The refrigerator is easily one of the most important appliances in your house, as it plays a significant role in the safety of your kitchen. By keeping perishable items at a safe temperature, you and your family can enjoy meal time without the threat of food borne illnesses. When you start to realize that your refrigerator is running warmer than usual, don’t postpone its repair. Luckily, there are a few simple maintenance tips you can follow to make sure your unit is running tip-top shape; and if that doesn’t help, our expert team are just a phone call away.
Your refrigerator unit has a sweet spot in terms of temperature that it must maintain to follow food safety practices. In order to reduce the speed of spoilage and store fresh foods properly, the fridge should be set anywhere between 1° and 4° Celsius. Anything above 4° provides the best breeding conditions for bacteria. As the temperatures rise, these microscopic organisms will multiply rapidly and spoil your food. What was a bowl of Kraft dinner leftovers becomes a container full of noodles covered in blue mould. We don’t recommend you eat that, but we do suggest keeping your fridge set to the right temperature in order to reduce the chances of your leftovers spoiling too quickly.
The freezer should obviously be set much lower than the refrigerator. A cool 18° allows it to freeze your food completely. At this temperature, you don’t have to worry about the growth of bacteria like you do in your fridge, as the chill freezes everything – including bacteria. This doesn’t mean that you can store your lamb chops indefinitely. What won’t make you sick won’t necessarily taste good, so if you see anything dated in or before 2013 throw it out. Be sure to check out the Ontario’s Food Safety Storage Chart to see how long you can keep different kinds of food in your freezer.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, you’re unable to keep your refrigerator unit at these suggested temperatures. If you’ve noticed your fridge warming up, we suggest a few troubleshooting activities before you give one of our expert repair technicians a call. First is the simplest. Check to see that the light comes on when you open the door. If it doesn’t, the fridge could be unplugged or there could be an issue at the breaker.
If that doesn’t do the trick, consider how fully stocked your fridge is. In the summertime, we tend to pack our fridge with a lot of food that usually doesn’t find its way inside during the cooler months. The fridge and freezer’s ability to reliably chill your food depends on open air circulation throughout its space, and an overstocked fridge restricts that airflow. When your fridge is a little tight, make sure nothing is covering vents and remove those unnecessary items from its shelves. Preserved goods like ketchup and mustard can be safely stored at room temperature when opened.
If you’ve done this and your refrigerator is still failing to maintain safe temperatures, pull out your vacuum and get ready to clean. A cool fridge is a clean fridge, and sometimes the issue with cooling is just a matter of dust and grime build-up. Before doing anything, make sure to disconnect your fridge from power. Then, with a long handled brush or vacuum attachment, carefully clean out the condenser coils located at the bottom or back of the fridge. While you’re back there, vacuum the fan to remove any intrusive dirt and dust bunnies.
In a perfect world, after a thorough cleaning your fridge will be able to maintain the proper temperatures. If you’ve followed these steps and your refrigerator still fails to chill out, then it’s time to call in the professionals. Our technicians are available around the clock to service your refrigerator, and they’ll be able to quickly locate and solve the problem with your unit. Find us on Google+ and one of our licensed and trained technicians will be at your door in no time!
