Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

Sometimes you may find that your refrigerator has begun to freeze the food inside. This guide contains troubleshooting tips if your refrigerator is freezing food.

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Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

My refrigerator is freezing everything, is there a way we can fix it ourselves?

By Denise from Fresno, CA

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Most Recent Answer

By MaryCrane 05/20/2010

I don't know if this might help solve your problem or not but my fridge freezes things when the air flow vents become blocked with stored items. The air from the freezer circulates through the vents to cool your refrigerator. If I store an item in front of the vent it prevents the free flow of the cooled air thus freezing items in the refrigerator. Mine has the vents right at shelf height (poor design!!) so blocking them is easy to do without realizing it. I went to WalMart's kitchen storage area and bought a 3-pack of the white long narrow kitchen drawer organizers that have the holes in the sides, maybe a dollar or so for the 3-pack. I took one and turned it upside down in front of each of the vents to prevent a stored item from blocking the flow. Seems to help :) Good Luck!

Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

We have a second fridge downstairs. It freezes everything I put in there unless it is a very hot, hot day. We have had it checked to see if it needed repairs and it does not. Is there anything I can do to prevent this? It certainly defeats the purpose of having an extra fridge when I have to throw out frozen items.

Thank You.
Sharon

RE: Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

If this fridge is the newer, non-freon type, then what you have is poor design. I have the same situation in the back on the top and bottom shelves of my Kitchenaid, purchased because ours broke when the freon fridges had just been banned.

If still under warranty, complain loudly to the store manager, the manufacturer, until it is replaced (could be something simple). A friend of mine bought a Kenmore fridge with every problem you could think of and Sears replaced it for free after 3 repair calls.

Otherwise, make the best of a bad purchase and be sure to separate the food so that there is plenty of air flow from the vents and turn the dial to a warmer setting. (08/30/2005)

By Holly

RE: Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

Is the fridge in a garage? If it is not in an air conditioned area, it might be compensating for the hot air by over-cooling the food. (08/31/2005)

By elpasolady

RE: Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

If your fridge is freezing the food in the chilling compartment as well as the freezer, it means one thing--its thermostat isn't shutting down the compressor when the set temperature has been met. You stated that you had it checked by, I assume, a professional service technician. Being a retired tech myself, I'm surprised that he didn't check this out and discuss it with you.

Check the temperature in the freezer! If it is less than 10 degrees F., turn the thermostat to "warmer". If the temp in the freezer is 10 degrees F., leave it alone and go to the temp. control in the fridge, which is a damper that controls cold air flow from the freezer compartment. Close this damper until your temperature in the upper part of the refrigerator is 38 to 40 degrees F. If these efforts don't shut down the compressor and correct your problem, then the answer is simple. Your thermostat is bad and needs to be replaced. It isn't expensive, and should cost you less than the labor for a tech to install it. Good luck! (08/31/2005)

By Les

RE: Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

I think the first response sounds like the best solution. I have one that does the same thing so I'm planning on checking the thermostat! (02/22/2007)

By Tom

Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

My refrigerator is freezing my food.

By Styron from NC

RE: Refrigerator Is Freezing Food

Personally, I would check your temperature control before trouble shooting for problems because it's most likely just set too high. It depends on each refrigerator, but I keep my current one set at "5 and if I set it at "6" then the food on the top rack freezes. I've had others that needed to be set at "4" or "6" so you'll need to experiment. (11/06/2009)

By Deeli