When you put anything in the fridge, you expect it to get cold, so if it’s not, there is definitely something wrong with your appliance. Is your appliance not cooling your food and wondering what would cause a refrigerator to stop getting cold?
According to refrigerator repair professionals, this can be brought about by plenty of reasons that include:
The fridge isn’t plugged.
If you have been cleaning or moving things around, chances are you have disconnected the refrigerator from the power source hence the reason the fridge isn’t cooling. You might be panicking that your unit is faulty, yet all you need to do is reconnect the fridge to power.
The thermostat is improperly set.
If your thermostat has the wrong settings, there is no way it’s going to cool the food. The ideal cooling temperature is between 35 and 38 degrees Fahrenheit, so if your thermostat is out of this range, your refrigerator isn’t going to get cool.
Before you do anything drastic, check the thermostat and double-check it with the external thermometer to ensure its readings are accurate.
The door isn’t closing properly.
When the refrigerator door isn’t properly closing, it means plenty of cool air will be leaking to the outside, and the fridge won’t be getting cold.
Check the doors and gaskets. Also, check the light in the fridge and confirm that it turns on and off when you close the door. If it doesn’t, the door might not be functioning properly.
If you have had your unit for a long time, chances are the gaskets have worn out and allowing warm air to leak into the unit and humid air to get out of the fridge. Confirm whether the gasket is torn and if this is the case, replace it.
You have overstocked your fridge.
If you have a lot of food in your fridge, the food boxes might block the vents and obstruct the cold air from circulating through the fridge. If you recently stocked your refrigerator and started noticing that the unit isn’t getting as cold as it used to, it might be due to the excess food.
Thankfully, it’s easy to fix this issue. Simply organize the fridge and clear out the excess food causing the blockage and preventing the fridge from cooling.
The compressor is faulty.
The compressor is part of the fridge, and it compresses and pushes the refrigerant vapor into the coils outside the fridge. The pushing and pressure creates heat that forms gas that later cools and absorbs heat from the freezer and fridge.
If the freezer fan is running, but the fridge isn’t getting cold, your compressor or compressor start relay might be faulty.
The compressor is located behind the fridge at the bottom an in most refrigerators, you have to pull the fridge away from the wall to access it. You should test the compressor and compressor relay and replace the faulty part.
The condenser coils are insulated by dirt.
Condenser coils carry hot gas produced by the compressor to the evaporator coils. As the refrigerant travels through the coils at high pressure, it cools and turns back into a liquid. Clogged condenser coils produce poor air circulation restricting the refrigerator’s ability to cool the house.
These coils are located across the fridge’s bottom or at the back and often lead from the compressor and towards the freezer.
When the coils are caked with dirt and other debris, heat doesn’t flow out of the coils properly and instead stays in the fridge, hence the fridge doesn’t cool as well as it should.
If it’s been long since you cleaned the coils, you can do the cleaning by yourself or hire an appliance repair Northern VA professional to help out.