Refrigerators are one of the appliances in your household that need to run 24/7, and this is what they’re designed for. Even a few hours of downtime can cause you to lose all the food you have stored, as proper storage temperatures are essential for proteins, dairy, and other ingredients. It’s not nice to lose out on hundreds of pounds worth of food just because your fridge goes down, and so it’s a good idea to know what the warning signs are in advance.
This way, you have time to order parts to fix your fridge before a problem becomes unavoidable. Thankfully, refrigerators rarely just pack up without warning signs. Of course, there are also some additional maintenance efforts we can take, such as regularly defrosting the refrigerator, cleaning it thoroughly, and making sure we change out the tertiary elements, like the internal bulbs.
If you can achieve that, then you’re much more likely to keep a fridge ticking over until a more noticeable problem takes root. In this post, we’ll discuss a few measures you can take to keep that functionality going:
Heavy Humming Or Longer Periods Between Humming
Heavy humming can indicate that your fridge is having a harder time maintaining the temperatures necessary to store your food. If you’ve noticed that your refrigerator is starting to make louder noises than ever before, or that there are prolonged periods between the usual humming of your refrigerator, that could indicate that something is wrong, and perhaps you need to have your unit inspected as necessary.
The Coils Feel Hot
If the coils give off a good amount of heat, then it might be that this element is being worked overtime in order to maintain a natural refrigeration environment. The coils disperse heat in most cases, but only marginally, and unmistakable heat or a heat increase can indicate that something is wrong with the system and your refrigerator may not necessarily be dying right now, but is getting closer to it. Again, having these electrics serviced can be a good use of your time, in order to avoid the warranty being broken and preventing you from handling electrics that you probably shouldn’t be messing with right now.
Excess Frost Internally
If you’ve noticed that your refrigerator seems to be suffering from excess frost inside, or that the frost buildup within your freezer element seems to be very intensive after a day or two, it could be that something is wrong with the temperature control of your space. For this reason, it’s worth checking what the internal temperature of your refrigerator is, and seeing just what kind of frost buildup is normal in the manual of your appliance. Again, having this served could be a helpful way forward, as a repair can be more insightful than defrosting this appliance every other day.
With this advice, we hope you can prevent lost refrigerator functionality and instead make sure this most necessary of appliances are in proper functioning order.
Featured image: Photo by Alex Qian from Pexels
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
