Tag Archives: fridge repair expert

How to Get Better Cooling from Your Refrigerator

The purpose of the fridge is to keep the food cool so that they last for a long time. Unfortunately, you can’t keep the food cool if the refrigerator isn’t cool. The good thing is that you can do several things to keep the appliance functioning at its best. Some of these things, as given by appliance repair professionals, include: 

Ensure the rubber seals are in top working condition

Although this vital plastic lining is essential for ensuring your appliance performs smoothly and efficiently, it is occasionally disregarded.

This seal, also known as a gasket, keeps undesired heated air out of your refrigerator. As the doors are repeatedly opened and closed, it is normal for gaskets to wear and lose some of their suction. While your refrigerator can run smoothly for years, your gasket will likely degrade or tear after only a few years.

As this critical sealer wears out, your unit must work harder to keep your food refrigerated, resulting in increased energy bills and a shorter lifespan.

You should regularly check the seals and ensure they are always in good working condition. To do this, insert a dollar note between the fridge door and the door seal. You should do this at several spots around the door edge.

If the dollar bill rolls easily, it’s time to change your seals. Of course, you should install high-quality seals that will keep as much air in and last for a long time. 

Keep the fridge door closed.

This is the most obvious—and cheapest—way to lower your energy consumption, regardless of your refrigerator type. Standing in front of an open fridge may increase your energy bill significantly.

As cold air escapes from your appliance, more energy is required to return it to its original temperature. Decide what you want from the fridge before opening your refrigerator or freezer doors. 

Making decisions before opening your fridge allows you to limit the number of times you open it daily, which saves a significant amount of electricity and keep the refrigerator cool. 

To decrease energy usage and maintain optimal temperature levels within the fridge, keep the fridge door open for the shortest time feasible. The longer the fridge door is left open, the warmer air enters the refrigerator, raising the temperature and potentially spoiling perishable products.

As mentioned, you should only open the fridge door when necessary and grab products as quickly as possible. This calls for you to have a clear idea of what you need before opening the door and organizing your fridge’s contents in a way that allows simple access. 

When collecting or placing goods inside the fridge, keeping the door open for 30 seconds to a minute is best. Remember that optimal refrigerator use can contribute to energy savings while preserving the quality and safety of your stored food.

Make use of indoor water and ice.

Rather than opening the freezer door to obtain some fresh ice cubes or a bottle of water, utilize the in-door feature to limit the number of times the doors are opened. This easy procedure can quickly enhance the efficiency of your appliance, saving you money and prolonging the unit’s lifespan.

If your refrigerator lacks an ice dispenser, consider purchasing a countertop portable ice maker. This useful device allows you to obtain ice without opening your freezer door.

Always cool off your leftovers.

Even minor details can save you significant money on your next energy bill. Allowing leftovers to cool after a meal helps to reduce the amount of heat added to the interior of your appliance. 

You should also store your food correctly in a protective wrapping or Tupperware before placing it in the refrigerator to prevent residual heat from escaping into your unit. While this is a good move, remember to be careful not to leave your food to chill for too long, or it will spoil.

Set the temperatures at optimum levels.

You should set the refrigerator to 37 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer to 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything cooler causes your fridge to work harder, consuming more energy. 

Many refrigerators do not allow you to control the temperatures precisely—and even with digital screens, temperature settings are not always accurate. 

For peace of mind that you have set the right temperature, purchase a fridge thermometer to help you determine the true temperature of your refrigerator.

Keep your fridge full.

Some people think a full fridge is warmer, but this isn’t true. A full refrigerator requires less air to keep cool and hence does not have to work as hard as an empty one.  

When your fridge is full, the items help keep each other cool when adequately loaded. 

For the best outcome, keep your fridge at least two-thirds full. 

If your refrigerator is too large, place water jugs in each compartment. 

While you should keep your fridge full, take care to fill it sparingly. Remember that good airflow is essential for effective refrigerator performance. Also, keep an eye out for air vents and make sure nothing is blocking them.

Organize your fridge

Refrigerator repair Alexandria professionals recommend using your inner neat freak and arranging your refrigerator’s and freezer’s interior. When your things are easy to find inside your refrigerator, you may spend less time with the door open looking for them, minimizing the energy you use.

You should also consider limiting the number of goods on your refrigerator’s top shelf, particularly large bread products, food boxes, or serving dishes.

This prime area in your refrigerator should be reserved for your most frequently used items. The easier it is to grab them, the faster the door closes.

Furthermore, heavier objects on top of your appliance may trap heat inside your unit, forcing your compressor to work harder to overcome and ultimately costing you more money in the long run.

A good rule of thumb is to always place what you regularly use closest to the door. This way, you can be sure you will easily reach it when needed.

 

How Can I Make My Refrigerator Better?

Virginia Refrigerators Repair

The refrigerator is one of the most hardworking appliances at home, and you should make yours function efficiently and better so that you get ultra cold food and save money on your energy bills. How do you make your fridge function better? There are plenty of ways as given by appliance repair professionals.

These ways include:

Keep the temperatures at 37 degrees Fahrenheit

To keep your appliance functioning optimally and protect the food from spoiling, keep your refrigerator temperature at 37 degrees Fahrenheit.

This calls you to regularly test the temperature of your appliance and set it accordingly.

To test the temperature of your appliance, place a thermometer in a glass of water and check the next day.

The freezer should always be at zero degrees Fahrenheit and to test the temperature, you need to place the thermometer between the frozen foods and then check the temperature after 8 hours.

To save even more money, set the fridge temperature to as high as 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer at 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove items from the top of the fridge.

The top of the fridge might seem like an ideal place to store the cereal boxes and other junk, but it isn’t. The reason for this is that placing items here increases the chances of heat getting blocked from escaping, and as a consequence, the compressor works harder than it should; hence you always have a high electric bill at the end of the month.

An overworking appliance also has a short lifespan, so when you repeatedly place items on your fridge, you increase the chances of the appliance breaking down and have to buy a new one.

Ensure that the door has a good seal

One way to ensure that your fridge is in perfect working order and saving you as much money as possible you need to keep the door closed at all times.

You should note that you can close the door, and still, the cold air escapes, forcing you to pay a high monthly bill. To ensure this doesn’t happen, inspect your door and ensure that it has a good seal. One way to make this possible is to close the door on a piece of paper or dollar bill.

If you cannot do this, adjust the refrigerator gasket or replace it to prevent the cold air from escaping.

Turn off the anti-Sweat heater.

Most refrigerators manufactured after 1993 come with a switch that allows you to choose between exterior energy-saving and moisture-reducing modes.

When you set your fridge to exterior moisture reducing mode, the heater kicks on to keep the condensation off the outside of the refrigerator.

Setting the fridge to energy-saving mode saves 5-10% of energy.

Turn off the anti-sweat heater to save energy and keep your appliance functioning better.

You should note that a newer fridge might have automatic moisture control that eliminates the exterior condensation without needing a heater.

Clean the condenser coils

The condenser coils play a crucial role in keeping the fridge’s insides cool. Unfortunately, over time, they collect a lot of dust, and if you don’t clean them, you damage your unit.

By cleaning the coils, you put less stress on the condenser, consequently extending the life of your fridge.

You can clean the coils yourself but for the best results, let an expert help you.

To avoid injuries, remember to unplug the appliance. Also, use a good quality vacuum or brush to do the cleaning.

Keep the fridge properly organized.

You might have the impression that properly organizing the fridge is just part of good housekeeping, but this isn’t the case as it also plays a vital role in determining how effectively and efficiently the fridge functions.

Besides having an easy time finding the food you need in a properly organized fridge, the condenser works less hard to get the temperature back to the set level, which means a reduced energy bill.

Refrigerator repair Northern VA professionals recommend you remove items from your fridge, remove the items that have expired, then organize the refrigerator according to your preferences.

In addition to keeping your fridge organized, make it a habit to keep it full most of the time.

How Do You Know If Your Refrigerator Icemaker Is Bad?

Virginia Refrigerators Repair

Do you have a feeling that your ice maker has a problem? It could be true.

How do you know if your refrigerator ice maker is bad? Well, there are a number of things you can look out for. Some of these things as given by appliance repair professionals include:

The ice maker not making ice

The unit is supposed to make ice, so if it’s not, there is definitely a problem. The icemaker will fail to make ice for plenty of reasons, such as wrong temperature settings, dirty filters, blockages, and many others.

You should look into the unit and confirm whether the thermostat is set at the right temperature. As a rule of thumb, ensure that the temperature doesn’t exceed 5ºF.

While at it, check the arm lever and ensure that it’s pushed down. If it’s up, it might be the reason the ice maker won’t make ice, so you need to push it down.

How is the water stream? If the stream is weak or there is no water coming out, you might be having a problem with the waterline. Inspect it and if blocked or damaged, fix it.

Ice maker not making enough ice

Sometimes the ice maker will make some ice, but you can tell it’s not working at its capacity. In most cases, this will happen due to problems with the waterline. You need to access the line and find out whether it’s blocked or damaged.

Fix the problem and ensure that the stream has a steady flow with good water pressure (30-120 psi). When replacing the water line, ensure that everything is connected tightly and the water inlet valve is fully open and free of debris.

Ice maker making ice that is too small or has a weird taste

If the ice coming from the ice maker is too small, it could be due to water line problems. Does the ice have a weird taste or color? This might be due to food odors from the freezer.

Check the water line for any bulges, kinks, or damage. If you see any problem, fix it.

If the problem is too big that you have to replace the line, replace the line using a copper water line. This way, you have a durable water line that won’t give the water a weird taste.

To prevent the smell of the food in the freezer from getting into the water, make it a habit to cover the food with plastic.

Ice maker not dropping ice

If your ice maker isn’t dropping ice, you could be having a blockage in the ice tray, or the ice cube has jammed between the lever and bin. If this is the case, double-check and confirm that the lever is pushed down and/or the ice maker is switched on. If you aren’t sure about it, consult your owner’s manual.

Also, confirm if the problem is due to ice accumulation in the ice bin. If there is blocked ice, remove it by carefully chipping at it with a plastic knife.

Ice maker making loud noises

Although the icemaker should make some noise when working, the noise shouldn’t be too loud that it’s a distraction. So if your appliance is making constant or unusual noises, it might be having a mechanical problem that you need to look at.

In most cases, you can’t properly diagnose the noises and fix them on your own—you have to hire an experienced refrigerator icemaker repair Fairfax professional to help out.

Water leaking into the freezer or on the floor.

Two of the most common culprits for this problem are a faulty water line and an unleveled icemaker.

The first place to check is whether the refrigerator is leveled. If it’s not, level it. Once the fridge is level, check the inside of the freezer and ensure that it’s also leveled.

How is the water line? Check its condition and ensure that the fill tube is positioned properly. The tube’s location will vary depending on the ice maker model, but it should always be above the icemaker tray or inside the water fill cup.

What Can Damage A Refrigerator? Refrigerator Repair Experts Answer

appliance repiar

Fridges don’t come cheap, and when you buy one, the last thing you want is to damage it. As a homeowner looking to have your fridge for as long as possible, you must be wondering, what can damage a refrigerator? According to refrigerator repair experts, the fridge can be destroyed by plenty of things that include:

Overstocking the fridge

This often happens when you come back from the grocery store. Since you don’t want any fresh groceries to spoil, you put everything in the fridge, which is wrong. When you put more items than the fridge can handle, you make it difficult for the refrigerator to regulate the interior temperature and keep the insides of the appliance cool.

This provokes the appliance to work harder than it should, putting a lot of strain onto the compressor and condenser coils, which puts the fridge at the risk of overheating.

How can you prevent this from happening?

As you are putting your groceries in the fridge, leave enough room for air to circulate freely, so you aren’t overburdening the appliance. A good rule of thumb is to keep your fridge 75% full.

Another great idea is to remove the old food before you go grocery shopping. This way, you always have enough room to stock the new fresher items.

Failing to clean the fridge regularly.

People rarely clean their fridges either due to their busy lifestyles or ignorance. When you let food spills and other debris accumulate, the refrigerator seal, compressors, and other parts degrade and crack.

This results in the fridge working too hard to cool the interior, which not only leads to an increase in your electricity bill, but the fridge also has a short lifespan.

Thankfully, it’s easy to fix this problem. Clean the fridge at least once every two weeks and when doing it, clean both the inside and outside of the appliance.

You store the food improperly.

It’s one thing to overstock the fridge and an entire ballgame to improperly store the food. For example, you will be storing the food improperly if you move the hot leftover food directly from the dinner table to the fridge.

In addition to the food spoiling, it can also spoil the fridge. This is because you expose the fridge to too hot food, forcing it to work harder than it should.

You can avoid damaging your refrigerator this way by giving your leftover food time to safely cool on the counter then carefully place it on your fridge.

Failing to replace the water filter frequently enough.

If your fridge has an ice and filtered water dispenser on the refrigerator door, you should regularly clean the filter to keep your drinking water and ice-free of contaminants and prevent sediment from building up in the pipes.

When you have debris in your pipes, your fridge works harder than it should; hence you have a high energy bill at the end of the month. Also, the fridge has a short lifespan due to its overworking.

Replace the water filter at least once every six months to keep your fridge in top working condition. You should note that even if you have an ice maker and no water dispenser, you still need to change the water filter to have peace of mind, the ice is free of pollutants.

Failing to inspect the fridge regularly

Like any other appliance, you need to inspect the fridge routinely. You can inspect it by yourself or hire a technician to help you.

Most people will inspect the other parts and forget a vital area—the door seal. When you don’t inspect the door seal frequently enough, it deteriorates, gets brittle, and cracks. This causes it to break down, and it doesn’t properly seal in the cool air.

As you might guess, this leads to a massive loss of energy as the fridge has to work harder to maintain a cool interior.

Whether you are doing the inspection by yourself or you have hired an appliance repair Fairfax professional to do the work, pay attention to the door seal, and look out for any signs of wear and tear or cracking. If your door is no longer resisting as much as it should when opening it, and the suction feels week, it’s time to replace the seal.