Warm fridge freezer

JuzaMum · 7 July 2018 at 9:39PM

I have an American style Beko fridge freezer. I thought it had not been keeping food as cold as it should so I bought a thermometer to confirm this. The fridge is about 15°c and the freezer -12°c. The fan is working and vents are not blocked. Any suggestions please - ideally ones that won't cost any money!
The compressor was replaced a while back and the whole thing is looking pretty shabby so I don't think it is worth much expenditure.
Thanks

Waterlily24 · 8 July 2018 at 11:11AM

Is it just since the weather has been hotter? I found that our ice cream is quite soft at the moment.

JuzaMum · 8 July 2018 at 12:42PM

Yes it is with recent hot weather but surely a fridge/freezer should be able to cope with the heat?

Waterlily24 · 8 July 2018 at 4:18PM

You would think so wouldn't you. My hubby has just had knee replacement surgery and we have to put packs of ice on it. The hospital gave him the packs and they took an age to freeze. I really only said that because I had noticed it too. We've got another fridge freezer which isn't used quite as much ie the door isn't opened that often and that seems to be OK.

Savvy_Sue · 8 July 2018 at 6:58PM

Google for its instruction book and see if there are any troubleshooting tips (assuming you don't have the instruction book to hand).

I don't know how American style fridge freezers work, but I have had fridge freezers which have had a dial to reduce temperature, you might need to do that in this weather. Also if there's direct sunlight on it at any time, I'd look for ways to reduce that: keeping blinds closed or doors shut.

EssexExile · 8 July 2018 at 9:19PM

The only simple cheap trick is to turn it off & leave it for 24 hours. That may fix it, may not. You'll waste what was in the freezer but as it was only at -12°c it's probably wasted anyway.

Ectophile · 8 July 2018 at 11:20PM

EssexExile wrote: »

The only simple cheap trick is to turn it off & leave it for 24 hours. That may fix it, may not. You'll waste what was in the freezer but as it was only at -12°c it's probably wasted anyway.

-12C is still equivalent to a two-star frozen food compartment in a fridge. Anything in there should be good for a month.

I'd be more worried about any chilled foods stored at +15C.

Tinks74 · 10 July 2018 at 2:07PM

I have noticed this with our bottle fridge, it usually sits at 7-9 degrees, it is currently at 14 degrees.
I wondered if it was to do with the heat differential during the current heatwave.
I googled and found this which may explain:

How are fridges and freezers affected by the room temperature?
If placed in an environment where the room temperature gets up to around 30 degrees most units sold in the UK may start to struggle to work if they can't give off the heat from the condenser (normally at the back of the unit which gets hot). The ambient air temperature around the condenser needs to be 10 degrees lower than the condenser so that the energy can be given off as radiant heat. If the heat from the condenser can't radiate away into cooler air then the heat won't be taken out of the food so it won't get cold.

In a normal home these temperature ranges shouldn't cause any problems as the fridges and freezers we use are designed to operate in the UK home.

https://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/how-are-fridges-and-freezers-affected-by-the-room-temperature/

I know our kitchen is getting hot at the moment because the coconut oil in the kitchen cupboard has not been solid for about 3 weeks or so, and coconut oil had a melting point of around 23-24 degrees!

Warm fridge freezer

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