HomeWorks – Creating a Cleaner, Greener, More Comfortable Home

Today were going to share a few tips on maintaining your refrigerator for longer life and a more efficient operation. Considering that your refrigerator is running 24 hours a day, it has the potential to waste a lot of energy if not properly maintained. The first place we’ll start is here at the door by checking the seals and the gaskets.

The gaskets on the refrigerator and freezer doors are designed to seal the cool air in and to keep the warm air out which is vital to the efficiency of your fridge. So, it’s important to make sure that seals are clean and don’t leak out all the cool air. One way to test it is to shut a dollar bill in the door, and see if you can pull it out easily. If the bill slips out easily with no resistance, you may want to consider replacing it or first try cleaning it with a vinegar and water solution.

Next, lets pull the fridge away from the wall so we can access the cooling coils. Dusty condenser coils cause a refrigerator to work harder; which translates into higher energy bills and a shorter life expectancy for your refrigerator. To prevent this from happening, use a vacuum brush to remove dust build up from the coils every three months.

Now we’ll want to clean the drain hole and drip pan. Most refrigerators rely on a drain hole and drip pan to remove condensation, so it’s important that these are clean and allowed to remove the water like they should. Clean any food particles and mineral deposits from the drain hole, then scrub out the drain pan.

That should do it. With a little bit of maintenance, your food should stay cooler with less effort, which means less electricity and lower utility costs.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 11:03 am and is filed under Home Improvements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.