What makes refrigerator freeze

You will find coils inside and outside of the refrigerator referred to as evaporator coils and condenser coils, respectively. These coils are exchanging medium between the fluid of the fridge and its surroundings. If the coils get dirty and covered with dust, then the fridge functions harder to sustain the freezing temperature that is set, and this leads to excess cooling.

Hence, it is better to clean the coils often to prevent such problems. A faulty thermostat is another reason for overcooling of your fridge. A thermostat is devised in a way that it will stop automatically after a refrigerator reaches the set temperature. This allows for keeping the temperature fixed. However, due to a dispute in thermostat, its control on temperature can be lost, which will lead to overcooling the products stored inside the fridge.

It is best to repair the faulty thermostat as soon as possible with the help of proficient fridge repairs. Being a fridge owner, you might be aware of a damper. And if you are not, then you must know that is an assembly that controls the amount of cool air getting inside the fridge from your freezer. A dispute in the damper can lead to the flowing of excess air into the fridge compartment making the temperature fall. Once you've determined the problem area, check to see if it's near a vent.

Most fridges have a cooling vent above or on the side of the top shelf. This is where most of the cold air comes from, so keeping food away from here may prevent freezing. A 5-inch radius should do the trick. If the problem area is a door shelf, you may want to adjust its position. Some side-by-side refrigerators particularly older models feature a vent that funnels cold air from the freezer into the fridge. This outlet is usually located on the wall that separates the fridge and freezer, and will likely blow freezing cold air all over everything around it.

Relocate the shelves to avoid this cold air. If you have a bottom-freezer model—an increasingly popular model for modern homes—and you notice that the problem areas is around the bottom of the fridge compartment, then it is almost certainly due to air venting from the freezer. However, it may also be due to a simple lack of food in the fridge! More on that below. So you've moved your food away from the vents but it's still freezing?

The problem might still be the freezer. As mentioned, there are a lot of factors at play, one of which is your machine's freezer-orientation, and a bottom-freezer fridge may be particularly troubling. Remember from science class that heat rises, so the bottom section of the fridge is probably going to be the coldest. One solution is to turn up your freezer temperature settings , although you should be careful not to raise it too high.

Another option is to make sure that your ice maker is not constantly running. This could also make your freezer too cold and subsequently cause your refrigerated foods to freeze.

This may seem like a dumb solution, but it's actually valid. GE explains how if the food at the bottom of your fridge keeps freezing, it could simply be because your fridge isn't fully packed.

Most refrigerators have a mark on the thermostat adjustment knob, but over time this gets erased. This means that there is no longer a way to accurately measure the indicating temperature. So, you may have set the thermostat way higher than you intended, not only causing everything to become frozen, but also creating higher energy use and bigger bills.

The gasket is a lining for the refrigerator door, creating a seal for the compartment, preventing heat being exchanged between the room and the inside of the refrigerator. If a gasket has become damaged and is leaking, your refrigerator will be continuously running to compensate, and this will cause everything inside to start to freeze.

There is an easy way to test if you have a bad gasket; trap a piece of paper in the door and then try and pull it out without opening the door. The heat exchanger and condenser coils are mounted on the outside of your refrigerator in addition to the evaporator coils inside the unit. These coils are needed to allow the refrigerant fluid to perform its task of heat exchange. When these coils get covered in dust or other forms of dirt, it forces the refrigerator to work harder and harder to sustain the optimum temperature.

Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead to overcooling and the effects of winter inside your refrigerator.