Don't forget your refrigerator coils while you're spring cleaning

I stumbled across this WikiHow over the weekend. appliance people swear this little act of maintenance is vital, but most people have no clue how to do it. Well, here's how.

How to Clean Refrigerator Coils

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Refrigerators have probably done more to positively impact the modern kitchen than any other appliance. Largely unappreciated until they fail, they need only a minimal amount of maintenance to run effectively. This maintenance mostly consists of a simple cleaning of the condenser coil at 12 month (or less) intervals. This is very important, but is quickly and easily performed in an hour or less. Read on.

Steps

1. Disconnect. Shut off the circuit breaker, remove the fuse or slide the refrigerator away from the wall as needed to remove the refrigerator's plug from the electrical outlet. Shut off water supply lines if equipped with ice maker or water dispenser.
   
2. Locate the condenser coil. There are two sets of coils for cooling appliances like refrigerators, they are called the evaporator3 and condenser1 coils. Overly simplified, the two coils are filled with gas and liquid respectively, and are parts of a complex "circuit" that has a compressor4 and expansion valve2 that perform the work. The gas filled evaporator coil is located in the space to be cooled, and performs the task by absorbing heat from that space. It is usually protected from damage and out of view. The "heated" gas is compressed by the compressor, where it is further heated (hot to the touch) by the compression process. The heated liquid is passed through the condenser coil that is located away from the cooled space. This condenser coil is where some of the heat in the liquid is released to the ambient air. The cooled liquid is then drawn through the expansion valve by the suction of the compressor, where the liquid immediately boils off to a gas. This causes the temperature of the gas to drop significantly (well below freezing). The process repeats until the thermostat in the space is satisfied. Because the condenser coil is exposed to the ambient air on the refrigerator, it requires regular cleaning. There are a few locations the condenser coil may be found:
   
   • Older refrigerators have the coil (a grid-like structure often painted black) mounted on the rear of the refrigerator.
     
   • Newer refrigerators often locate the condenser coil at the bottom. It is likely that a fan (that may or may not be readily visible) will be directed at the coil to assist with heat dissipation. Use a flashlight to assist locating the coil and fan if needed. The coil will be accessible from one of two places:
     
     1. Toe space panel. Remove the panel at the bottom of the front of the refrigerator and carefully slide the condensate tray out (if present, the condensate tray may contain water). A visual inspection upward into this space may reveal a flat condenser coil when located here.
        
     2. Rear access panel. If not found behind the toe space, the refrigerator will have to be slid away from the wall further to work from behind. Disconnect water supply lines if too short to allow enough room to work. Remove the fasteners that holds an access panel in position. The condenser coil may be flat, but will likely be cylindrical in shape when located here.
        
     
     
   
   
3. Disconnect power. Seriously. Make sure the power to the refrigerator is disconnected.
   
4. Vacuum the coil. With a plastic crevice or brush attachment, carefully vacuum dirt and dust wherever it is seen. Use care not to damage the fins or coil. A breech created in the coil will allow the refrigerant to escape and will likely result in an expensive repair.
   
5. Vacuum the fan. If the fan is visible and accessible, cleaning it will help it move air across the condenser coil as designed. Dirt and dust, if allowed to accumulate on the fan blades, decreases airflow, affects balance and can contribute to early failure of the compressor.
   
6. Brush away stubborn dirt and dust. Use a narrow paint brush to gently remove stubborn dirt and dust from the coil and fan if able to get sufficient access.
   
7. Slide refrigerator back into position. Plug the refrigerator back into wall outlet. Arrange any water supply lines and power cords so that they will not be kinked or crushed by the refrigerator.
   

Tips

• Increase the frequency of cleanings if located in dusty or dirty areas (garages, basements, etc.) or if pets are owned. Pet hair can collect on the coil and damage the compressor circuit faster than dirt and dust alone.
  
• Shutting off water supply lines is not required, but can save time cleaning spilled water if the line should become tangled, caught and ripped from the refrigerator while moving away from the wall.
  
• Consider placing cardboard on floor to prevent possible damage to the surface when sliding the refrigerator in or out.
  

Warnings

• Disconnect the plug from the outlet before attempting to clean the coil and fan.
  
• If equipped with an ice maker or water dispenser, make sure the water supply line is not ripped from or crushed under the refrigerator when moving out or in.
  

Things You'll Need

• Vacuum cleaner with hose & attachments.
  
• Simple hand tools
  
• Flashlight
  
• Narrow paint brush
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Defrost a Freezer
  
• How to Clean a Refrigerator
  
• How to Replace the Evaporator Fan in a Kenmore Refrigerator Model 106 8627580
  
• How to Stop Water Leaking at Bottom of Fridge
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Clean Refrigerator Coils. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Pining for a vacation on a Sunday morning

It's nearing the end of April already and I am in dire need of a break. However, times being what they are, all of my vacation plans for 2009 have been shelved. Poor me, right? Anyhow, I went to dinner with some friends last weekend and we did hammer out a plan for a get away at the end of August.

One of the perks to living in Florida is our proximity to the Windward Caribbean and The Bahamas. So in an effort to streamline and economize what have been growing into some ambitious (and expensive) vacations, we're going back to The Bahamas. Specifically, the Out Islands of The Bahamas. Depending on where you are, that may sound extravagant, but it's really not. Our target, Cat Island is only 350 miles away. 350 miles to get to another world entirely sounds like a good deal to me.

The Out Islands of The Bahamas are the islands farthest east of the US and they're anchored by the larger islands; Cat Island, Eleuthera and the Exumas. I have been to Cat Island six times in the last couple of years and it is a paradise beyond my ability to describe it. The Out Islands Promotion Board just produced this video extolling the many virtues of this heaven on earth. As an added bonus, I've been to all of the locations in this video and a lot of it was filmed on the very beach where we stay over there. Pay attention to the next to the last scene and you'll see an empty hammock slung between two palm trees.

Well, here's that same hammock, only it's occupied by my great friend JD. I think it's a sign.

SketchUp Saturday, the second coming

Reader Rachele just left a comment about her frustration over not being able to get SketchUp to snap and place objects precisely within a model. I can relate whole heartedly with her frustration. After ten years of working with software that snapped indiscriminately and automatically, I expected SketchUp to work the same way.

Well, it doesn't and the reason it doesn't makes perfect sense now that I've mastered what SketchUp calls inferential geometry. In SketchUp, you are always working in three dimensions, so you have to think in three dimensions. Working with rendering programs usually means you're working in two dimensions and imagining the third, depth. In SketchUp, you don't need to imagine the third dimension because you never leave it. This takes a bit of getting used to. Here's how Google explains the snap function of the move tool.

SketchUp Saturday

Anyone who's ever stumbled upon this blog before knows that I am a very loud proponent of Google's modeling software, SketchUp. I have been working in it for more than a year and I've become pretty proficient. I never took a class, I just jumped in and figured it out by trial and error. But that's just how I operate and I realize that that's not the approach for everybody.

At the same time, I believe very firmly that anyone can learn to use this software. It's not just for designers and architects. SketchUp is a go-to solution for every space planning and visualization problem out there. In the hands of an expert, SketchUp can generate a set of plans a builder would use to construct a house. In the hands of the eventual owner of that house; he or she can use it to preview furniture plans, figure out where to put a garden, or decide which sofa to buy.

With all that said, I realize that diving into new software can be a daunting prospect for some people. I never bothered to look when I was in the early stages of learning SketchUp, but YouTube is full of SketchUp training videos. Here are the first three lessons that Google came up with themselves.

So there are the first three official videos from Google. Google being Google and the Internet being the Internet, YouTube is also full of very informative, user-generated how-to videos. YouTube is well-organized and you can work your way from novice to pro in a matter of days with these videos.

My friend Eric started producing his own training videos that are specific to kitchen designers and he finished another one yesterday. His videos are particularly well-produced and he has many more coming. As he builds his library though, you can take a look at what he's already produced by going to SketchUp Training Blog. Here's a preview of Eric's lesson on designing a kitchen with the help of Google's 3-D Warehouse.

See? It's no so daunting. Download a copy of SketchUp and start playing around with it. At the risk of sounding like a total geek, it's fun.

Beautiful, modern lamps from Inhabit

These are the Builtby lamps from Inhabit and I think they're gorgeous and cool.

You can order these lamps in 19 preconfigured styles or you can design your own.

It's pretty ingenious, really. If you choose the Design My Own option, there's an interactive lamp builder with all of the parts and colors sitting there, waiting for you to make a one-of-a-kind modern lamp. Or several for that matter.

Inhabit offers free shipping on orders of $50 in the continental US, and the shipping's free on order of $100 or more in Canada, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska.

I know Inhabit from their show-stopping wall flats and these Builtby lamps are a pleasant surprise. More surprising and even more pleasant are their pillows, throws, art and bedding. Check them out.

Many thanks to the amazing Creede at Grassroots Modern for the heads up.