridge. What a load that puts on the machine, and doing nothing to cool their food to boot, their food is insulated.

Freezer can in fact recover. Say it's a nice -5F. Open it to look for something and send the temp up to 10F to 15F. It also reaches 15F when defrosting. It will come back down likely in less than 1 hour.

I monitor our temps like a hawk because the machine is from 2002. I'm looking to make sure it defrosts. The one thing I can't put my finger on, since the timer is mechanical. It seems to defrost 1X in the winter per day, 2X in the summer, yet the timer says 3X per day. Not sure where the logic is being interjected--again, 2002 model with a mechanical knob.

 

[Lubener]

Worthless for the majority of household refrigerators with the condenser coil in the bottom. You have no access to much of the condenser unless you can get completely under the refrigerator.

I never had a problem accessing the coils under the fridge. Remove a small plastic cover under the door and insert brush between the coils.

I guess some cheap refridgerators make it difficult to maintain.

 

[97prizm]

Has anyone noticed Refrigerator Preventive Maintenance helping with any type of issues you've had ?

Coil cleaning, and vacuuming or blowing dust off the back and the bottom. If you have the freezer on top then making sure the drain lines are clear or you will get ice build up.

 

[odie]

Vacuum the coils with a soft brush attachment and clean area around the compressor . Try to remember every 3 or 4 months . Also clean out the water drainage pan .

 

[skyactiv]

I clean mine once a year. I have a Sub-Zero and the condenser is on top and easily accessible.

 

[odie]

Vacuum the coils with a soft brush attachment and clean area around the compressor . Try to remember every 3 or 4 months . Also clean out the water drainage pan .

We have pets , so plenty of shedding .

 

[RhondaHonda]

A little coil cleaning material for you all. The appliance repair guy came to look at the ice maker today and did something inside but I wasn’t home.

We will see if it helps once the freezer cools down for 24 hours or so. Anyway, I got my Torx bits and pulled the lower panels off of the fridge and freezer columns. Needless to say they were filthy and I can’t believe he didn’t at least clean the freezer since that was what he was here for or at least upsell my wife. Ten years of dirt and dust.

Freezer before and after

Fridge before ( I was trying to reassemble and minimize the time the door was open so no after but it looks so much better.