Refrigerator update

[Kurt Ullman]

Thanks for the assist, although I have an additional tip to add. We went through and cleaned out of the coils underneath the fridge. About 4 hours later is was still very hot to the touch and we thought we were going to have to move it out and do the back. Since by then it was around 10:00 pm and we were tired, we decided to wait until morning. So I could feel like I was doing SOMETHING in the meantime, I got a fan and put it to blow under the fridge on the side of the freezer. Came back down around an hour later and the previously hot areas were now basically room temperature. So, it appears as though the hotness had become self sustaining (more or less) and the cooling from the fan broke that and allowed coolness to reappear. Disconnected the fan this morning and about 5 hours on, everything remains as it should.

[nestork]

Kurt:

No, hotness is not a self sustaining thing. Otherwise people would figure out a way to make a self sustaining heating machine so that we wouldn't have to burn fossil fuels to keep warm in the winter.

Is it possible that you simply put a bunch of stuff in your fridge prior to you noticing that your mullion was excessively warm?

[Ed Pawlowski]

You have to love a happy ending.

The fan was a good idea. Chances are it would have cleared over time, but extra air is good.

[Guv Bob]

Congrats, Kurt! The weather turned warm here and mine started doing the same thing. Sure enough, coils underneath were covered with dust. Too close together for vacuuming, so I ended up wrapping a yard stick with a rag with furniture polish and got most of it off.

[Art Todesco]

I have a Whirlpool which was made, not to be able to clean the coils. They are underneath below the fridge side and are only accessible from the sides! Well, you can't get in from the sides as typically you only have front access and the outside shell goes down to the floor. A combination of a fridge coil brush, vacuum and high pressure air from a compressor kind of cleans it. Nice job WP for making a unit that is guaranteed to break down due to dirt. And the average Joe cannot fix it. I really need to cut a hole in the floor and clean it from the basement :) Yeah, right!

[trader_4]

WZDJnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]...

he same thing. Sure enough, coils underneath were covered with dust. Too close together for vacuuming, so I ended up wrapping a yard stick with a ra g with furniture polish and got most of it off.

I think my Kitchenaid is made the same way.... I don't see any access, it' s all closed up. And you would think if they are going to have that kind of design, they would put a filter on the air intake, but they don't. I wonde r about the long term reliability and what will happen.

[nestork]

I would think that if there's no way to clean the condenser coils from the front, then there's a condenser fan blowing air over the condenser coils which exhausts out the front, and the only time you have to pull the fridge out is to replace that condenser fan if and when it quits... at which time you'd also be able to clean any dust off the condenser coils.

Maybe look on your fridge's schematic to see if you have a condenser fan.

(Otherwise it's just a plain stupid design.)

[trader_4]

It has a fan and no visible coils anywhere. It pulls air in through the front at the bottom on one side and sends it back out at the front on the other side.

[Stormin Mormon]

Some units, you have to open the lower door and snap off the "kick plate" to get at the coils.

[Terry Coombs]

Does the outside shell get warm when the compressor is running ? Many late models have the condenser coils attached to the shell . Eliminates the need for expensive fin/tube coils and fans to blow air over 'em .