The purpose of refrigerator coils is to dissipate heat, not suck up electricity—or cash—out of your wallet. But that's what happens if you don't clean off those bad boys once in a while. Here's how.


Photo by M0les.

Some fridge coils are located underneath the appliance, others are on the back of it, but they all need a good scrubbing at least once a year. When they're gunked up with pet hair, cooking grease, and other flotsam, they won't operate efficiently. At best, your refrigerator will use extra electricity as it runs more often to keep things cool. At worst, it will run so often that your compressor burns out—a big expense that will leave a significant dent in your wallet.


Cleaning your fridge coils isn't as much of a pain as it sounds, and the folks at home improvement web site Home Envy walk you through it. The first step, of course, is unplug the fridge so you don't zap yourself. Depending on where the coils are, you may need to move the appliance away from the wall.

Putting the fridge on rollers makes the job a lot less irritating, although the act of putting the rollers under the fridge takes two people and is VERY irritating, especially if the fridge comes down hard and busts one of the rollers because the person holding it had sweaty hands. If you have to move the fridge out from the wall and you don't have rollers, put some cardboard or a heavy drop-cloth down to protect the floor or the fridge may mar it.

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Once you can reach the coils without assuming an uncomfortable yoga position, grab your vacuum, a bucket of warm, soapy water, and get to work. Admittedly, cleaning your fridge coils isn't a fun job, but it's only once a year so it's not that big of a deal. What once-a-year jobs around the house do you dread? How do you make it easier? Talk about it in the comments.

Cleaning Fridge Coils [Home Envy]