Fridge Problems

I’ll just start by saying I can’t/won’t contact my slumlord. I don’t think its covered by the lease, anyway.

I keep throwing food away because it goes bad, and its stressing me out. I’ve tried to make adjustments, and I think it doesn’t work as great when I put the fridge to “Coldest” so I keep it around middle, and put the important foods on the top shelf, and putting apples on the bottom (since many don’t refridgerate them anyway), although my bread turned moldy green in a few days. My other problem is opening something, but not being able to finsih it soon, because I live alone, and don’t want to eat something every night.

I’m guessing this thing is old, but I notice it doesn’t make this loud sound anymore. I would kick it because it was that loud, and it would “quiet down”…

What are my options? What could it be? I’m not handy at all, but if there’s some tip, I’d appreciate it. I try to buy dry foods, but there’s only so much I can buy… My freezer is working better at the middle of the settings, but leaving a can of Dr. Pepper overnight doesn’t freeze it. A 7.5 ounce can MIGHT have a tiny bit of slush.

I even try to buy foods that don’t expire quickly, but the yogurt, hummus, and even juice will go bad so quickly. I usually know the juice is bad when I open it up, and I hear that “shhhhhh” sound that’s usually reserved for fizzy soda.

First thought is to take a vacuum to it.

If that doesn’t help, sounds like you need a new fridge.

Put a thermometer inside, if it’s waterproof, stick it in a cup of water. Leave it until next day and check the temperature. It should be under 5°C in the fridge and -18°C in the freezer. Someone will know the equivalent in Fahrenheit.
I guess it simply doesn’t cool enough any more. A new fridge will probably be cheaper than a repair.

Have you tried not refrigerating your bread? Try it, and see how long it lasts.

Been there done that. If vacuuming out the dust bunnies doesn’t work, It’s $1000 for a new compressor. If the fridge isn’t worth more than that, buy a new one.

I used to, but that was when I ate nothing but bread and peanut butter, so I’d finish it soon. Nowadays, I put some of that cheap Buddig turkey, but the next time I buy bread I will leave it out. Very good advice. Thank you!

This. If you’ve never cleaned the coils, they are probably furry and caked with dust.

Get a cheap kitchen thermometer from Walmart and measure the temperature before and after cleaning. If cleaning doesn’t improve the temp problem enough, then it’s probably time for a new fridge.

Thanks so much - I never thought of that! (wish is another reason why I come here)… I did have some dust, and luckily had a shop-vac, and hope it works. Even a 10% improvement might be the difference between $10 pomegranate juice staying good.

I just learned what “dust bunnies” were, lol. In fact, I keep learning so many new words that most kids learned in their first four years, but my parents immigrated right before I was born and I keep noticing this.

Have you tried unplugging it for 24 hrs?

It fixes a LOT of fridge problems, and it doesn’t cost anything.

Might be worth a try.

(It has worked for me about 75% of the time!)

Good Luck!

I’ve never tried that. My food would melt. I have no way to keep the food cool, and they’re probably already on the brink of melting… Had no idea it fixes a lot of fridge problems! I hope no one on here has this kind of trouble, but everyone’s posts might help someone in the future, even a lurker!

Eat it down without replacing it for a while and it can’t melt.

The unstated: how long are you keeping food in there? Refrigeration doesn’t arrest food spoilage, only retards it for a matter of a very few weeks. Even perfectly refrigerated food (perishables, or leftovers from an opened package) can’t be expected to stay good for a month, with very few exceptions.

And yeah, refrigerating bread is just inviting it to become condensation saturated mold substrate.

You don’t have to worry about keeping cold things that won’t be damaged by warming to room temperature, only the frozen and dairy items really.

Load it all into a garbage bag, put it in the bath or other tub and cover with a couple of bags of ice, then cover the lot with a couple of blankets and you should be good for 24 hrs. (If necessary eat up whatever you can first!) Unplug the unit and let it sit for a full day.

Plug it back in and see if that doesn’t fix it. It’s worth a try, a couple of bags of ice is a lot cheaper than a repair visit.

Especially if the freezer is cold but the fridge is not cooling enough, it should work.

Good Luck!

Thanks to everyone for the tips! I appreciate it very much.

I have been advised to do a deep defrost once a year, which is leaving it unplugged for 48hrs rather than 24.

There are other things that can go wrong with a unit, such as bad gaskets, bad temperature sensors, and bad control boards. Do the vaccuming and defrost first, but if that doesn’t resolve the issue you either need to hire a repairman or replace it. A compressor is expensive to replace, but other parts may not be. Whether getting it checked out is worth the expense is going to depend on a lot of factors, but if it’s a low-end unit it’s probably cheaper just to buy a new one.

You don’t want to be storing food (especially anything that’s already cooked, or meat) in a fridge that’s not cold enough. Get a thermometer. It should be between 33-40 F.

About bread: yes, never refrigerate it. OTOH, it freezes beautifully. This household likes to keep a wide variety of breads on hand, different breads for different sandwich fillings, mainly, way too many for us to be able to eat up any one loaf before it goes moldy.

So we just keep the bread in the freezer. We also have a designated gallon sized zip lock bag there. When someone wants pumpernickel bread, put a couple slices in the bag and leave it on the counter – it’ll be thawed in five minutes or less. Never had any trouble removing just a slice or two from the frozen loaf, the bread doesn’t really stick together/freeze as a solid block. And when we were packing sandwiches to take for lunch, we just made them with the bread still frozen.

Is there a lot of condensation/liquid all over the place after you unplug it?

Really? I’ve always found it to be the complete opposite. My family has always stored bread in the refrigerator and I have rarely ever seen mold unless it was left there for a long time. Bread that is not refrigerated tends to get moldy within a week.

I hate both bread from the fridge AND my bread going off. The solution I’ve found is to invest in a couple of sturdy zip lock bags large enough to hold a loaf, and store your bread, (also still in the bag it came in!), inside there. Effectively double bagging, and it works really well. Turns out the bag it comes in isn’t as effective as you might think! Give it a try.

I seem to remember some mopping needing to be done but nothing too tragic.