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Summers are all about sitting outside with a cold beverage in your hand, which is of course all thanks to your refrigerator. Therefore, to ensure you continue to enjoy this privilege you need to keep your refrigerator in good condition.
Your refrigerator coils serve as the core of the refrigeration mechanism but luckily, they’re easy to maintain yourself without too much effort.
Below we’ve listed, the easiest method of how to clean refrigerator coils using basic tools you can find at home. These domestic tricks should provide the perfect solution, to find out more, keep scrolling.
Contents
What you’re going to need
To clean your refrigerator coils, you require:
- Any small brush
- A rag
- A vacuum cleaner with brush and crevice accessories
Firstly, let it be known that you don’t need to look for a specific refrigerator cleaning brush because any tiny brush works just fine. You may go for a toothbrush or even a paintbrush, having soft and flexible bristles. Also, a vacuum cleaner is indispensable since it can reach further into the coils which are inaccessible to brushes, and lastly, consider covering the floor with a spare sheet cloth to collect any dirt.
5 Steps to clean Your refrigerator coils:
Step 1:
First and foremost, unplug the refrigerator and pull it away from the wall. It’s the first step in cleaning any electrical connection, moving the fridge away from the wall helps in cleaning the back and bottom panels by accessing the hard-to-reach places. Only plug the appliance back in when you’re sure that there is no remaining moisture behind or under the fridge.
Step 2:
Remove the toe-grill that is present at the base on the front of your refrigerator. It comes off easily with a little force, and the condenser coils lie just behind this toe-grill. In case if you don’t see any toe-grill under your refrigerator, it’s likely that the coils are located at the back of the refrigerator. Condenser coils are the metal coils that cool and condense the refrigerant.
If you see that they’re dusty and full of dirt, this is what you need to get rid of.
Step 3:
Wear protection in the form of a dust mask. A dust mask is mandatory because vacuum cleaners don’t often trap every single particle and they may escape the external environment. In this way, such pollutants may travel through the air and enter your nose where they are capable of provoking allergies or sneezes that just won’t stop. On top of all, a dust mask is unavoidable, let it be any sort of cleaning process.
Especially while cleaning the bottom part, ensure that the mask covers your nose and mouth entirely. After you are done, remember to toss it off in the bin.
Step 4:
Brush away any dust from the condenser coils using a coil condenser brush. As mentioned above you can switch to any ordinary brush if you can’t get your hands on a special coil condenser brush.
Next, if the coils of your refrigerator are located at the back of the unit. Hold the brush in one hand and move it in side to side motion to clean the coils, ensuring to reach all the edges. This is while using a vacuum in your other hand to hoover up the loose dirt.
On the other hand, if your fridge’s coils are located under the unit, it’s the same idea as before. Although we’d advise you use a flashlight, if you have one spare, this should give you a better view under your refrigerator.
Step 5:
Lastly, you just have to vacuum the floor you have been working on. There may not be a lot of dust visible. But this final vacuuming session is important to remove the dirt present between the kitchen tiles as well. Again, after checking that both the panels are clean, you can move the fridge back to its place. Finally, you can plug the cord and you’re good to go!
Signs Your condenser coils Need Cleaning:
Knowing the signs that your condenser coils need cleaning can be useful to know, so you can tackle this problem before it causes too many problems. Dirty condenser coils give out a lot of signs which symbolize that something isn’t right. However, let us highlight the main ones for you:
- Your refrigerator has started making a loud noise
- It’s not as cold as it was when newly purchased
- The refrigerant stops moving freely throughout the condenser
- The condenser fan motor burns out or gets really hot
These can be warning signs that tell us that it is high time to seek professional service. Or do it yourself by using the step by step guide we’ve provided above.
Final thoughts:
All in all, cleaning your refrigerator coils isn’t a huge task. It shouldn’t take any more than an hour, but the outcomes can be really beneficial to the performance of your refrigerator. The step by step guide we shared above will let you try for yourself without having to pay the call out charge for an professional.
