I've had refrigerators all my life and never heard of cleaning their vent. How do I do this?
this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2024
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It's more the fan in the compressor/condenser in the back, hah. I just said vent because it was simpler for a title.
Understandable.
First, get some headlight fluid from Home Depot.
Damn, they only had blinker fluid.
Damn, that reminds me I need to change the HVAC filter!
Is there a good way to see if the current filter is running less efficiently, or do you just change it every 6 - 12 months regardless?
I get the extra thicc accordion style and I replace them at the manufacturer-suggested 6 months. The duct cleaners told me it should be done every 4 months, but he also said our duct weren't too bad and I hadn't had it done in like 6 years, so...
Duct cleaning is a scam fyi
Oh really? What makes you say that? I can see some buildup of lint past the returns and vents, but of course I can't see very far.
It’s a scam because as you just pointed out they can only clear the registers and can’t get very far into the ducts.
In most houses ducts have a lot of twists and turns. Some times your ducts will split off from the heavy sheet metal ducts and go down correlated tubes, etc.
It’s damned near impossible to clean the entire ducts and even trying could mean damaging a part of the duct you can’t even access.
The duct cleaners will try to convince you that they can clean every nook and cranny of your hvac system.
They clean like 20% of your ducts and call it good. It’s pointless.
Save the money and clean your own registers with some soap and water. The ducts won’t get cleaned anyway.
Thank you, I'll read up on it more.
The only duct I regularly clean thoroughly is the one for the dryer.
I don't want a lint fire.
The rest, as long as they don't have any obvious build up, they're probably fine. If they do, clean the vent cover, register and whatever I can reasonably reach. 👍
Every 6 months. But I slacked this year and didn't change them out before summer. So I'm going to start fresh now, and then change at the beginning of summer, and then again next year around Thanksgiving.
You should really be changing them once a month
Nice try, filter manufacturer!
Uh oh, me too. I hate doing it! Plus, filters are expensive if you get the good ones.
Installing a soft starter to smooth out the huge momentary rush in power the compressor motor experiences as it starts up. Thats by far the most impactful thing you can do to increase fridge lifespan to the point fridge manufacturers factor it in rush current in planned obsolescence calculations.
The problem is that soft starter kits are expensive and you need to be competent enough with electricity to wire it in.
You have my attention, do you know where I can find more information about it ?
Sure im happy to point you in the right direction. The most popular place they get discussed about and practically implemented is over on the DIY solar fourm website.
The offgrid renewables crowd with smaller battery supply who can just barely afford to put out enough wattage to run a fridge or AC are the ones who benefit most from soft starting. Then there are the nerds who like watching graphs that get off on maximizing system efficency and lifespan of their appliances.
The users of that fourm often go into technicals that I myself am unfamiliar with. Differences between motors and compressors of different phase and voltages. Its interesting to see how some people think about things.
I recommend just going through some different fourm post there related and read through what people say and what their situation and reasonings are if you want to learn more.
Here's a post I thought a had good info.
Theres plenty of YouTube videos on the topic too.
Its one of those really niche electrically technical things that not many people have the schooling to to fully understand the theory of. The few people that have a genuine good reason to go out of their way to do it have different understanding and implementations.
I don't mind answering questions if you wanted clarification as to how it works on a conceptual level.
wait, no one told me about the schedule!
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun