How To Extend The Lifespan Of Your Refrigerator

Your fridge is, quite possibly, the most important appliance in your house. It is likely home to most of your groceries and keeps your food fresh. However, it’s also one of the most expensive appliances to buy. For this reason, you’re going to want your refrigerator to last for as long as it possibly can.

So how do you do that? Thankfully, we’re here to offer some tips that can help to not only get your fridge to its expected lifespan, but may even extend its life beyond expectations. Also if you know the average life of your kitchen appliance you can easily decide if it’s worth investing in repairing it or is it better buying a new one.

Clean The Coils

Have look around your fridge, particularly the back, and see if you can find an area with coils or an area that’s housing coils. These condenser coils serve an important function in keeping your refrigerator operating at its most energy efficient. When they’re covered in dust, hair and all manners of other particles, they’re not operating at full capacity. If you want to extend the life of your fridge, make sure to clean the coils with regularity. Whilst once a year is fine, doing it 2-3 years should ensure that your fridge stays at its healthiest.

Setting The Right Temperature

When a fridge is set too cold, then it will have to work harder to keep that temperature. This becomes evident if you leave the fridge door open for a minute or so. All the hard work that the fridge has been doing to keep the storage area cool can be nullified, and the motor will have to run to get the temperature back down. But if you set the temperature a little higher, then it won’t have to work as hard to keep the temperature so low. This, of course, extends the life of your fridge. The ideal for a fridge should be somewhere between 3°C to 4°C.

Keep It On The Level

Speaking of making the motor work harder, one way to do just that is by not having it level. If the fridge isn’t level, then there’s a chance that the door won’t tightly shut. Any sort of leak in the door can allow air to escape, meaning that the motor needs to keep running to pump the cold air into the storage. Unbeknownst to the fridge, however, is that it’s fighting a losing battle. Motors that continuously run just don’t last. Test to see if the door is shut tightly by holding a bit of paper halfway in and halfway out of the storage compartment when the door is open. Shut the door and jam the paper between the storage and the outside. If the paper holds tight, then it’s likely sealed well enough. If it can’t be pulled out, then there’s a gap where air is getting out and the seals either need to be cleaned, replaced or you need to re-level the unit.

Seal It Good

Moving on from our last point, let’s talk about seals. Always make sure to give them a once-over every now and then. If they are visibly cracked or damaged in some way, then it’s likely that you’ll need to replace them or face the problem of the motor running continuously. The more the motor runs, the faster your fridge will begin to burn out and require a company, such as Repair Aid, to come in and try to fix it. While you’re looking at the seals, perform a quick inspection of the gaskets too as they contribute to achieving a tight seal on the door.

It’s Not A Shelf

Some of us tend to use the fridge as if it were a shelf – placing pans, pots and potted plants atop its frame. However, this only serves to drive down the warm air that rises up within the fridge. This can cause the fridge’s motor to overheat which – yup, you guessed it – shortens the life of your fridge. Smaller items are generally fine, but bigger items should find a new home.

Keep It Away From Warmth

Our final tip is to avoid exposing the fridge to heat – both inside and outside. External sources, much like large items on top of the shelf, can heat the air around the fridge – causing it to work harder to keep cool. So avoid placing it beside an oven, stuffy areas and try to keep it from directly facing any windows that capture a lot of sun. Internally, avoid placing any warm foods inside the storage as the fridge has to work harder to cool them and the surrounding air. For this reason, it’s best to let warm dishes cool before sticking them in the fridge. If you’re worried about your food attracting bacteria while it is lying out, put it in the fridge beside a container of ice cold water or ice itself. This will compensate for the warmer air emitting from the food by cooling it.