Fridge findings...
Jun. 11th, 2011 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
milktreeThankfully, this isn't about a science experiment long forgotten in the inky depths of a fridge.
I noticed that my fridge seemed to be running a lot more, and a lot more often, than it used to. To confirm, I stuck it on a Kill-A-Watt to measure power consumption. Based on a short test, it was using a lot more power than when it was new.
I figured it was probably that I'd never cleaned the coils in the three years I've had it, and I live with a shedfull cat.
Yep.
That first layer of condenser was the easy one to clean. That's after I cleaned literally 1/6" of matted cat hair off it. Ew...
But that led to the next question: How the hell do you clean layers 2 through eleventy-two? You can't get at it from the bottom without emptying the fridge and tipping it back, so that's not how. I suppose you could have a really bendy vacuum hose that could go down the side and into the gaps, but that'd be a pretty exotic tool for your typical fridge owner. The right way would be for the side of the fridge to have a panel that comes off, allowing access to the channels between the layers. But no, the side is a single piece from floor to top.
My next thought was maybe you can get at it from the back. So I pulled the fridge out from the wall unscrewed the cardboard vanity panel (not a promising start, that's not much of a homeowner method either) to discover...
Not so much access to the coils from there, either. The compressor is in the way, and the only coils you can get at from the back are pretty clean anyway.
But what's this? See that little dark thing in the yellow insulation, just under the compressor? And see those little tell-tale bits of mouse dirt? (the polite way to say "shit") Someone's been using my fridge as a house!
Yes, those are chocolate chips. Opportunistic little squeakers, mice; I can remember exactly one time in the last four years that I opened a bag of chips and didn't immediately put the whole thing into a batch of cookies, and in that case I had the bags held closed with binder clips. I have no idea where they found them.
In case you're curious, the way to clean the condenser coils, at least the way I did it, is to stuff the vacuum cleaner hose down that gap on the right side, and then used compressed air to blow enough air around that it all came loose and found its way .... somewhere. I like to think it went into the vacuum hose, but I suspect it just moved around the kitchen.
I noticed that my fridge seemed to be running a lot more, and a lot more often, than it used to. To confirm, I stuck it on a Kill-A-Watt to measure power consumption. Based on a short test, it was using a lot more power than when it was new.
I figured it was probably that I'd never cleaned the coils in the three years I've had it, and I live with a shedfull cat.
Yep.
That first layer of condenser was the easy one to clean. That's after I cleaned literally 1/6" of matted cat hair off it. Ew...
But that led to the next question: How the hell do you clean layers 2 through eleventy-two? You can't get at it from the bottom without emptying the fridge and tipping it back, so that's not how. I suppose you could have a really bendy vacuum hose that could go down the side and into the gaps, but that'd be a pretty exotic tool for your typical fridge owner. The right way would be for the side of the fridge to have a panel that comes off, allowing access to the channels between the layers. But no, the side is a single piece from floor to top.
My next thought was maybe you can get at it from the back. So I pulled the fridge out from the wall unscrewed the cardboard vanity panel (not a promising start, that's not much of a homeowner method either) to discover...
Not so much access to the coils from there, either. The compressor is in the way, and the only coils you can get at from the back are pretty clean anyway.
But what's this? See that little dark thing in the yellow insulation, just under the compressor? And see those little tell-tale bits of mouse dirt? (the polite way to say "shit") Someone's been using my fridge as a house!
Yes, those are chocolate chips. Opportunistic little squeakers, mice; I can remember exactly one time in the last four years that I opened a bag of chips and didn't immediately put the whole thing into a batch of cookies, and in that case I had the bags held closed with binder clips. I have no idea where they found them.
In case you're curious, the way to clean the condenser coils, at least the way I did it, is to stuff the vacuum cleaner hose down that gap on the right side, and then used compressed air to blow enough air around that it all came loose and found its way .... somewhere. I like to think it went into the vacuum hose, but I suspect it just moved around the kitchen.
