Under the Fridge – Eeew!, originally uploaded by espeedy123.
Doesn’t this picture say it all?
Yes, that’s my fridge.
I bought a new Miele canister vacuum this week. I’ve been vacuuming all sorts of odd dirty things — vent covers, ceiling corners, that little utensil tray in your kitchen drawer that gets crumbs in it that I’m too lazy to dump out completely …
But nothing comes close to the pure grime I found on these fridge coils!! I think our house is generally pretty clean, and we don’t have any pets, so I had no idea this would be so gross!
Removing this gunk is supposed to increase the efficiency of the fridge condenser, resulting in greater electrical efficiency. So let my photo be a reminder to all that if you’re feeling a little OCD-ish, this is a satisfying and Earth-friendly task.
If you too decide to do this, email me your dirty coil photo and I’ll post it. 😉
erin covert * hands on 
So was that an old refrigerator? Did it come with the house?
Or were those coils clean as recently as a year or two ago when someone last moved the refrigerator?
I’m curious to know how fast they get that dirty.
I have a refrigerator that’s about a year old, so I’m going to check out tonight, if I remember when I get home!
It came with the house, so it’s probably been like this for a good long while. We have scooched the fridge a couple times before to vacuum behind it, but I had never removed the kickplate. An eye-opening experience! I think I might not wait another 25 years before taking another look.
Before vacuuming I unplugged it, and when I plugged it back in there was a horrible loud repetitive beating noise.
Michael unhelpfully noted that this project would result in a more energy efficient fridge because we were about to go buy a replacement for the one I broke.
But alas, it was simply an old medicare statement with the previous owner’s name on it that whirled up into the fridge fan that I gingerly removed and tossed. And voila! Good as sort-of-new.
Always a good idea to tread lightly when cleaning old stuff. 😉