How to Save Energy--Clean Your Fridge Coils

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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.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Screwdriver
Vacuum cleaner and attachments
Warm soapy water

Getting to the Coils

Step1

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.

Step2

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

Step3

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

Step4

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.

Step5

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.

Step6

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.