Troubleshooting Your Refrigerator
If you open the refrigerator in the morning and realize that the milk s not as cold as it should be, you probably start to panic as you think about what may have spoiled overnight. While most foods will be fine after a single night with a broken refrigerator, you should contact a professional for refrigeration repair. However, before you contact the professional, there are a few things you should to do troubleshoot the problem so you can tell the repair technician and they can come prepared to fix things. Here are a few troubleshooting tips.
Listen
Open the refrigerator door for a few minutes and let it warm up a bit, but not too much. Then, close the door and put your ear on it. You should hear the motor as it cycles on to begin to cool everything inside. If there are no sounds, the problem is probably somewhere in the motor. If you do hear the motor, pay attention to when it cycles off. If the unit just continues to run, there is a problem with the refrigeration process.
Look
Pull the refrigerator away from the wall and look at the coils. If you see ice forming on them, they have worked too hard to try to keep things cold. If there is a layer of dust on the coils, they will not be able release the heat that they have removed from inside the refrigerator. This means the refrigerant in the coils will stay warm, and the system will not be able to cool down the air inside and keep everything at the proper temperature.
After you check the coils, open the control box inside the unit. This is usually behind or above the temperature dials. Remove the dials and then take the cover piece off. You should have a clear view of the wiring of the refrigerator. Check that the wires are not frayed and that there are none that hang loose.
Once you have done this bit of troubleshooting, contact a refrigerator repair company and explain what is going on. If the troubleshooting did not provide any answers, you can tell them what you did and that you still have no idea what's wrong with your unit. Whether the troubleshooting gives you any answers or not, it may still help the technician rule problems out. You will also need to give them the make and model of the unit so they can be sure to bring the proper parts for your refrigeration repair.