How Often Do You Clean Refrigerator Coils

I was in the local Lowes store and saw a brush for cleaning the refrigerator coils. I took it home with me as I had never done this. The instructions said take off the toe plate at the bottom front of the fridge. My husband did this. We couldn't see anything there that looked like coils. So he pulled the thing out from the wall. There were no coils on the back. At the bottom back was a panel of heavy cardboard. He removed the screws and took it off. We could see no place to use the brush. He put the vacuum hose in the exhaust part of the vacuum and blew out the bottom. There were dust bunnies flying all over the kitchen and dining room. My gosh, it was gross. The rest of my house needs a good cleaning, but under the refrigerator is spotless. Oh, and that useless brush is going back to Lowes. :lol3:

Funny you should ask, LOL my friends think I'm nuts because I'm constantly cleaning my fridge, front, back inside out, etc.  Since I live in a small apt, we have a small fridge and it's terrible, and when our old one died, my landlord got this new one, it was considered one of the new "energy saver", but it's terrible and over freezes it's motor, and freezes everything but ice cream.

So to keep it from freezing up we have to clean coils and all else bi weekly.

Strangely it's a good feeling to clean it. LOL

Congrats on your cleaning. LOL

Once a year, usually when I do the dreaded fall cleaning. This Samsung we have is a real bugger to move out and back. It's really tight in the fridge spot in the kitchen and I can't move the fridge myself like I could our old fridge. So I'm dependent on waiting for Dear Richard to move it for me. Then I give it a good cleaning.

Do you move your stove out for cleaning, @blueyedgirl5946? Our stove was recently repaired and we had to move the stove out from the cabinets to the middle of the kitchen for the repair-guru to take it apart. The floor was messy underneath. So now I plan on bringing the stove out twice a year (spring and fall) to clean. The repair-guru said it really wasn't all that bad, but I was mortified.

I clean under both the fridge and the stove twice a year, Both are usually matted with cat hair (imagine that!). The new refrigerators don't have coils in the back now, they are all sealed in, but there should be .pipes' running under the bottom that often are so dirty and matted you can't see them, I have a long skinny tapered brush I run around down there and it always pulls out a lot of dust bunnies. Our new fridge will actually stop running if it gets too dirty underneath, so if your milk and frozen stuff starts getting warm, that should be your first priority, clean underneath! PS, remember they have to be restarted when they shut off like this, so turn them to 'off' let sit a few minutes and then restart after the cleaning.

Winchester said:

Once a year, usually when I do the dreaded fall cleaning. This Samsung we have is a real bugger to move out and back. It's really tight in the fridge spot in the kitchen and I can't move the fridge myself like I could our old fridge. So I'm dependent on waiting for Dear Richard to move it for me. Then I give it a good cleaning.

Do you move your stove out for cleaning, @blueyedgirl5946
? Our stove was recently repaired and we had to move the stove out from the cabinets to the middle of the kitchen for the repair-guru to take it apart. The floor was messy underneath. So now I plan on bringing the stove out twice a year (spring and fall) to clean. The repair-guru said it really wasn't all that bad, but I was mortified.

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Winchester Actually, I take the drawer out across the bottom. When I do that I can turn off the power and clean under the stove. I would really like to bring it out because it never has been pulled out since the built the house 2002. I think the cabinet ends and the sides of the stove are probably grungy.

Right now we are thinking of putting down a new floor in the kitchen. I have Congoleum vinyl and I have never liked it. If that happens the stove will get a good cleaning then. :lol3:

I would love to have a bigger refrigerator when we do that. But like you, I have a built in space in my cabinets and my refrigerator can't be bigger than that. How much space is necessary around one for adequate ventilation. Does anybody know?

di and bob I think the refrigerator should be shut off before the coils are cleaned.

That is one of DH's chores.    He does it once or twice a year.  I can clean under the stove by removing the drawer so that's not so bad. 

I was embarrassed when we got a new bed delivered because the baseboard behind the bed was so dusty!!  We have no headboard and we were upgrading to a king; so I was standing by ready to vacuum when they hauled the old bed frame out.  The delivery guy chuckled at my reaction and said every house was like that! 

We had a new washer delivered this past winter.  The old one broke down with water still in it and I couldn't get it to drain completely.  The litter boxes are in front of the washer and dryer; so you can imagine the mess I had on my hands when they disconnected the hose and it dumped water on the clumping litter I hadn't been able to reach with the broom!!   It was a front loader on a pedestal.