Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Refrigerator

Reversing refrigerator doors

mudpuppie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:14:15 -0800

I've volunteered to reverse the doors on the office fridge (i.e., change them so that they open from the right, instead of from the left). I know the basics of how to do this, but I don't want to look like an idiot in front of coworkers. Any tips, tricks, or things I should know before starting to loosen the screws?

Not-so-Fantastic Plastic

Miko — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:19:55 -0800

Can you help my household kick the plastic habit? I've been reading all sorts of creepy things about plastics lately, and really want to stop using them as much as possible, especially for food storage and heating.

I've been using Pyrex refrigerator dishes for leftovers for a long time, and have a bunch of old-school Thermoses that still work well. I've become aware of round metal "tiffin" containers, but haven't bought any yet. We store a lot of grains, beans, and spices in canning jars in the cupboards.

Beyond that, I'm still searching for solutions. Things like: when I want to pop a bowl of dough or something in the fridge with an airtight cover, what can I use? Are there reusable sandwich bags or food wrap of some material other than plastic? What about sandwich-shaped containers? What can go into the freezer and provide a real seal - as for frozen pizza dough, leftovers, etc?

A lot of cosmetic products come in plastics, too. Any ways of getting around that?

Thanks all.

Why isn't my frozen food frozen?

werty — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:39:26 -0800

FridgeFilter: I recently overstuffed my freezer and blocked the cold airflow, which partially defrosted some of the food in the far corner, away from the air. I have since restored the freezer temperature, but after several days, the thawed food isn't re-freezing. Why? Details, should they be useful:

- Along with the overstuffed freezer, I noticed the temperature gauge had recently been turned to a warmer-than-usual level, which I also righted.

- I suspected my freezer was just plumb broke, but I picked up a thermometer that declares temperatures between 12 and 16 degrees.

- The food in question is a tub of slow-churned light ice cream (I kind of get how I may have permanently altered the molecular structure there) and a slice of pizza (no clue).

- Top-freezer refrigerator, GE Profile if it helps, 2001 model, in-freezer ice maker, no outside dispenser.

What could I use to cover or hide a dent on my new stainless steel refrigerator?

willnot — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:41:26 -0800

What could I use to cover or hide a dent on my new stainless steel refrigerator? I don't want to spend a few hundred dollars to have it professionally fixed (assuming that was even possible), and I have low confidence in any of these dent repair suggestions working very well. The dent is on a rounded corner and is about the size of a thumb with a scratch in the middle of the depression. The front of the fridge has a space of about 6" x 9" above the water dispenser. I was thinking of maybe putting up some kind of art with tape that could wrap around to cover the dent or some kind of art sticker, but I'm concerned that could look tacky. I was also thinking about putting up a dry erase board similarly with tape to wrap around and cover the dent.

My style tends to be minimalist, somewhat modern art. In the kitchen though, something food related or Americana/classic restaurant advertising might also work.

For sale: Jenn-Air High Speed Food Rotter

CommonSense — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:45:01 -0800

Why are things suddenly starting to go bad/sour/rotten in my fridge much sooner than they used to? In the last couple of weeks, I've noticed that time seems to be running faster inside my refrigerator. Last night, I discovered that a bottle of V-8 (the low-sodium variet, if it matters) that I bought about 10 days ago looked kind of distended, and when I unscrewed the lid, a lot of air burst out -- fermentation of some sort, I figured. Still, only (about) 10 days after purchase? I've bought V-8 before, and I've been able to open it, use some, store it in the fridge -- rinse and repeat -- for something like two months without a hint of it "turning," let alone fermenting!

Another mysterious thing: There's this carton of "O Organic" 2% milk (Safeway store brand, also known as Von's, Genuardi's, etc. depending where you live) that has an expiration date sometime in mid-September. I'm always amazed at how far out their expiration dates are, and they tend to be accurate. Just this morning, I noticed it's smelling a little. Already. I bought it with the V-8, about 10 days ago, on the same shopping trip.

A little "thing" of yogurt, also from the same shopping trip, with an expiration date some time in early September, looked "fat" also -- the foil lid was rounded instead of flat, as if filled with air. Fermentation of some sort also.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that some not-yet-at-expiration-date cream cheese was starting to show spots of discoloration/mold prematurely as well.

What the hell's going on? All of a sudden, things are going bad sooner, and as a single person who goes through food slowly, this is especially inconvenient.

A few bits of info, if it helps: I have a bit of a fruit fly problem in the kitchen, so I relocated a small bowl of fruit (previously on the counter) into the kitchen about a week ago to keep it away from those little buggers. Also, the icemaker on the freezer side has gotten really fussy lately -- it just plain stopped making ice about two weeks ago, but for some reason, toying with the little water pipe thing on the inside, and pulling the fridge out from the wall a couple of feet, made it work again. Also, at one point last week, there was a mildly foul/rotting smell in the fridge for about half a day, but it went away soon after I threw out a half-tomato in a Ziploc bag that had begun to go bad.

Is there some kind of . . . "contagion" effect? That is, if one or two things start to go bad in a fridge, then even if you remove them and throw them out, do . . . THINGS linger in the air of the fridge, attacking other things, even prematurely? I don't get it. It's like there's some kind of food-rotting ghost in the damn thing, and it's irritating me . . .

how to mount plexiglas on stainless steel fridge?

kenliu — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:23:56 -0800

I have a stainless steel fridge and a toddler who is learning to walk. I want to mount a sheet of plexiglas over the bottom portion of the door to prevent it from getting dented. I would like this to look decent and be non-permanent so I can remove it when we eventually move. Any ideas on how I could do this? All I can think of is using some kind of tape, but I think that would sag after a while. Bonus for suggestions on how to also stick stuff to the plexiglas so that I can post up my kid's artwork (the stainless steel is non-magnetic).

Will I blow more money on a repairperson or by screwing things up myself?

Shepherd — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:30:57 -0800

When is it worth trying to fix your own appliances (an Amana ARB1917 bottom-freezer fridge in my case)? I've fixed a few little things around the house before -- replaced the thermal fuse on a coffee roaster, the gaskets etc. on an espresso machine, the headshell on a record player -- but I've never done any Appliance Repair per se. I can't read those funky diagrams with the squiggly lines, etc.

My Amana bottom-freezer fridge is dying, though, and I THINK I might know what the problem is after a lot of time doing research on various parts and repair sites: the back wall is frosting over and the fridge is not cooling, which by most indications means the defrost timer needs replacing. We're on our third "defrost" -- a 30-hour turn-off of the fridge last time -- and the problem keeps recurring faster and faster and faster.

Here's the thing: I'm 75% sure that's what's wrong, thanks to identical symptoms being posted, and solutions being prescribed, on various Internet forums. But I'm not 100% sure. It might be the defrost heater, it might be the thermostat control.

And these parts are -- for a broke guy trying to make ends meet with his new wife -- expensive. $60 for the defrost timer (I'm in Canada), $30 or so for the heater, plus shipping, etc.

So the spectre of getting something wrong, either in breaking the fridge even worse by mucking around, or just screwing up the part, or not having the right problem identified in the first place, makes me think the probable $100+ or so for a repairperson to come and know what exactly to do might be a worthwhile investment.

Then again, that's another $100+ I don't have.

So I'm really quite torn, and I'm hoping somebody with more DIY and appliance repair expertise than me will be able to offer some advice: how likely is it that a modestly skilled newbie will be able to open, disassemble, and reassemble a fridge without incident?

Is it worth trying to fix myself, given the expense of the parts, or should I just bite the bullet and pay a repairman?

smudgeproof stainless steel fridge?

netsirk — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:13:01 -0800

We're looking for a refrigerator that meets the following criteria: counter depth, french door (sometimes called bottom freezer), no external ice or water dispenser, but with internal ice & water and - here's the tricky one - a fingerprintless/smudgeproof stainless steel finish. Bonus points if stainless steel finish is authentic (as opposed to a grey satin color) and if the fridge is magnetic. Preferably under $2500.

This GE model is the only real contender I have found so far... Surely there are other options out there!

Can you help? Searching the interweb for details has proved surprisingly fruitless and frustrating so far.

Thanks!

Best site for refrigerator shopping?

computech_apolloniajames — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:29:30 -0800

Is there a site where I can search for specific refrigerator dimensions? Not cubic capacity, but actual height, width and depth. I need a new frig. And my kitchen has a small sized spot, one that will not accommodate those mega-fridges that are on the market. Is there any website that will let you search according to actual dimensions. Cubic capacity means nothing to me.

Appliance review site suggestions

crookedgrin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:33:30 -0800

Looking to replace an old refrigerator - where can I find reliable ratings / reviews online (that I don't need a subscription for)? I'm basically looking for a free alternative to Consumer Reports, perhaps with a combination of user ratings and expert reviews. I am always a bit leery of purely customer-rated rankings because it's so easy to cheat. Do I need to pay to get good info?

24 hours, no more no less? I doubt it.

onshi — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:24:36 -0800

Examples of suspiciously round numbers that have, in all probability, been fudged up or down? Extra points for cases where those numbers can be safely discarded in favour of a different, more realistic figure. We just had a refrigerator delivered and we are advised to let it "stand" for 24 hours before plugging it in. The interwebs confirm this as a widely invoked rule of thumb, the rationale being that in a fridge transported horizontally, oil from the compressor seeps into places it doesn't belong such that the fridge mustn't be switched on until the oil has time to settle back into the compressor. If plugged in too soon, the oil tends to block refrigerant lines (negatively affecting cooling performance) and could potentially cause the compressor to fail completely.

I accept this explanation, and am willing to adhere to the 24 hour guideline just to be safe, but I find it incredibly unlikely that a full day (not one hour more or less) is really required for this process; instead, I would suppose the "true" time it takes would be 12-18 hours at most -- potentially far less -- with the remainder added as a safety margin and to account for idiosyncrasies across brands and models. Instead of providing an accurate figure with each model, a nice, round, extra-safe number that's easy to remember is promulgated by the entire industry.

Another example that springs to mind is the maximum recommended dosage information for non-prescription drugs (e.g. not to exceed 1000mg every 4 hours), which must be set well below the "true" toxic dose for safety reasons and to compensate for the low granularity in the "adults" and "children" doses as opposed a more accurate dosage based on body mass (e.g. 300mg per kg per hour). This fudged number -- say, 40% of toxic for a body mass 1 standard deviation below the mean for an adult or child -- would probably be further rounded down to a multiple of the quantity of drug in each tablet. Alternatively, the tablet size would be adjusted to be a factor of the various fudged dosage guideline(s).

So my question to you: which fudged numbers have you come across? Why do you think they are fudged? What factors would need to be taken into account to determine the corresponding "true" number? Anecdotes where you have personally shown the fudged number to be so? Thanks!

Will freon poison my food?

Picklegnome — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:20:21 -0800

I punctured the freon line in a GE minifridge. Is the food safe to eat? My roommate (a Chemistry major) is trying to convince me that the food in the fridge (below the freezing unit; freon sinks) is now poisoned. Is he right? Sources would be appreciated. All I've got right now is this which doesn't look terrifically credible.

When did the refrigerator become message central?

I_Love_Bananas — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:53:01 -0800

What did the refrigerator door become "the place" to hang kids' art, notes etc.? In movies and TV shows from the past, you never see things on the refrigerator doors until the late 60's. At least that's my perception. When did this really take hold? I grew up end of 60's- through the 70's and we always had stuff hanging on the fridge. Just wondering.

Can I still eat the ham?

deezil — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:22:14 -0800

Can I eat ham that wasn't properly refrigerated? I got a fully cooked ham from my employer, put it out in my car trunk during the day, and forgot about it when I got home. Over the next few days, I didn't remember it at all. The whole time it was refrigerator temperature outside, and the trunk of my car was probably the same temperature. All that changed when I had a freak 60 degree day on Friday, and then it was back to being 20 outside. I remembered the ham last night as I was putting something else in my trunk. Did that 60 degree day ruin my chance of eating the ham?

Why the long Use By date on chicken?

gfrobe — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:25:26 -0800

I've read that raw chicken should be kept in the refrigerator for only 2 or 3 days before using. So why is the "Use By" date on the chicken sold at my local supermarket 6 days from now? I know there have been lots of "should I eat this" questions before but can't seem to nail down an answer on this. A quick google search says that chicken shouldn't be kept in the fridge for more than 2 or 3 days tops before using. The USDA site says to use within 1 or 2 days. So why is the "use by" date on most of the chicken I just saw in the supermarket 6 days from now? I always assumed "use by" dates were conservative and that you could normally go past them by a few days. That would mean if I put that raw chicken in my fridge today I could still safely cook it 8 days from now?

Tips on dealing with dirty and careless people at the office ?

KogeLiz — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:13:01 -0800

How do I get my 'professional' co-workers to stop leaving food in the refrigerator for months? And how, in general, prevent them from being so careless? I am the office coordinator/receptionist... which translates into 'receiving complaints about the office'.

Our office has about 35-40 people in the office. Mostly male engineers.

We have one fridge in the kitchen (which I don't use and now cannot see how other people can use it) and currently I am receiving a lot of complaints about how the fridge smells horrible and there's food in there from several months ago.
A former employee got sick of it and cleaned it out but within a month there was already expired food.

Other issues people complain about are people leaving dirty dishes in the sink, spilling/dropping stuff and not picking it up, rifiling through the supply cabinets and dropping bins of supplies and leaving them on the floor, etc.

Anyone have any tips on controlling filthy people who think their wives are magically going to clean up after them here at work?

I mean, I know it can't be totally controlled... but just wondering if anyone had any tips or ideas.

Help my refrigerator remember its purpose in life.

grapefruitmoon — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:14:12 -0800

Appliance Repair For Dummies Filter: Is there anything we can do to get our fridge to, y'know, refrigerate things? Our fridge is stuck at 50F. (You may or may not know that 40F is optimal for keeping food, y'know, COLD.) No matter what we do with the little fiddly-knob, this is the coldest we can get it. Our landlord has been contacted, but this seems to be pretty low on his priorities list.

Unfortunately, bugging the landlord is pretty low on 'moonMan's priority list as he has a paper deadline looming this week. I would happily bug the landlord myself, except that he has displayed a lot of "pat-on-the-head oh, you're a cute girl, here just hit this button, pat-pat" dismissive behavior. I'll continue bugging him anyway, but in this aspect of the situation, it's going to take some prodding from 'moonMan for anything to get done.

So. My question. Until we can wrangle our landlord into doing something other than turning the volume up to 11, is there anything we can do to make the fridge COLDER? It's just cold enough to keep milk from spoiling (we go through milk pretty quickly, but I've noticed milk that's been opened for 2 days being just fine), but the ice-cream in the freezer is melting and I would really like to be able to have perishable food in the house without worrying that it's going to be spoiled the next day. (We've had a lot of fancy cheese turn green with alarming speed.)

THNX!

Bakingfilter: Fridge to oven? A-OK or madness?

longdaysjourney — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:58:51 -0800

Bakingfilter: Fridge to oven? No problemo or madness? I want to bake a cake tonight (a pflaumenkuchen) that's been sitting in the fridge all day. Do I need to let it warm up to room temp before I bake it (recipe says 350 F for 40-45 min) or can it go straight from the fridge into the oven? It's in a metal pan, so I'm not worried about anything breaking. Burning the cake would be a sad thing, however.

How can I stop the extreme condensation in my refrigerator?

Dee Xtrovert — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:50:45 -0800

How can I stop the extreme condensation in my refrigerator? For the past month or so, there's been an extreme amount of condensation appearing in my refrigerator - I mean, the shelves nearly have puddles on them. It's been hot and humid here lately - but this seems extreme!

Some other pertinent details:

1) I'm moving, so the refrigerator is emptier than usual.
2) I haven't adjusted the temperature control, which is in the middle of the extremes of its adjustment capabilities.
3) I haven't been opening or closing it any more than usual.
4) No lint buildup anywhere underneath or in the back, as far as I can see.

Thanks!

You know, for kitchens!

unSane — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:59:19 -0800

For a long while I've thought about developing a domestic climate-controlled larder, for food which doesn't really belong in the fridge (bread, eggs, cheese, tomatoes and so on) but doesn't want to be left out on the counter. Would you buy one and if so what features would be most useful to you?

My fridge is busted!

clarahamster — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:03:02 -0800

Do you have any recommendations for fridge repair in Seattle? My refrigerator started making a buzzing noise off and on in the last week. Last night when came home, it was buzzing every few minutes and never going into a cooling cycle. From some Googling, it sounds like the problem is probably the compressor relay. The fridge is a few years old, and past the warranty at this point. Can anyone here recommend who to call in the Seattle area (near downtown) to come take a look at it?

My fridge is failing to cool my food.

fishfucker — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:17:53 -0800

The side-by-side fridge in our rental (a GE tfx22zrs, tfx22jrs) has been failing to keep the refrigerator side cool (freezer side works fine). I think I have traced this down to some kind of lightbulb short -- the bulb heats up so much, so fast, I presume it is keeping the food from getting cool; possible fuse problem? Do fridges have user-serviceable fuses? Or is this a compressor problem and the lightbulb a red herring? So the lightbulb DOES go off when the door closes, but when I put one in, it cooks up fast enough to be too hot to touch in under a minute. Even a CFL gets hot in there in under a minute, which I've never seen before. The lightbulb supposed to be max 60 watts, and I'm using the correct wattage for the incandescent. Unsure what the CFL is, but it's got to be under 60. Here's what else I know:

1. Freezer side works mostly fine

2. ice-maker on freezer side does not work. whatever is under the icemaking contraption thingy after you pull out the plastic ice tray is cold enough to burn your finger.

3. I unplugged and plugged back (into diff socket, but same circuit, presumedly) the fridge. Socket is presumedly properly grounded (it's not on some sort of two-prong adapter, and this building's electrical was probably done in the mid-nineties). I flipped the breaker on and off for the fridge, I believe it is on its own circuit. Fridge has plenty of clearance around the back, but there is some (black) discoloring on the wall near the bottom of the fridge from either an exhaust fan or the compressor.

4. Again, lightbulb DEFINITELY goes off when the fridge door closes. It's a regular socket. I've tried a CFL and an incandescent in there. They both get crazy hot.

5. The freezer lightbulb does not seem to have any problems. It's warm-ish but not hot.

6. I've got the (thermostat?) dial cranked on the fridge side to 9 (the highest), and the compressor is definitely running. There is a second thermostat for our freezer and I have been playing around with the settings on each of them to see if there's some kind of crazy voodoo sweet spot where my fridge will get close with no luck.

7. The compressor in the fridge side shuts off when you turn it all the way to the off position. Does not shut off anywhere before the actual OFF right now, but keep in mind my fridge is pretty warm at the moment. Our electrical usage here seems abnormally high -- we used 120% more electricity than when we were heating our warehouse in the midst of winter with space heaters), but that could be because we have a dishwasher and washer/dryer (electric) here. Also I think we are using our hot water heater more.

8. When we first moved in (2 months ago), the fridge side was cold enough to ice over stuff near the back, so I turned it down. Started noticing it wasn't getting cold enough about two-three weeks ago.

Whew -- thanks for reading all that! I'm pretty sure I'm going to let my landlord know about this and ask him to fix it, but if it's something as simple as swapping out a fuse I'd rather do it myself (and have cold beer by tonight) than deal with scheduling, etc.

"Tell your landlord to fix it" is not what I'm looking for here -- I'm looking to exhaust most all simple DIY remedies before picking up the phone. I'm aware of the many home repair sites on the web, and I've looked through their forums, thanks -- I'm really hoping to find some specific anecdotal experience with this situation.

So, seen this before? Anything I can do? Bonus question: I have the bulb out right now to prove my theory about it causing the food to warm, but if that is going to cause a dangerous situation due to moisture building up on the light socket, well, I don't want to do it.

Where to get colored refrigerator bulbs

jinatrix — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:57:06 -0800

Where can I get different colored light bulbs for a refrigerator? I want the inside of my fridge to light up in a different color -- preferably blue or orange. Where can I get different colored bulbs?

Quietest fridge?

kilikina73 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:22:02 -0800

Our family room is right next to our kitchen, and our very old and noisy refrigerator is *right* next to our couch. Watching TV is turning into a volume-control nightmare. What is the quietest (North American) botton-freezer refrigerator I can spend my tax refund on?

Frost forming in a frost free refrigerator.

kingjoeshmoe — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:41:56 -0800

Anyone know much about refrigerator repair? Frost is forming right around the ice tray on a frost free refrigerator. Easy fix, or do I call in the repairman? I have one of those side by side refrigerator freezers with an ice maker and water dispenser built in. Just about underneath, and to the front of the ice tray, frost has started forming. If left alone, it keeps growing and getting more solid. My freezer is supposed to be frost free, and until recently that was true. Frost also doesn't seem to be appearing anywhere else in the freezer.

The only thing that has changed recently with the freezer is I changed the water filter several months ago. I think there was at least a month gap between that and this frost growth though (I'm not the most perceptive person, so that could be wrong). I've already tried removing the ice tray and letting it melt. Frost comes back when I replace the ice tray. Also, though I'm not sure, frost may be forming even when it's not there. It's hard to tell because it happens slowly. Oh, and the area around this doesn't seem super packed in or anything.

So, can you help me?