Cleaning Modern Refrigerator Condenser Coils

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philcobendixduo

philcobendixduo

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In trying to clean the condenser coils on my 2011 Whirlpool top freezer refrigerator, I have come to find out that one CANNOT easily clean the coils.
They are now "folded" under the refrigerator in a repeating "W" pattern which will only allow one to clean the very front row of coils but no others.
How do you clean coils such as these? Even with no pets, my coils are caked with "fuzz" and, I'm sure, are lowering the overall efficiently of the refrigerator.
Is this the latest "ploy" by manufacturers to cause early failure and thus more sales of new units?
I like the way this guy solved the problem BUT it still looks like a lot of work and trouble compared to just vacuuming them all like I used to be able to do on my 1987 GE.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Our 2009 KA fridge has the same arrangement.  I vacuum the coils once or twice a year, usually when I change the water filter.

 

It has always been a situation where the front row of coils has caught the majority of the dust, leaving the ones behind it relatively clear.  I think this may be the logic behind this design, which they say eliminates the need to clean the coils at all, but I don't buy it.  I don't know how long it had been since the guy in the video had cleaned the coils on his fridge, but ours have never looked that bad.

 

I do what I can to get the crevice tool attachment as far back as possible, but usually it can only access between the coils and the floor, and only under the second row.  The front row is the only one I can get completely clean.  For the past nine years, just getting that row of coils clean seems to have been enough to keep the fridge running nearly silently and cooling perfectly. 
 
Reversed Airflow and Solid Bottom

On my Whirlpool, the air actually blows OUT of the grille below the door which means air enters from behind the unit. This causes dirt to accumulate on the coils from back to front.
In addition, there is a solid bottom on this refrigerator so there is no way to access the coils by going at them from underneath the unit.
 
That's completely backwards from any "forced draft" system I'm aware of.

 

The air blows out the front grille under the refrigerator section?  How does this assist with evaporating the water in the defrost drain pan?   In this odd system, I guess when you no longer feel any air blowing out the front, it's time to clean the coils. 

 

If it were my fridge, as soon as I noticed the reversed air flow, I'd have assumed the fan was installed backwards, either in its mounting assembly or onto the fridge itself.  Whatever the case, if this is the intended design, it's purpose must only be to cause early failure so they can sell more refrigerators.
 
It's a messy process, and I wouldn't recommend doing it in an occupied home, but my Dad used to do maintenance for a couple apartment complexes, and when he was doing a clean out after someone had moved out, he would pull the fridge out and take a leaf blower to it. Always got a lot of dust out! He also used the leaf blower on the baseboard heating radiators. Then of course cleaned the whole place.
 
Never Clean ??

GE's 'Never Clean' condenser operates by pulling air from the back of the fridge and exhausting it out the front. I guess they figure air at the back might be a bit cleaner than the front with dog hairs and the like being dropped right in front of the fridge. Anyway its a spiral wound coil around 8" diameter. I just took compressed air in a can and put a vacuum cleaner hose at the front to catch the dust. The little tube nozzle allows you to reach most places
 
The GE

coiled condenser doesn't get very dusty. I vacuum under the fridge weekly, and behind with a flat crevice wonder wand. Every 6 mos. I remove the back and vacuum the coil with a dusting brush and crevice tool. It gets most of the dust above and behind the top, as it has no heavy build up after 11 years.
 
Pain in the arse

The last few times I have cleaned the coils on my Samsung french door POS, I pull it out in the middle of the floor and remove the back access panel and front kick panel. Then I get sheet plastic and blue tape it around the whole thing about 3' from the bottom and let it drape over the floor a couple of feet. Then I get a few heavy cans of whatever out of the pantry to hold it down on the floor. Next I get the portable air compressor and blow out the coils and anything else that is holding dust bunnies. Next I follow up with a vac with crevice tool to get the stuff .... that came from the inaccessible areas .... but now able to get at. One more round with the air hose trying to round up the lint in an area that is reachable with the vac. Next I replace the back access panel, remove the plastic, roll the frig back and vac the floor where the plastic contained the lint. BTW, I turn down the pressure on the air tank to remove the lint but keep it from blowing so hard that it blows the lint out from under the plastic.
 
I was about to add in, as others have beat me to it....

but compressed air is your friend.....it is best for cleaning out those coils underneath, in fact, all sections and areas will look good as new...
 
Get an AC foam Filter for the fridge

After you have cleaned the bottom of the fridge, I would cut a piece of foam air conditioner filter and put it in front of the coils. I have it on my fridge and it collects a lot of dust that lands on the coils and keeps it clean. Easier to clean the filter than blowing out all that dust.
Doug
 
messy but clean

when I clean mine I leave the cover on the front covering also with cardboard. I use a shop vac and reverse it to blow and blow the dust to the front. I then switch it to vacuum and go to front and vacuum the junk up. I do it once ever few years or so.
 
I use a VERY long crevice tool I bought from the vac shop.Use it on one of my MD central vacuums-you can hear and feel the lumps of dust as they get dislodged.My fridge in a KA.A Dyson vacuum used like a "canister" just doesn't cut it for this job.A powerful vacuum like a shop vacuum or central unit is best.I don't have an air compressor.You could use the compressor blower tool with the suction tool on the vacuum to get rid of the dust bunnies stuck in the coils.The crevice tool I have has a soft front end.You can carefully guide it thru the loops of the coils.The tool is also flexible.
 
Dirty Condenser Coils On Modern Refs

Coils that are even 50% blocked will have no effect on the operation [ cost of or performance ] of the ref until room temperature reaches well over 90F in the kitchen.

It is true that these condenser coils could be better designed for cleaning, but because it makes little difference except in extreme cases manufactures don't seem to care.

GE for example condenser roll in the back of their refs built in the last 15 years has been demonstrated to cool properly completely wrapped in fiberglass insulation.

Someone mentioned how much easier it was to clean the condenser on their 1987 GE ref, but if you looked underneath there was a vertical condenser on these models in front of the compressor that was impossible to get to for cleaning, and yet these refs keep running for decades with very dirty condensers.

One thing that you should differently NOT do is try to put any type of filter in front of the condenser, doing so greatly restricts the amount of air available to cool the condenser and compressor, adding a filter is equivalent to having a very clogged condenser, and yet someone proved it still works, but the ref might fail to work properly in a very hot kitchen and the compressor and cooling fan motor will always run much hotter.

John L.
 
Good to hear

but seeing that under my fridge drives me insane. I just vacuumed my front coils off and noticed the back ones weren't dirty. Anyway, I wish I could remember an article I read about new fridges being designed to fail after 8 to 12 years. Something about the way they make something copper going through water in the design that eventually rusts out (or something similar to that) I can't remember. I just remember the author of the article say this makes coil cleaning useless. He said you could keep the coils clean all day but the way the fridges are designed, something major on it will fail after the designed 8 to 12 years. They said it's possible for them to last a little longer or not as long. My last Whirlpool side x side failed after exactly 13 and a half years. It was the compressor that died, but I'm not sure if something else within the system that failed causing the compressor do die. Point to the story is (even though it drives me crazy to have dirty coils) that's not what's going to kill your fridge (according to him). If I can find the article I'll post it.
 

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