Why does fridge keep freezing up

One potential cause is a faulty door seal. If you have a fault gasket, warm air could seep into your fridge, which then requires it to work harder than it should. This can in turn cause freezing up. To find out if your door seal is working properly, put a piece of very thin paper between the door frame and the gasket. Then try to pull the paper out. If it comes out easily — or does not stick at all — then your seal is faulty. If it does hold, then it is likely not the seal.

Your location:. Order Status. Find a Store. Contact Us. Yes, I'd like to receive occasional special offers, promotions, or other e-mail marketing communications from Whirlpool and its affiliated brands. For more information about our privacy practices and a list of affiliated brands, please read out Privacy Notice. I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Notice. Create an Account. Continue Shopping.

Session Timed Out Your session has expired. Whirlpool Brand U. Why food freezes in your refrigerator — and how to stop it. Why is my refrigerator freezing food? Temperature Settings. Food Storage. Leaky Door Seals The seals around your refrigerator and freezer doors help keep cold air in. How to keep your refrigerator from freezing food If food is freezing in your refrigerator, there are steps you can take to try to solve the problem.

If the temperature is very low, ice will form and it may prevent air circulation. The freezer should always operate in the range of -6 through 6 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the fridge, the operating range is 34 through 42 degrees F. The recommended temperatures for food safety for each is 0 degrees F for the freezer and 37 degrees F for the fridge, according to GE.

The most common cause for this condition is a problem with the defrost system. If the refrigerator freezer is cold but the refrigerator is warm, the evaporator fan motor might have failed.

Cold air sinks, so it collects at the bottom and, in a fridge freezer, the bottom shelves will be coldest. Your refrigerator temperature should be 40 F or less, and your freezer should be 0 F or less.

The best place to put a thermometer is in the warmest spot — which would be near the door, not tucked away in the back. Glance at this daily to be sure it is maintaining a cold temperature. However, even if your mobile device is not equipped with a temperature sensor, there is still a way to get a decent temperature reading for the surrounding air. That is the condenser. This component condenses the refrigerant back to a liquid by cooling it down. Evaporator: The evaporator is the coil that runs inside of your fridge.

It evaporates liquid refrigerant as a gas, which cools down the refrigerator. An evaporator habilitates the proper environment for storing your food. Capillary Tube: The capillary tube is small, thin tubing that manages refrigerant expansion from liquid to gas. Liquid refrigerant travels from the condenser to the capillary tube.

Afterward, the tube sprays gaseous refrigerant into the low-pressure environment of the evaporator. Thermostat: The thermostat keeps everything in check by monitoring the temperature of the refrigerator. If the fridge gets too cold, the thermostat shuts off the compressor. Conversely, the thermostat turns the compressor back on when more refrigerant is needed to cool the appliance.

Without the thermostat, your fridge would keep cooling, or perhaps even stop cooling, without any checks. Refrigerating Process Refrigerators use evaporation to cool the food storage area. Here are the most common causes of a refrigerator freezing up and how to fix them: The temperature was set too low or too high: As simple as this sounds, this happens quite often.

Accidental temperature changes can also cause your fridge to hold back on refrigerant, causing your food to warm up and spoil. Luckily, adjusting the temp setting will quickly resolve the problem. The fridge coils are dirty: Neglecting the coils behind your fridge causes distress to the compressor, forcing it to work harder to cool the freezer.

On some models, this distortion leads to your refrigerator contents freezing. To fix this problem, pull the refrigerator away from the wall and remove dust and grime with a canister vacuum. The freezer door is not sealing closed: Freezer doors use gaskets to contain cold air.