How to Save Energy--Clean Your Fridge Coils

Fridges are energy hogs. They place right after heating and air conditioning in terms of home-energy consumption (it's estimated that a fridge uses about 15 percent of a home's power). An easy way to help your fridge run more efficiently is to clean the coils, which dissipate heat from the fridge. If they're covered with dust or caked-on "grunge," they can't work the way they should, and your fridge will run longer and more often. Follow these steps every 6 months to clean your refrigerator coils.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Screwdriver
• Vacuum cleaner and attachments
• Warm soapy water

Getting to the Coils

1. Find the coils. On older-model fridges, the coils are exposed on the back. On newer models, the coils are on the bottom, hidden behind a cover panel or kick plate.

2. Unplug your fridge and pull it away from the wall (on built-in fridges, turn off the circuit breaker).

3. Remove the cover plate. On some models it's held in by spring clips; others may use a couple of small screws.

4. Use the long, narrow attachment of your vacuum to clean any accumulated dust on bottom coils. Clean back-mounted coils with the upholstery brush attachment.

5. Use warm water and dish soap to remove the sticky buildup of cooking fats if you haven't cleaned your refrigerator coils for a while.

6. Replace the cover panel, slide the fridge back into place and plug it in (or turn on the circuit breaker).

Tips & Warnings

• Self-defrosting refrigerators drain the moisture into a tray on the bottom of the fridge. While you're cleaning the coils, pull out the tray and clean it thoroughly. These trays can sometimes get dirty or even moldy.

• Check vacuum stores for a special, long-reach brush designed specifically for cleaning refrigerator coils.

• Even with clean coils, older appliances use way more energy than newer models. The government EnergyStar program estimates that replacing an old fridge (vintage 1990) with a new energy-efficient model would save enough to pay for the lights in home for over 4 months.