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How To Clean Refrigerator Cooling Coils
If you are looking for information on how to clean out the dust on cooling coils under your refrigerator, you have come to the right place. The following article will guide you.
How a Refrigerator Cools
Refrigerators keep food cold, so it wouldn't spoil. How does a fridge make cold?
A fridge is a heat pump; what it does is remove heat from the food placed in the
fridge and pump the heat out into the home. By removing the heat from the inside
it gets colder inside the fridge; the thermostat determines the proper temperature to
start and turn off the heat pump.
The heat pump has two sets of pipe coils, one set of coils pick up the heat inside
the fridge and the other set of coils gets rid of the heat ouside. The process takes place by
the heating and cooling of a special fluid inside the coils which is pumped around in
a closed circuit within the coil of pipes.
A fridge loses its cooling capacity when the set of coils that removes the heat becomes
covered with dust and grime. Anything covering the coils acts like an insulator and
prevents the heat from exiting the coils. If the heat cannot leave, no cooling takes place,
or at least the cooling ability is reduced. Also the hotter the room temperature, the harder it
becomes to cool the inside of the fridge.
Most fridges take in cooler air and remove hotter air at the front, bottom of the modern fridge.
The older fridges have the heat exit coils on the back of the fridge. On the modern fridge
There is a removal grill below the fridge door. Directly behind the removalble grill is the heat
removing coils.
Cleaning Refrigerator Cooling Coils
To clean the cooling coils, remove the front grill and vacuum out as much dust off the coils
as you can. There is a long narrow attachment that you can buy to place on the end of the
vacuum hose to reach further into the bottom of the fridge. A long narrow stick with a rag tied
around the end will also work to pick up the dust off the coils.
This is also a good time to roll the fridge out and remove the lower cover over the heat pump.
Unplug the fridge, vacuum out as much dust as you can and also use a damp rag to wipe away.
any grime. There is also a fan mounted in the back of the fridge, which circulates the air past the
coils, clean the dust off the motor and fan blades. Most of these fans are lubricated for life and
don't need to be oiled.
Clean refrigerator cooling coils will cause the refrigerator to run more efficiently.
The refrigerator will last longer and your electricity bill will be lower.
How to build a deep reaching crevice tool for cleaning the fridge or lint tray in the clothes washer
Take an old short plastic crevice tool and cut to 5 inches in length. Take a tin metal handle like a mop of paint roller handle and cut about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long; file off any sharpness on the ends. flatten the tin pipe to about 1/4-1/2 inch in thickness; make sure the weld is not where you are folding, or it may split open. A vise works very well for squeezing. You can also place a piece of board on top of the tin pipe and flatten with a hammer. Go slow because you cannot undo the squeeze. The tin pipe will just fit into the end of the plastic crevice tool. Cut the tip off the old plastic crevice tool and use this to slide into the end of the tin pipe so there will not be any sharpe edges. Tape both ends with duct tape.
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Todays Valued Visitor
Refrigerator maintenance instructions for the average person are provided here. Cleaning the dust off the cooling coils will help your reftigerator operate properly,