FIVE necessary fridge freezer maintenance tasks

Five necessary fridge freezer maintenance tasks

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Your fridge and fridge freezer are the most hardworking appliances in your kitchen and deserve proper maintenance. Unlike any other units, they operate around the clock.

For example, you turn on your oven only when you are cooking. However, your fridge freezer is constantly in use keeping your meat, ice-cream, and other goods well-frozen. So, it is with your fridge, which cools beverages and keeps food fresh.

In this post, we will discuss important tasks of your refrigerator and fridge freezer maintenance that helps to prolong their life and cut the need of repairs.

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Why you need to maintain your fridge and freezer regularly

Lack of maintenance leads to intensive and inefficient unit functioning. Thus, it drains your budget in two ways:

• Higher electricity bills
• Higher repair bills

To understand the necessity of freeze and refrigerator maintenance, you should realise a huge role a motor plays in its operation. In other words, the motor is the heart of your refrigeration appliance. As it comes with every electrical unit, a switching phase is the most adverse for the fridge motor.

​To clarify, it is the time the appliance gets current of the highest value. So, it risks getting damaged every time the motor turns on. Hence, the more frequently it starts the higher possibility of its breakage.

Maintenance aims to prevent refrigerator motor from excessive load. It creates favourable conditions for longer period between switching phases. In other words, refrigerator maintenance enables reduces the risks of fridge or freezer motor breakage. For example, that’s why you need accomplish cold room installation providing easy access to its key parts for proper maintenance.

Task 1: Keeping right temperature inside your fridge

Temperature inside your fridge freezer is very important. If you set the temperature too high, it allows the motor to work with lower load and longer periods between switching phases.

​However, too high temperature has got a bad impact on the goods you store. In other words, your goods get spoiled very quickly. In contrast, if you set the temperature too low, the motor runs more intensively and your goods get over-chilled.
Therefore, it is essential to keep the right temperature inside your refrigeration appliances:

• 37– 40° F inside a fridge
• 0° F inside a freezer

Thus, adjust your unit temperature control so that it complies with recommended settings. Check the temperature at least once every two months to be sure your fridge freezer performance is at the top.

Task 2: Door gasket check

Manufacturers designed door gaskets to prevent outside warm air from getting inside a fridge or freezer. However, its door gaskets may get dirty. The main problem here is this grime acts as glue. Therefore, the door gasket sticks to the appliance and risks being damaged when you open its door.

Moreover, these sticky spots may accumulate garbage. Thus, there appears a gap between the door and the appliance and warm outside air seeps inside it. And again, we return to the unit motor. As inside temperature rises faster, the motor has to run more intensively and switch on more often. But, as you remember, this leads to its more rapid getting out of order.

To avoid such early failure, your second maintenance task is to clean the door gasket as soon as you notice any grime on it:

1. Open the door
2. Wipe the door gaskets with wet sponge
3. Dry it carefully

Also, make it a rule to perform this procedure once every two months.

Task 3: Motor fan cleaning

As we stated earlier in this post, a motor is one of fridge freezer key parts. It works hard and it heats up while working. To cool the motor, there is a fan installed near it. However, as we do not live in sterile conditions, this fan accumulates dust onto its blades.

This lowers fan efficiency and results in worse motor cooling. Thus, the motor may get overheated and break down. To prevent this, it has to run more intensively to provide proper fan functioning and sufficient cooling.

That’s why motor fan cleaning is an important step of fridge maintenance service. You can reduce excessive motor wear by cleaning the motor fan at least once a year:

1. Unplug your fridge freezer
2. Find the motor fan location. It can be either on the front or back bottom of the appliance
3. Unscrew and remove the protective grade to get the access to the fan
4. Gently clean the fan blades using a refrigerator coil brush, vacuum cleaner, and damp soft cloth
5. Give the time for the fan to dry
6. Screw the protective grade back on its place
7. Plug the unit into a socket

Task 4: Condenser coil cleaning

A condenser is another important part of your fridge freezer. Its task is to remove the heat from the units. Therefore, with dusty and dirty condenser coil it can’t perform the task efficiently and overloads the motor.

Hence, you need to clean condenser coil at least once a year:

1. Unplug your refrigeration unit
2. Find the condenser coil location. It can be either on the front bottom or on the back side of the appliance
3. Gently clean the condenser coil using a refrigerator coil brush, vacuum cleaner, and damp soft cloth
4. Plug the unit into a socket

If you have got pets clean the coil every half a year as there is more aggressive environment in your home.

Task 5: Drain hole cleaning

Modern appliances have got anti-frost system that enables it to defrost automatically. During this procedure, excess water drains through a special opening – a drain hole. If the drain hole gets clogged, the water will stay inside your appliance. This not only deteriorates unit performance, but also creates perfect conditions for bacteria replication.

Therefore, you need to check the drain hole at least once a month and unclog it when necessary. Use rolled cloth or cotton swab to complete the procedure.

To conclude, it is worth to mention regular fridge freezer maintenance will benefit your budget and your health while taking only one hour a year and a little effort.

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We are not responsible for the break downs of your appliances if you follow these steps. If you are not intelligent enough we suggest to contact us and we will help you in short period of time.