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Fridge Question / Problem

jwstewar

jwstewar

Active member
When we built the barn back in 2005 we bought a cheap Magic Chef refrigerator to put out there. Well because of the way they make the new fridges, it didn't work the best in the winter out there. So when we built the new house, we made a spot for it in the utility room and we moved it there last year. All has been fine until recently.

We've cooked some meat out of the freezer that we thought tasted/smelled funny. We chalked it up to Kmart doing something strange and just tossed it. We also noticed ice crystals (frost free) on the top and some of the meat.

Yesterday Monica calls me and tells me that she thinks it has quit working. Seeing how it was just a cheapy I said we would just go buy a new one. Well when I got home last night the temp setting on the freezer was set at the coldest setting but on the fridge on a scale of 1 to 7 (7 being coldest) it was only at 2. I cranked it up to about 5. It kicked on right away. I then put the remote sensor in for my indoor/outdoor thermometer. It dropped down to -1. This morning when I got up it was at 2. While I was in the shower it went to 5.5. Then I saw it go to 6.2 and then it started dropping again. By the time I left it was back down to 2.9. When I checked the min/max of the the thermometer it had been -2 to 19. I figure it could have gone in to defrost mode to get to the 19. Otherwise it looks like it is working. Do you think it was just because of the temp getting change? Remember we have a 9 year old girl and a 7 year old boy that loves to play with everything. What does everyone else think?

As a side note, our fridge in the kitchen has the temp on the door. We keep it set at -6 & 34. I've never seen the temps fluctuate other than after a power outage or a grocery store trip. Of course, it is also a twin cooling design so that it can only cool the section that needs it.
 
Good idea using the remote temp module. I never knew they had the min and max settings ...or I've never looked for it.
That is a lot of fluctuation. Something sure seems off. I don't even think kids could cause the drastic changes in temps you've witnessed....but it's been awhile since mine were that young. I might be forgetting how active young uns can be.
 
At this point, the fluctuations I'm seeing were throughout the night. That would have been no doors being opened or anything, so I'm really confused and I'm not 100% sure I'm trusting it yet. I don't think we will be putting anything else in it until I regain my confidence.
 
Well I am not a refrigerator man but based on my experience with refrigeration I am thinking you got a bad thermostat.
 
I did a little more research on this. I guess the way you "monitor" a fridge temp is to place the thermometer in between 2 pieces of frozen items. This eliminates the defrost cycle. Now that we have turn the fridge setting back up, when looking at the thermometer it is always between 1 & 5 degrees. We are going to continue watching it, but now almost all of the ice that had built up on top of the freezer has disappeared and what is left is frozen solid as can be. Before it was soft and barely stuck to the freezer.
 
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