Help your Appliances Survive the Eastern North Carolina Heat!
Summer is upon us, and the New Bern and Eastern North Carolina areas are warming up quickly. So, we’ve put together a few tips to help your refrigerators and freezers in these rising temperatures.
This is a good time to check your refrigerator and your freestanding icemaker condenser coils for blockages and restrictions due to dust and pet hair. It does not matter the brand- Whirlpool, Jenn-Air, Samsung, Maytag, LG, Kenmore, GE, Frigidaire, Subzero and even some of the newer brands like Beko or Summit all have the same thing in common: They move heat from the inside to the outside and they have to get rid of it.
Not cleaning the coils will cause issues like:
Long run time,
Higher electric bills and
Component failures.
Most refrigerator condenser coils are located on the bottom of the fridge in the front or back. However, on some of the larger built-in units, they are located at the top.
I have been recommending for many years now to use a reversing vacuum that has the ability to blow as well as pull. The goal is to vacuum the coils as best as you can and then reverse the vacuum to blow the rest out. This ensures that you reach every nook and cranny without using a brush that could potentially damage the wiring or bend the fan blades.
Freestanding freezers do not have exposed coils on newer models. They are instead built into the walls. This makes it important to not box in a freestanding freezer too tightly as it needs this rounding air to touch it so that it can get rid of its heat. And this will also mean that the walls of the freestanding freezer will get hot and this is normal.
Refrigerators or freezers that are located in a garage that is not air-conditioned will sometimes have condensation forming on the exterior walls due to the extreme temperature differences as well as long run times.
If you do not use your ice that your icemaker makes on a regular basis and it starts to get old. You should dump it out once every 4 weeks to freshen up your refrigerator because it is a natural odor absorber.
Have a great summer and I hope you have a chance to spend some time out on the water or at our beautiful beaches.
Many blessings,
Joe