Does Your Fridge Have a Fever? Check Its Temperature!

We received a nasty shock early last week when all our refrigerated food suddenly and mysteriously started spoiling! The culprit ended up being a busted cooling fan, but we learned a lot about fridges, freezers, and proper running temperatures in the process. Do you know what temperature your fridge and freezer should be running?

Refrigerators should maintain a consistent temperature between 33° and 41°. Above this temperature, foods start to spoil and harmful illness-inducing bacterias can grow very quickly. Below this, of course, and food will start to freeze, which is also not ideal. Most refrigerators fluctuate a few degrees warmer and cooler as they maintain an average temperature, so be sure to take readings over a few hours before panicking or adjusting the temperature.

Meanwhile, the freezer should maintain an average temperature of 0°. This came as a surprise to us since we figured that anything below 32° was...well...frozen. This is true for very watery foods, but ingredients like sugar and salt can actually lower the freezing point. Keeping your freezer around 0° covers all your bases.

We checked our fridge and freezer temperature using a simple instant-read thermometer, but you can also purchase fridge- and freezer-specific thermometers at any grocery or kitchen supply store. They look and operate just like oven thermometers.

Adjusting the temperature can be a little confusing since the temperature dials on most fridges are marked with arbitrary numbers, not actual degrees. Check your manual to be sure, but in general the higher the number on the dial, the colder the temperature.

The fridge and freeze temperatures are also linked on many models - meaning that an adjustment to the fridge also affects the freezer, even if the freezer has a separate dial of its own. It can take some fiddling between the two to get the temperatures just right.

Have you ever had problems getting your fridge or freezer to stay the right temperature?

(Image: Emma Christensen)

Comments (4)

Oh how appropriate this post is! Just this week we had a similar problem. The defrost on our freezer has some issues, and was making the fridge too warm while frosting up the freezer. It was one time when I was glad we have a small fridge. We used most of the stuff inside that day (sort of like thanksgiving only not as pretty), and moved the freezer items to our chest freezer. We had to unplug and allow defrosting to occur before checking anything. It seems to have fixed itself, although I'm now very sure to check the temp every time I open the fridge door. I think I see a new fridge in our future.

I determine how cold my fridge should be by the temperature of my milk. If it tastes a bit too warm then I make the fridge colder, if its developing icicles then its set a little too low.

I have a brand new (3 months) fridge/freezer in my rental apartment. It recently started making a popping sound (quite loud) and the freezer is frosting, so when I open the freezer, the top is covered with ice crystals. I removed everything this weekend, cleaned out all the "snow" and put everything back, but it's still doing it. Does anyone know what's causing all of this? I'm definitely going to alert my landlord tomorrow, but I'm curious anyway.

Capricorn Pig,
Is it just a popping sound, or more of a crackle and pop? Some newer freezers make a crackly-poppy sound while auto-defrosting. Scared the daylights out of me the first time I heard it. I thought the wiring had caught fire, so I grabbed the dog and left the building, then called the landlord.