Your Fridge Freezer is one of your most vital appliances, keeping all your food fresh and cold for when you come to use it. Therefore, if it breaks down it needs to be fixed quickly and dependably. A lot of the time though these fixes are expensive and cause hassle, so why not check if it’s something you can fix yourself before calling an engineer out?

If you investigate it and find there’s nothing you can do, at least you’ve gotten closer to the problem and can get a better quote from the engineer you do call. In this article, we’ll take you through simple fixes, common faults, and when you should call an engineer to get the problem sorted.

Temperature too high.

There are certain ways you can check if your fridge freezer’s temperature is playing up, you can do these simple checks to see if you can fix the problem.

• Does the door close fully? The door may be obstructed or broken, not allowing it to close properly. This lets a lot of the room’s heat into the fridge which changes the temperature.

• Has the thermostat accidentally been changed? The thermostats are quite sensitive, so maybe it has ben pushed by mistake and changed the setting to a warmer one.

• Is there too much food in the fridge? Fridges with too much food in them can stop good air circulation which means your food can get too warm, so make sure your fridge isn’t too packed.

• Is your fridge thermostat broken? Your thermostat could be playing up too which would cause the temperature to display wrong on your fridge freezer. Replacing the thermostat can be relatively easy, the part would cost around £30, and you should have the tools to get the job done in your home. Do some research before attempting though as it isn’t a job for a total beginner. If your fridge has all the controls on the front this can be a trickier procedure, so call a professional in to look at it in this case.

Freezer not Freezing Food

If your freezer is not freezing food properly, then check through this list of potential problems to see if they are causing the issue.

• Freezer fan blocked. Check if the fan for the freezer is blocked or clogged, clean it and make sure it has room to do its job. Also, a good practice is to check if its frozen over, sometimes ice could be blocking it from moving the best it can.

• Condenser coils? Check your condenser coils at the back of the freezer which can get blocked by a build up of dust. Be sure to give them a good clean, as this build up could be the cause of your freezing issues.

• No luck? Call an engineer if these fixes don’t help you solve the problem as there is probably something more complex preventing your freezer from freezing your food properly. It could be the thermostat or compressor, or many other things, but it’s worth getting an engineer in to look if you don’t have the knowledge/experience yourself.

Water Collecting at Bottom of Fridge

Water collecting in your fridge is very pesky and can be frustrating, but it should be an easy fix. Check these things.

• Drain Hole? Usually, the cause to this problem is that the draining hole in your fridge is blocked. You can clean this quickly with a straw, a piece of wire or a cotton bud. Then your fridge should drain water just like new.

• Irrigate the pipe? If you’re still having issues with draining, you can try irrigating the drainpipe using a syringe with a tube attached. Keep flushing water down the pipe until the water moves whatever is blocking the drainpipe and you should be ready to go.

Fridge Freezer Frozen Over with Ice

Sometimes if your fridge freezer has frozen over, all you want to do is quickly pull the ice off with a tool. This is a bad idea though as you could damage parts of your appliance and even cause refrigerant gas to leak.

To safely defrost the freezer, follow these steps.

• Unplug the freezer.
• Empty the freezer of food.
• Wait about 15 minutes for the ice to soften (soft enough that it won’t break your appliance when you try to scrape the ice off).
• Scrape the ice from the walls with a wooden spoon or spatula.
• Remove the ice from the floor before it melts.

This is only a temporary fix, so it may be worth getting an engineer out to sort the underlying problem out.

Fridge Freezer Making a Lot of Noise

If you’re hearing more noise than usual, or strange sounding noises coming from your fridge freezer, you will want to see what the cause of the problem is. Here are some tips.

• A noisy fridge freezer could be related to the compressor. The compressor pushes refrigerant into the coils outside. This can stop working, which triggers a warning sound. Also, the evaporator tray on top of the compressor can move which causes it to make a sound too.

• The evaporator tray is an easy fix as you can just put it back in place, but with the compressor breaking, you can be looking at a hefty £150 plus engineer costs to get a new one fitted. It’s worth considering if it’s even worth fixing unless your fridge freezer is a really expensive one.

Fridge Light Not Working

If your fridge lite isn’t working properly then you shouldn’t need to bring in an engineer to fix this. Here is some advice on how to go about the issue.

• For fridges with a screw in bulb, you should be able to just change the bulb yourself. Just be sure you have the correct bulb for your fridge. You can search for the right parts for your model online, and sometimes manufacturers even have their own spare parts sites.

• For LED strip lighting, it may be worth getting someone in to do the job, but if you’re confident doing LED lights then you can do this yourself no problem.

• Remember, make sure the fridge freezer is turned off at the plug and unplugged before you attempt to switch the lights.

Door Seals Broken or Not Closing

If your door seal is broken it can lead to your food going off quicker than it should, which can be a real pain. Look for these things to check if it is broken.

• Check for any tears or damage that may be causing the seal to not shut properly or letting warm air into your fridge, or areas where the seal has gone hard.

• Test with a piece of paper / currency note. You can close the fridge door on a thin piece of paper or note of money and if it stays in place then your seal is working fine, if it doesn’t, then it is broken and loose and you’ll need to replace the seal. Be sure to check all the way around the door seal too and not just where the fridge handle is too.

• You can change the seal yourself if you like, it’s an easy job and the most you’ll have to do is pull the seal off and maybe loosen some screws. You can find new seals online for between £30 and £100.

So those are our tips for dealing with common faults with your fridge freezer. If your fridge freezer is broken completely and you need a new one, check out our article on how to buy a fridge freezer. If not, then happy fixing!