Keeping your Refrigerator Reliable in the Summer
With kids running around opening the refrigerator left and right just to get some cold air on their face or pick another popsicle out of the freezer, you tend to wonder if the food is even staying fresh and cold anymore. In the summer your fridge is running more frequently to keep your food cool. This means more energy use which can sometimes leave your fridge crying for help. Summertime calls for frequent refrigerator maintenance!
Maintenance
Maintenance is an important aspect of keeping a refrigerator reliable. Here are a few short tips to maintaining a reliable fridge:
Clean the interior weekly
this doesn’t have to be a big project, just use a cloth with warm water to wipe down and remove crumbs and spills. This will help prevent your containers from staining and getting dirty and will also avoid any odor coming from a variety of food.
Deodorize
With the different kinds of foods in your fridge, you will need a way to keep the odors out. Keep an open box of baking soda stocked in the fridge replace every three months. These odors have a high pH level and the baking soda will eliminate the acidic odors.
Replace the ice maker or water filter
Replace the water filtration system every six months to avoid clogging. Clogging reduces the water flow to the ice maker and dispenser and could cause any of the following:
- Ice cubes to be thin or hollow
- Low ice production
- Odd tasting ice or water
- Ice maker not producing any ice
- Not dispensing any water
- Water dispensing slowly
Inside your Refrigerator
Proper refrigerator care is necessary for the summer. In order to keep groceries from going bad, you should be checking expirations weekly. When storing your food in the refrigerator, you want to prevent the germs from the raw meat from spreading to ready-to-eat foods.
Store your ready-to-eat foods such as cheese, yogurt, avocado, and leftovers on the middle and top shelves. Put raw meat and fish in sealed containers on the bottom shelf so they don’t touch each other or trickle onto other foods. This is the recommended way to organize your fridge because heat rises so the bottom of the fridge is always going to be the coldest part. With that being said, your raw meat should always be stored in the coldest part of the fridge while your leftovers should always be on top since it was already once heated up.
Once the food in your fridge is past the ‘use by’ date, make sure you take it out of the fridge and throw it away, so it does not spoil or rot.
Keep your refrigerator temperature at or below 40° F (4° C) for proper food storing.
Refrigerator Repairs
If your fridge isn’t functioning properly even after a repair, then it may be time to replace your fridge! Danny’s Appliance not only sells good as new refurbished refrigerators but also offers repairs. Call Danny’s today at (401) 351-0510 and consult with an expert about replacing your refrigerator!
