Weekly Maintenance for your Home

March – Week 10

Appliances

If you have never done this maintenance task before, you are in for a surprise. It is best to get someone to help you. I want you to pull your refrigerator into the room. Check "Moving Appliances" for some help with getting it to slide away from the wall. Not only will you need to clean up the floor, collect the objects which have fallen behind, but I want you to vacuum off the condenser coils that you find on the back side of all refrigerators and freezers. If you have never done this before, you will be a bit shocked at what you find.

Why clean the coils? Refrigerators and freezers work by letting their heat out through those coils. If they are clogged with dust, they are less efficient at doing their job of cooling the inside. That makes the compressor work harder, takes more energy and shortens the life of the appliance. Some people report that they can hear that it simply runs for shorter periods of time after cleaning.

Once a year, and you will have a happy fridge.