Refrigerator rant

Back in 2003, our house came with a very nice Kitchenaid Superba stainless side-by-side fridge. It's been fine. One service call a few years back for some relay or other.

Problem is this: The coils are UNDER the unit. I can pull the grille off the front bottom of the unit and vacuum dust and pet hair off the very first part of the coils. There is no way to get even a very small attachment or hose behind the first row to get to subsequent rows of coils. I can think of no way to get to them short of pulling the unit out and laying it on its back to gain access from the bottom. Back a few years ago when our supply of pets included a dog and four cats, the amount of dust and hair that matted to the front of the coils was impressive and must surely have proven all but impenetrable to a cooling airstream.

Once upon a time, refrigerators were made with coils on the rear of the unit. What an eminently sensible placement! If they got dirty, one could roll the unit away from the wall and vacuum them quite thoroughly and completely with very little trouble.

Why would you put the coils down by the floor in the dirt?

Fridge is now no longer as "deep" and can blend in better with the surrounding cabinets. Look less massive.

triumph5 wrote: Fridge is now no longer as "deep" and can blend in better with the surrounding cabinets. Look less massive.

Yeah, I get that, except it's still plenty massive. And it's bloody hard to reach stuff all the way against the back.

People would also push the fridge all the way against the wall, killing any ventilation around the coils. When placed underneath, the factory can design in just the right amount of air flow.

What about some compressed air and making a huge dust/hair cloud float through the kitchen when you blow it out? Messy, but it would work.

Well here's where you get to show your wife how useful that air compressor you bought can be in the kitchen. Get a 36" wand, attach to the end of the air hose, put a small tip on the end of the wand, and let'er rip. You'll blow out all the dust from the back into the kitchen. (wear goggles) where you can vacuum it up.

Scares the hell out of the dog, and the kids will wonder why Mommy looks a little "annoyed" but it WILL get all the shmutz out of the bottom. It'll take a while, but it does work.

And if you don't own a compressor, it's a great excuse to rent one just when your about to tear apart your latest project.

triumph5 wrote: And if you don't own a compressor, it's a great excuse to rent one just when your about to tear apart your latest project.

Heh, heh. That's not a problem. There's an 80-gallon in the detached garage, and a little Bostitch pancake in the attached garage. Obviously, the Bostitch would get the job by virtue of its portability. I gotta admit though, I don't know if I like the idea. That's gonna be a pretty big dust cloud.

Note the reference to "Mommy"... You could try little bursts with the wand on the real thick sections, and keep a shop vac running at the same time. If it's running hot, and you're noticing a reduction in cooling--turning up the cool level?--then pull it away from the wall. It still is the only way to do a thorough job.

But the compressed air method IS fun.

Everything is more fun with compressed air.

Your fridge needs its own jackstands.

Ranger50 wrote: Your fridge needs its own jackstands.

I like that Idea. I could just attach a compressed air line. The thing would lift itself about 18" off the floor so I could vacuum out, then pull the air off and let it lower itself back to the floor. Brilliant! I wonder what that would add to the cost? Product liability potentially increases also. Maybe I could retrofit a system?

I remember a TV commercial that showed a 'frig being moved about a kitchen after the housewife had put a couple of "thingies"--they looked like discs--uner the fridge. Then attached a hose from the exhaust side of a vacuum cleaner to a common connector, fired up the vacuum, and pushed the 'fridge around with one hand.

I don't know if they were an option for the fridge or what, but it looked impressive as the fridge rode on a cushion of air.

OR, use 4 linear actuators. Hit the switch, and the fridge rises up. If you've ever seen the hatch on a boat open at the flick of a switch, you've just seen a linear actuator at work. They can be had to lift quite a bit of weight.

Place the fridge in a rigid, welded frame, and recess the actuators (air jacks?) through the floor. Hidden, out of the way and serviceable from the basement.

Gee, this sounds like the beginning of a build thread. The phrase, "while you're at it" is to blame....

Why not a cradle that you can lift? It could be made in such a way that the frige rolls onto it on it existing casters/ wheels. You then lift it cradle and all, clean with vaccume, store cradle till next time.

Shotgun?

Is there even room to lift the fridge? If so I say build a base like front loading washers have. Make the front removeable and leave open areas on the top of it so you can stick a vacuum wand up in there whenever you want. Although lowrider hydraulics would be cool also but they are hard on the eggs.

Why? Marketing. If they design it with easily clogged, inaccessible coils, eventually the coils die. Now you can buy an expensive part to repair it,or, weeee, buy a new fridge.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Is there even room to lift the fridge? If so I say build a base like front loading washers have. Make the front removeable and leave open areas on the top of it so you can stick a vacuum wand up in there whenever you want. Although lowrider hydraulics would be cool also but they are hard on the eggs.

Well, now there's some good, practical thinking. Hmmm. I've got 9-foot ceilings, but the fridge would have to come out a couple feet to clear the cabinet above it. This substantially complicates any kind of built-in, automatic lifting system. I'm digging the lowrider hydraulics thing, though. Eggs be damned!

I like the air jack idea. Like a F1 car. A port on the side, hook up the air, 3 or 4 air jacks pop down and the fridge goes up for tire changes. Or cleaning, whatever.

I just had my wife read this thread and all she said was "My god, there's more of you out there".

1988RedT2 wrote: Once upon a time, refrigerators were made with coils on the rear of the unit. What an eminently sensible placement! If they got dirty, one could roll the unit away from the wall and vacuum them quite thoroughly and completely with very little trouble.

once upon a time, your fridge used 1MW of energy per hour to keep a can of beer cold.

did you try doing some googling. There are some excellent appliance repair forums on the internet.

HA!

I was going to suggest either
A: one of those fancy strap systems that allows you to lift stuff with your back. They work great and you can lift way more than you think you can. Chances are that your fridge was delivered by one guy this way. Lift it up, drop it on some wooden jackstands (or real ones, if you can count on some solid jacking points) and clean away.
B: Those long levers with wheels. Like hand dollys, but bigger meant for industrial equipment. One guy can easily hold it up while another guy cleans it. Note I didn't say wife. "Aww look honey, how cute is that ::SMASH!::" not to be sexist, but guys are typically more well versed in being able to easily kill or maim their co-worker.