Help! Smelly fag fridge!

[AnnaFiveTowns]

I've just bought a lovely new fridge freezer off eBay - well, lovely except that the previous owner obviously smoked and, despite lots of washing down with bleach/ disinfectant/ sodium bicarbonate/ lemon juice etc the smell is lingering. I'm amazed that a fridge can smell of cigarettes on the inside! But I guess the fan sucks the faggy air into the fridge to make it cold. I've got one of those fridge Odor eaters and half a lemon inside it. It's been switched on for a week now but I can still smell it. Do you think it will go over time? Anybody had a similar problem? Please think about this if you're ever buying second hand. It never occurred to me that a bloody fridge freezer would smell of smoke on the inside!

Put a small bowl of bicarbonate of soda in it and close the door

I find that sponging things down with warm water and WUL, and wiping off with a damp cotton cloth, the smell seems to go as it dries.

The tarry content may have left a deposit on the plastic, so will need a detergent to get it off. Think of smokers yellow paintwork.

Try cleaning at least the outside with sugar soap - it can be used to remove nicotine staining from paintwork so give it a go. Also, is it possible the smell is on the cooling pipes at the back so when you open the door you are closer to the pipes and are thinking the smell is inside the fridge?

Have you/can you clean the fan? (Disclaimer: no idea if this is even possible).

Do fridges have a fan? I was thinking of the pipe work at the back.

Thanks for all your suggestions, I'll give them a go! The smell does seem to be worse at the back by the "fan" bit that blows out the warmer air. I think the key lies here but I'm not sure that I would dare to take off the back panel and start messing with it though. It's weird that a smell can permeate the plastic inside the fridge. I shall persevere! Just bear it on mind if you ever buy a fridge freezer as it hadn't even crossed my mind that the smell would get inside the fridge.

Sorry, Piglet, what is WUL?

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