Do-It-Yourself – Fridge and Freezer Maintenance

Anticipating that coming around the Christmas season now and you will probably be stocking up the fridge and/or freezer with all sorts of foodstuff, I figured a good idea will be to look at maintenance of these critical pieces of kitchen appliances, cause lets’ face it…where would we be without our fridge?
Basically, a fridge is a heat exchanger, meaning; it constantly tries to extract heat from inside the refridgerated space and dump it outside. It achieves this feat through the use of a refridgerant. The refrigerant starts off as a liquid, absorbs the heat inside the space, evaporating into a gas and is carried to the condenser located either at the back or underside of the fridge and is air cooled via the condenser coils where it condenses into a liquid and repeats the process again. The thermostat controls the temperature settings inside the fridge. Remember that for a fridge, the average temperature may be between 34-40 degrees Celsius while the freezer part is always set at 0 degrees Celsius.
As far as maintenance goes, pretty much mostly cleaning you will have to do and you should be good, in cases where components go bad or the refridgerant has to be replenished, then only a qualified technician should handle this kind of work.
The condenser coils just need periodic brushing or vacuuming depending on the amount of dust build-up, you can use an old paintbrush or a vacuum if you have one, it’s important that you keep the coils clean and dust free, the efficient functioning of the fridge depends on these. You can get to the drain pan and pipe now too.
Another part to check is the gasket that runs around the door that seals the refridgerated space. Be sure to keep this seal clean at all times, you can use a little bleach solution if needed. Also, like twice a year, stick a piece of paper between the gasket, if it’s hard to pull out, you’re good, if it comes out freely, you need to replace the gasket. An improper seal will have the fridge working overtime unnecessarily and will cost you money too, so it’s a good energy and money saving tip to keep it in good shape.
When it comes to the inside and outside, pretty much straightforward, for the inside, wash all removable parts with a detergent and warm water, wipe the inside with either an all-purpose cleaner or a solution of warm water and baking soda.
Don’t forget to defrost! Some fridges don’t need to be, but typically for those that do, on average twice yearly, ultimately you will be the judge depending on the condition.