How to Save Power - Clean Your Fridge

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By rosburk
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating: (2 Ratings)

Money Saving Idea

Cut the energy consumption of your fridge by up to 50%!!! This will save you loads of money on your monthly electric bill. Its simple, just vacuum out the dust. It takes about 5-10 minutes.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Vacuum cleaner with a hose and attachments.
A desire to save energy (and cash)

Step 1

First get down on your hands and knees and gently and carefully pull off the little grate on the bottom front of your fridge. Hiding behind it (usually) are the cooling coils of your refrigerator (and a TON of dust bunnies!).

Usually these pull off with just a tug on each end.
Step 2

Attach the flat tube adapter to your vacuum hose.
Step 3

EWWWWW!

Switch on the vacuum and carefully vacuum out as much of that dust as you possibly can (if you have cats, you will probably find a cat toy or two, I did!)
Step 4

Just a little push!

Carefully put the grate back on your fridge.
Usually, just line it up and give it a good, firm push.

That's it, your done! Your fridge will thank you by using less power.

And if your kitchen floor is anything like mine (yuck), take a shower!
Step 5

Enjoy the savings.

Thank you for doing your small part to help the planet!

Tips & Warnings

A flashlight can be handy, or if your vacuum has a light on the front, shine it under the fridge.
If you cant get all of the dust out, try using can-of-air to blow the dust off and hopefully you can find a way to snag some of it with your vacuum. The key is to just get it off the coils.
IMPORTANT!: Be very careful not to bend or puncture any of those tubes, they are sturdy, but if broken it will turn your fridge into an over-sized pantry.