Fridge Not Getting Cold? That Could Be Bad -- Or Not
It's never a happy moment when you realize that your refrigerator isn't getting as cold as it should. Thoughts of expensive repairs and having no refrigerated food for a while start crawling through your brain, right? Try to stop them because there are a bunch of simple reasons why your fridge might not be working as well as it should, and many of these reasons are ones you can handle yourself.
Have You Dusted the Coils?
Your refrigerator has coils either on the back or under the main fridge compartment. These coils help dissipate heat and let your refrigerator cool down properly. If too much dust builds up on these coils, though, they can't work as well. If you've never cleaned the coils on your fridge before, you get to do that now, and if you have cleaned them, check them again to see if a lot of dust has built up. You'll need a coil-cleaning brush and your vacuum; unplug the fridge, move it out from the wall (or remove the grille at the bottom, if there are no coils on the back), and gently clean away dust. Don't be rough -- you don't want to damage the coils. Just let the vacuum do its work.
What's in There?
Another issue is air circulation within the refrigerator compartment. If you pack too much in there, cold air won't flow around everything as easily. Some items could end up warmer than they should be. The solution here is simple: Anything you can remove from the refrigerator, remove, such as whole apples that don't need refrigeration. In the future, don't pack so much in there at once.
Boredom and Your Refrigerator
Do you eat when you're bored? Do you open the refrigerator door and stare at the food, totally bored with your choices? There's your problem. You're letting all the cold air out when you open the door, and if you keep opening the door, you aren't giving the refrigerator a chance to cool down properly.
Is It Still Hot Where You Are?
Related to the issue of keeping the door open is opening the door when it's really hot in your home. If you don't have air conditioning or if you're keeping yours off to save money, and if the inside of your home is really warm, that warm air is going to rush into the fridge when you open the door. That makes it harder for the fridge to keep the temperature even.
If the coils are clean, and the thermometers you use still show that the refrigerator is too warm despite keeping the door closed and allowing more space inside, then you need to call an appliance repair services company. Even then, though, the fix could be simple.
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