Repairing Your Appliances

Posted on: 9 April 2015

A surprisingly common and perhaps ironic problem with freezers is that they can occasionally get too cold, which can often ruin your food by giving it freezer burn. Sometimes there is an easy fix - your fridge might just need a small tweak, a little maintenance or minor repairs. In other unfortunate cases, you'll need more serious repairs. Use this guide to look for common causes of the problem.

The Thermostat Got Bumped

In a lot of freezer/fridge systems, the controls for both sides are located in one area. For this reason, it's possible that you may have accidentally changed the freezer temperature even if you haven't opened the freezer recently. Double check that your thermostat settings are set correctly.

While you're at it, look in your freezer and make sure that there are no obstacles blocking the cold air's outflow. If any large bags or other food items are blocking the flow of cold air, it can cause all the food in that area to get much too cold and over-freeze, and even cause the rest of your food to thaw.

Your Freezing Is Running (Too Much)

Your freezer should be keeping a consistent temperature, but for various reasons the signals that tell the gauge it's cold enough inside are not getting through properly.

First, defrost your freezer and remove any excess buildup of ice. You shouldn't have ice caked on the walls and door. When your freezer side is cleaned out, clean off your condenser coils. If there's any buildup here, it could cause your freezer to just keep running.

Second, make sure that your doors are properly sealed. To do this, place a piece of paper between the seals on the open door and the freezer wall, then close the door. When you try to pull the paper out, there should be resistance. Try this all over the door; if there's any lack of resistance, cold air could be leaking out which can make the freezer run much more often to try to keep a stable temperature.

Some Components Aren't Working

Unfortunately, you may run into a case where a specific mechanism in your fridge isn't working correctly.

• Your thermostat might be broken. If this is the case, any changes you make to the dial will have no effect on the actual temperature of your fridge and freezer, and will need to be repaired or replaced.
• The air damper or freezer control, which is responsible for directing cold air into the two compartments, is malfunctioning and is sending too much cold air into the freezer section.
• The temperature sensor could be malfunctioning or damaged, which prevents it from communicating properly with the control board, which controls the air damper.

If you can't identify a quick fix to the over-freezing problem, it's probably time to look into hiring someone who specializes in refrigeration repair to take a look instead..