Our apartment complex replaced our fridge a few weeks ago because the old fridge was having problems maintaining temperature and it was either too cold or too warm. This new fridge is a GE fridge and I am not sure what model it is.
Now this fridge is a little weird. It's one of those frost-free models that cycles on and off every so often. I have it set on the coldest setting and this is basically how it cycles.
1) The compressor runs until the freezer reaches between -5 and -10 degrees, and the fridge reaches between 28 and 30 degrees, and then it usually runs for a little while after that, just maintaining temperature. Typically it can run between 30 to 60 minutes (seems to run longer when it's hotter outside).
2) The compressor shuts off and remains off until the freezer temperature reaches approximately 10 degrees F, which usually takes between 40 and 50 minutes. The compressor will not go back on until the freezer reaches 10 degrees F, regardless of how warm the fridge gets -- and therein lies the issue.
3) After the compressor kicks back on, the freezer gets cooled from 10 to 0 degrees F while the fridge remains pretty much whatever temperature it was when the compressor started running. Then once the freezer reaches 0, the fridge is allowed to cool down, and then both the fridge and freezer continue the rest of the cooling process as described above.
4) Plus every so often it does a defrost cycle where the defrost heater heats up and melts the ice inside the inner workings of the fridge. During this time the freezer gets to 40+ degrees F and the fridge can get to above 40 degrees F, especially if it is opened. And of course during this time the freezer definitely will not go back on until the defrost cycle is done, no matter what.
Ok so, here is the issue:
My apartment gets very hot in the summer, usually even hotter than it is outside. The main windows in the living room face the west so in the afternoon all the blazing sun comes in. It is usually 90+ degrees in here in the summer.
When we open the refrigerator door, the temperature increases a lot when it's this hot outside. Like just having it open for less than 30 seconds can cause the temperature to rise from 30 degrees to 45 degrees. And as I mentioned, if the compressor is off, it's not going to kick back on when the fridge is 45 degrees, not until the freezer gets to 10 degrees F. This is very annoying as you might imagine. When I bring home groceries I have to basically throw them in there as fast as possible and try to time it so I get home from the supermarket when the fridge is running.
Now the major problem here is that because the compressor running is dependent on the freezer temperature, the fridge's temperature can sometimes get too high (above 40 degrees) when the fridge is cycled off, even if the door is not opened during the cycle. Sometimes it is below 40 degrees by the time the compressor kicks back on, sometimes it is even low as 35, usually when it's not too warm outside. But sometimes it is slightly above, and it definitely seems to get warmer in the fridge when the outside temperature is this hot.
Our fridge doesn't have a lot of stuff in it, partially because I am paranoid about things going bad with this temperature issue. I have tried to solve the problem by putting gallon jugs of water in the fridge, since water has a higher specific heat than air and I read online that it might help, but that doesn't seem to have done anything.
So my questions:
a) What is going on and is there any way to fix it? Is my fridge considered to be broken, or is this just a natural effect of the high ambient temperatures?
b) Do I have to worry about food spoiling if the fridge is at or slightly above 40 degrees for, say, 20 minutes every 2 hours? I know that food often is better than air at maintaining an even temperature. Plus we are vegetarians, so we have no meat in there, and I only buy the individually sized shelf-stable milk. And I pretty much don't let anything stay in there longer than a few days unless it's something that doesn't have to necessarily be refrigerated, like peanut butter or ketchup. The perishable things we have are typically fruits, vegetables, eggs, cheese, yogurt, hummus, and stuff like tomato sauce. So far I haven't been noticing things going bad in there, but perhaps we have just been lucky.
c) Would running a fan directed at the fridge help it to not warm up too much when it is this hot outside?
Thanks.
Submitted June 21, 2016 at 06:08AM by demri_layne http://ift.tt/28K3aVI HomeImprovement
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