Do not buy Kitchen-Aid, Whirlpool or Kenmore refrigerators if they are equipped with waveform (accordion shaped) condenser coils as it is not possible to properly clean or vacuum the rear condenser coils due to the poor design:

Side view of waveform coils
.../\../\../\../\............. From the front access you can
../..\/..\/..\/..\...... <---only clean the first section of the coils

Side view of old style coils
--+--+--+--+--+--
...........................<---easy access to clean, vacuum, brush
--+--+--+--+--+--

I called Whirlpool/Kitchen-Aid and the CS manager told me that they are aware that only the first or front section of their waveform coil can be cleaned. She told me that her documentation states that the rear sections do not need to be cleaned because they should not collect dust. I told her, “well mine are loaded with dust”. She said the design engineers’ state that is OK, as long as I keep the front coil section clean. I told her that leaving 5 out of 6 cooling coils clogged with dust does not sound good to me!

She said that if I insist on cleaning the back coil sections that I will have to schedule an appointment with a service technician. I asked her how the service tech would clean the rear coils and she said that was information for certified technicians only. Argh!

To me this seems more like built-in obsolescence on the part of Whirlpool/Kitchen-Aid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
Telling consumers it is OK to let their refrigerator run with 5 of the 6 cooling coils clogged, and not providing a way for consumers to easily clean the rear coils if they wish to.

I asked her if she would purchase a refrigerator that you had to pay for a service call every 6 months to clean the coils and she said that she could not comment on speculation.

Supposedly she is mailing me a document that states that the 5 rear coil sections do not need to be cleaned, and that only the front one does.

You can see the waveform coil here, page 9 part number 3. Although in the diagram, it is not orientated the way it actually is in the fridge:

http://shared.whirlpoolcorp.com/asse...%208198822.pdf

This will be the last Whirlpool product I purchase due to their lack of proper consumer support for this issue.

Not one of there better idea's.

__________________
John Pahl
ApplianceJunk.com
ApplianceDigest.com

Yeah, and now I am stuck with this lemon. Someone suggested another tack, since Whirlpool has told me: "Yeah we know, so what, too bad, later sucker".

This frig came with an EngergyStar rating, but obviously with 5/6 of the coils clogged with dust, the appliance cannot be running at it's advertised EnergyStar efficency rating. I may open a compliant with the EnergyStar organization against Whirlpool. For Whirlpool to be telling consumors there is no need to clean 5/6 of the coils is bordering on fraud.

If you have a portable air tank(get them at Wal Mart or Auto Parts stores) take it to a service station where you can fill it with air--if you don't have an air compressor--and blow the coils out. You will need a nozzle that fits on the end of the hose on the air tank-also get this where they have tanks. This works wonders. This is how I cleaned mine for years and it was the old style. It works much better than a brush. I now have a new fridge with all the coils sealed up so cleaning isnt needed(so they say).
Hope this helps!

BTW You will need to fill the air tank full as possible cause you will use it pretty fast and you want enough to do a good job..

Thanks Wondering, that's an excellent idea! My neighbor has a compressor so I will be bugging him this weekend

For those without a compressor or air tank, I wonder if a leaf blower would do the trick.

I bet this is how the Whirlpool service tech would have cleaned the coils, as I see no other way short of major disassembly. I'm not sure why Whirlpool chooses not share this info with consumers

I found another unhappy customer who thinks that Whirlpool sucks. As sad as this womans plight is, I was ROFL laughing when at 32 seconds into the video, this duet washer "took off" on the high spin cycle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1_39ntXLKI

I guess there is not a lemon law for appliances, only cars.

Let us know how you do with the compressed air. It worked GREAT for me but then you have to get the dust/lint up when it stops flying around BUT that not too bad... At least then you know your fridge is running efficiently.

My neighbor's compressor was not working, so I used my leaf blower with a shop-vac hose attached to it. I removed the back panel and I blew the dust out from the back of the frig towards the front. It worked fairly well, a TON of dust came the front. I would say it removed 75% of the dust. Maybe a compressor would work a little better.

I've attached two pictures of what it looked like before I started. You can see the front section of the waveform coil is clean from the normal vaccuming I did. You can see the dust loaded up in the rear coils. In the pictures, it may look like more dust could have been vaccumed from the rear coils, but believe me, even with my smallest attachment it would not reach the dust past the first coil.

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