Refrigerator Cooling Coils Cleaning Instructions.
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How a Refrigerator Cools
A refrigerator is a heat pump; which removes heat from the inside of the refrigerator, where the food is,
and pumps the heat out into the room.
By removing the heat from the inside of the refrigerator, the food cools. The thermostat determines
the proper temperature inside the refrigerator, by regulating the run time of the heat pump.
The heat pump has two sets of pipe coils, one set of coils within the refrigerator which gathers up the heat inside the refrigerator.
The other set of coils outside the refrigerator release the heat into the room.
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 refrigerator loses its cooling capacity when the cooling coils cannot release the heat to the outside.
Dust and grime prevent heat from leaving the outside cooling coils. Anything covering the coils acts like an insulator,
and prevents heat from leaving, in which case, no cooling takes place, or the cooling ability is reduced.
Most modern refrigerators take in room temperature air to cool the coils, at the front, bottom, below the door.
The air enters on the one side of the refrigerator, passes over the cooling coiling, makes a loop around the rear side, and exits on the opposite front side of the refrigerator.
The hot air moved by a fan is released into the room.
On the modern fridge, there is a removal grill on the bottom, front of the refrigerator, below the refrigerator door.
Directly behind the grill is the heat removing coils
The older refrigerators have the heat removing coils on the back of the fridge, and no fan is used. On the older refrigerators, there must be enough air movement behind the refrigerator to cool the coils.
Cleaning Refrigerator Cooling Coils
Bottom front of refrigerator with grill removed
Unplug the refrigerator, place some protection on the floor, and roll it away from the wall, remove the bottom front lower grill, vacuum out as much dust off the coils from the front as you can reach. Remove the cardboard or metal cover from the back of the refrigerator, to get at what you can't reach from the front.
There is a long narrow crevice tool, that you can buy, which fits on the end of most vacuum hoses, to reach
further into the inside bottom of the fridge.
In a pinch, a long narrow stick with a damp rag tied around the end will also work to pick up the dust off the coils.
Clean the dust behind the refrigerator, and inside the back of the refrigerator, around the compressor.
On older refrigerators that have the coils on the back, the coils can be vacuumed off with a brush attachment
on the vacuum cleaner hose.
A fan on the newer refrigerator is mounted inside bottom of the refrigerator, near the back, this fan circulates the air past the cooling coils.
Clean the dust off the coils, motor, and fan blades, the motor will run cooler. Most of these fan motors are lubricated for life and never need to be oiled.
Refrigerator cooling coils should be cleaned at least once a year, and more where there is a pet in the family.
The refrigerator with clean cooling coils, runs less, lasts longer, and uses less electricity.
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