Top Tips for Refrigerator Cleaning and Maintenance
It’s important to have an annual home cleaning checklist that includes both the inside and outside of your home. When it comes to the interior of your home, be sure to add refrigerator cleaning to the list!
Although you should be routinely cleaning your refrigerator, it’s best to give your fridge a deep cleaning at least twice a year. This includes the inside and the outside of your beloved appliance. Plus, doing so will prevent leftover or spilled food particles from attracting unwelcome pests.
Also, it’s a great time to check and clean the door seals and coils. Keep your fridge in top shape with the following refrigerator cleaning and maintenance tips.
How should I clean my refrigerator?
- Start by removing all the food from your refrigerator. Moreover, store perishable items in a cooler until you’re ready to return them to the fridge.
- Then, wipe the interior with a solution of two tablespoons of baking soda to one quart of hot water. Rinse surfaces with a damp, clean cloth, and dry with a hand towel.
- After cleaning, spray Wet & Forget Indoor on the refrigerator’s interior to disinfect and deodorize the surface. Rinse with water after use.
- Don’t forget to clean and dry the drip pans. Pull the pans out from underneath the fridge and wash the pan in warm, soapy water.
- When cleaning the exterior, wipe the doors with a mild soap and water solution. Moreover, be sure to clean around the handles to remove dirty fingerprints.
Do I need to clean the refrigerator coils?
Dirty fridge coils make the unit work harder to keep the interior cold. This can lead to higher energy bills and can reduce the life of your refrigerator. Learn how to clean them easily with the instructions below.
Steps to cleaning:
What You’ll Need:
- Flashlight
- Dust mask
- Vacuum with a narrow hose attachment
- Coil condenser brush
- Unplug the fridge. You may need to pull out the fridge from the wall to locate the power outlet.
- Then locate the condenser coils. They look like metal tubes bent into a U-shaped pattern. They are usually at the base of the fridge, in front, or behind the toe-grill. If your unit doesn’t have a toe-grill, the coils will be on the back of the fridge. If they are on the back, then pull the back of the unit away from the wall so you can reach them for cleaning.
- Put on the dust mask and use a flashlight to help see them. Then clean and vacuum the dust, dirt, and debris from the coils.
- Using the coil condenser brush, remove any remaining dust. Work the brush back and forth into small corners and spaces to remove dust and dirt. Run the vacuum as you brush, holding the nozzle next to the brush, to vacuum up floating dust and debris.
- Vacuum the surrounding floor to remove any fallen dust or dirt. To finish, replace the toe-grill, push the unit back into place, and plug in the power cord.
Home repair expert Bob Vila mentions, “Located at the base of the fridge, or behind it, depending on age and brand of the unit, these coils are filled with refrigerant that cools the air inside. Condenser coils are exposed, not in a sealed casing, and therefore vulnerable to dust buildup.”
How do I know if I should replace the refrigerator door seal?
A fridge door seal is also called a gasket. Give your gasket the “dollar bill test”. Close the refrigerator and/or freezer door on a dollar bill and tug at the money.
If you can easily pull the dollar out, the seal is no longer tight. Therefore, the seal may be torn or depressed due to constant use and will need to be replaced.
How do I clean my door seal?
If your door seal still works well, give it a good cleaning with Wet & Forget Indoor. It gets rid of and inhibits ugly mold and mildew that tend to hide in the folds of your refrigerator’s door seal.
Wet & Forget Indoor cuts through tough grease and grime and kills 99.9% of bacteria & viruses*.
In addition, Wet & Forget Indoor contains no bleach. So there’s no offending odor to irritate sensitive noses.
As a disinfectant, Wet & Forget Indoor Mold+ Mildew Disinfectant Cleaner kills: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica, Serratia marcescens, *Human Coronavirus,*lnfluenza Virus Type A/ Hong Kong, *SARS Associated Coronavirus cause of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, *SARS-Related Coronavirus 2 SARS-CoV-2 cause of COVID-19, *Vaccinia (Pox Virus), *Norwalk Virus (Norovirus), * Rotavirus.
Remove mold and mildew from a refrigerator door seal by:
- Spray Wet & Forget Indoor 6-8 inches from the surface until the affected area is thoroughly wet.
- Allow the surface to remain wet for at least 10 minutes.
- Wipe sprayed surfaces dry with a clean sponge, or allow surfaces to air dry.
Note: Wiping will help lift up some of the staining on the gasket. If the stain is embedded into the door seal, Wet & Forget Indoor may not be able to pick this up. - And that’s all there is to it!
Wet & Forget Indoor’s powerful cleaning formula packs a one-two-three punch to clean, deodorize, and disinfect your home’s indoor surfaces.
Doing this annually or semi-annually can help keep your bills lower and extend your fridge’s lifespan. Therefore, be sure to include refrigerator cleaning on your home’s to-do list to keep your refrigerator clean and well-running.
