Appliances

How to Clean Refrigerator Coils (and Save Energy)

Your fridge is one of the few appliances that never turns off. Ten minutes with a vacuum once or twice a year keeps it running efficiently — and helps it last.

What the coils actually do

The condenser coils are how your refrigerator gets rid of heat. Refrigerant carries warmth out of the food compartment and releases it through the coils into the room. When those coils are blanketed in dust and pet hair, that heat has nowhere to go, so the compressor runs longer and hotter to hit the same temperature. You pay for that in electricity, and the compressor — the single most expensive part of the fridge — wears out sooner.

How often

Once or twice a year is the baseline. Move to every three to four months if you have shedding pets, a dusty basement or garage fridge, or carpet near the appliance. Check your owner's manual first: some newer models have sealed or fully enclosed condensers that the manufacturer says never need cleaning.

Signs yours are overdue

• The fridge seems to run almost constantly instead of cycling on and off.
• The grille at the bottom, or the back panel, feels hot to the touch.
• Visible dust or fur along the toe-grille or behind the unit.
• The freezer holds fine but the fridge section drifts warm.
• A quiet uptick in your power bill with no other explanation.

How to clean them

1. 1Unplug the refrigerator. Don't skip this — you'll be near a fan and electrical components.
2. 2Find the coils. On most fridges made in the last 20 years they sit underneath, behind a snap-off toe-grille at the very bottom front. On older or compact units they're a black grid mounted on the back; a few models put them behind a rear access panel.
3. 3Pull off the grille (it usually unclips by hand) or roll the fridge forward to reach the back.
4. 4Vacuum the coils with a brush attachment, working with the fins rather than across them so you don't bend them.
5. 5Use a coil brush for the dust the vacuum can't reach, then vacuum up whatever you loosened.
6. 6While you're down there, vacuum the condenser fan blades and clear the dust off the floor underneath.
7. 7Replace the grille, push the fridge back, and plug it in.

Two things worth doing at the same time

Check the door gaskets: close the door on a dollar bill and pull. If it slides out with no resistance, the seal is leaking cold air and is worth replacing. And confirm the fridge has breathing room — most need a couple of inches of clearance at the back and top, and pushing one tight against a wall undoes some of the benefit of clean coils.

Put it on a schedule

Nobody remembers the last time they cleaned under the fridge, which is exactly why it goes years between cleanings. Add your refrigerator to Upkeepery and it schedules the job at the right interval and reminds you when it's due — so a ten-minute chore actually happens.