Tried using a shop vac to dry out a fridge coil after a leak, screwed it up

Had a fridge in Atlanta last week with a water leak under the unit. I figured I'd hit the coil with the shop vac to speed up the dry time before replacing the drain pan. Instead, I sucked a bunch of crud into the compressor area and killed the fan motor. Learned I should have just let it air dry or used compressed air carefully. What do you guys do for waterlogged coils?

3 comments

3 Comments

perry.jesse12d ago

Stick with the shop vac, you just did it wrong. I've been using a shop vac on wet coils for years without issues. The trick is to not shove the nozzle right up against the fins. Keep it a few inches away and move it around slow so you don't pull all that crud through. Also tape off the drain line opening first so nothing loose gets sucked into the compressor area. Air drying takes way too long in a humid place like Atlanta and compressed air just blows crap deeper into the coil half the time. You killed the fan motor because you probably hit it with a chunk of debris, not because the vac itself is bad.

craig.parker12d ago

Wait hold on... you've been doing this for years and never had an issue? That seems wild to me because I did the same thing you're describing, kept the nozzle back a few inches and moved slow, and still managed to suck a chunk of something into the blower wheel. It made this horrible grinding noise and I had to take the whole back panel off to pick pieces of insulation out of it. Maybe my vac is just too strong, it's one of those 5hp rigs.

torres.riley12d ago

Craig I used to be in the camp that shop vacs were totally fine and people just messed it up, but your story about the insulation chunk and the grinding noise kinda shifted my view. @perry.jesse makes a good point about technique but I think a lot of it depends on your vac's power and whatever random junk is lurking in that coil. The one time I tried it my shop vac was fine, but I had a buddy who sucked a loose fin right off the coil and it rattled around in the motor housing for a solid minute before he could shut it off. Probably not worth the risk unless you know for sure your unit is spotless inside.