Condenser cleaning bottom

Refrigerator & Freezer Repair
1

Hello,

How the heck do you clean the condenser in this thing. Side by side Whirlpool gold cabinet depth fridge/freezer unit with model number above.

The condenser is in a hole about 3" tall with no access from sides, bottom top front or back with any real room to get a brush or vacuum. Looking at it it seems that the only way would be to remove the entire compressor and condenser as a unit but that would mean also removing the evaporator or start cutting and having to recharge with freon. This can’t be true…

I am a pretty good auto tech and autos are more modular. Seems there should be some easy way to get at the ends of the V shaped fin ends to get a brush in and then have a vacuum to keep the dust flowing out. I can bring an air compressor line up to the kitchen from the shop but sheesh! is that really the only way to clean out this thing?

2

Got home from a two week vacation to find the fridge cold but not running and beeping quietly on a regular interval like beep beep, pause beep beep. Just little chirps. Compressor was not running and so I wondered if it was in defrost but no sizzling sounds and no water running. Pan not full of water. So I started looking at the obvious and found lots of dust in the inlet grill, lower front. And lots in the condenser underneath. Cleaned out the large chunks. Had the unit unplugged for a while to let whatever overheated cool down. When I plugged it back in the compressor ran and is still running. Beeping still continuing. Haven’t run diagnostic codes yet. Hoping it will cool back down overnight and save having to throw out a bunch of food.