How to clean coils under fridge?


  #1  
Old 08-07-16, 07:24 AM
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How to clean coils under fridge?

Got a large 16-year-old Kenmore that I'm getting too old to manhandle (wheeling way from wall, then tilting back just over-center to lean against wall, then blocking the rear wheels) then shop-vacuuming. (In the old days the coils were in back; idiot designers put these underneath).

Anyway, has someone invented a way to jack the fridge up about a foot so as to clean the condenser coil? I've got 3/8" clearance around the edge.

And no, you don't just simply pop the front grill off; that only lets you clean the front edge of the coil. The coil is flat and occupies most of the under surface.

Now I realize these coils probably have a lot of over-capacity designed into them, for the very reason that folks rarely if ever clean them, but in my case, I have several long-haired pets and the coils get packed with fur within a year.

Ideas?
 
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Old 08-07-16, 07:33 AM
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The only thing that comes to mind that might help a "little", would be a "Winbag" at each corner of the fridge. You would still have to roll it out, and the winbags might lift it an inch or so... maybe enough to get a feather duster under there.

Winbags are inflatable air bags. I sometimes use them for lifting and adjusting large windows within a rough opening.
 
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Old 08-07-16, 08:10 AM
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Thanks for quick response, X, yeah, I can use a pry bar to raise it an inch o 2, but I need to get shop vac hose under there. I was envisioning an invention using 1"x 1" angle iron slipped under each side, with a 1/4-20 all-thread along the front and back, to keep it snug, then some sort of rack-and-pinion at each corner with each side having a turn rod operating........

Oh, boy....better call Rube Goldburg.
 
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Old 08-07-16, 08:59 AM
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If you have a shop vac turn hose to outlet and blow the fins from front cover. Most of lint builds up on front of fins. Boss would fire us if we tried to tilt ref. to clean them.
 
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Old 08-07-16, 12:04 PM
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Thanks pugsl, ixnay on blowing, would blow the crap all over the kitchen, and tend to embed a portion deeper into the coils, since the fan draws the air in from the front.

Coils are criss-crossed along, and welded to a flat wire frame (wires about 1/4" apart). Imagine the frame as about 2.5 times the size of a legal sheet of paper.
Now fold the paper in half gently so you have about a 1" radius at the "fold", said "fold" being a little more than 180 degrees so that the ends come together and touch. Viewed from the side of the fridge, in section, the frame (sheet) resembles a narrow teardrop shape, with the radiused end to the front.

Again, lousy design, even with the fridge tilted back, the vacuum only cleans the radiused edge and lower "fold" of the coil frame. Over the years, dust and pet hair combine with kitchen grease makes it tough to clean. Sometimes I try using a narrow bottle-cleaner brush on a long wire that will go in between the frame wires, and I can extract a tiny bit of hair inside the "fold", but it's a time consuming process, and I can't get back close to where the frames come together at the rear, anyway.
 
 

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