11 Easy Tips To Improve The Efficiency Of Your Refrigerator & Freezer

Here’s the fact, Refrigerators & Air Conditioners are sort of everything in summers.

It’s more like a huge investment that we make in these heavy electronic appliances.

Of Course, we all want our Refrigerator entirely up and running. Hence, maintenance is one of the most critical factors for its long-lasting life without any interruption.

Well, today, I’m going to share the precise tips to save energy and tricks that I followed for my refrigerator maintenance, which will definitely give efficient results in terms of cooling and freezing as well.

Keep reading to see the exact step by step process…

The Millennial Technique: Your Kitchen Arena

Let’s proceed with the steps:-

Step 1: Clean the Refrigerator

Of Course, this is general, however, based on a recent survey, it is proved that a lot of people miss out on this very critical part.

Well, cleaning once a month would also work, it’s not necessary to clean it every week as it takes slightly longer as compared to other steps.

How to clean it in the best possible manner?

It’s pretty simple and can be done quickly. The simple way:-

Promptly remove all the food, drawers, and shelves from the Refrigerator. Wash the cupboards and drawers with warm water along with dishwasher soap.

Removing everything from the Refrigerator will also allow you to clean the fridge from deep inside corners, which plays an essential part in cooling efficiency as well.

If you find any stubborn stains inside the Refrigerator, drawers, or shelves, then you can also use baking soda to get rid of them.

This is one of the major step for refrigerator efficiency improvement.

Step 2: Coil Cleaning

Well, cleaning the coil of the Refrigerator sounds a bit technical; however, it isn’t at all!

No worries, I’ll explain.

Cleaning the coil of the Refrigerator is one of the most critical factors for its maintenance, and most people miss on this, which is one of the significant reasons for fridge cooling concerns.

It’s not something which needs to be done regularly, getting it cleaned twice or thrice a year would definitely work.

There are basically 3 places where the coil of the Refrigerator is located, and that depends on the model of the fridge.

It is either located at the back, top, or underneath the Refrigerator, which looks precisely the way shown in the above image.

The moment the coil and compressor get dirty, it starts getting overheated, and the strange part is we do not recognize what’s going on. 

At first, it starts impacting the cooling ability, and later on, the Refrigerator stops cooling because of compressor failure.

You just need to take and may be use a vacuum cleaner; if not, take a clean cloth and clean the dust from every part of the coil, it’s a proven technique for fridge long-lasting performance.

Step 3: Keeping the freezer full

I know that a lot of you would be thinking that it doesn’t make sense at all as to how keeping the freezer full would help in maintenance? However, this technique works excellent!

Let’s understand how keeping the freezer full can help in its performance.

There are a lot of people who keep the Refrigerator full, and that’s a great way to keep it maintained; however, following the freezer full is also essential.

So what happens is, every fridge has a feature to maintain the temperature at an equal level, and the sensor of the Refrigerator automatically recognizes it.

It’s pretty simple, the more frozen goods and food are stored in the Refrigerator. The less the fridge has to modify its temperature. It’s because all the frozen products would be at the same temperature for a specified period.

This reduces the extra efforts from the machine, which results in smooth performance and long-lasting experience.

It may sounds out of the box, however, this strategy definitely helps in refrigerator efficiency improvement.

Step 4: Select the best temperature for your Refrigerator

This is the most commonly asked question by our audience and is absolutely essential.

Refrigerators are all about temperature, it has to be set correctly for a better experience because no one of us would prefer frozen water bottles.

A lot of us like keeping the extra temperature cold seems like a good idea; however, it doesn’t work that way.

Setting a refrigerator at an extra cold temperature can affect and do more damage to the Refrigerator’s performance if we take it in the long term.

Well, you might be wondering, what’s the use of the freezer then?

It’s quite simple; setting the Refrigerator at more than the desired temperature requires more effort from the fridge to maintain the temperature.

There are a couple of benefits of setting the Refrigerator at a warmer temperature.

First, it helps in the efficiency of the Refrigerator; second, it enables you to save a considerable amount on electricity bills as well.

There are various advised temperatures for different refrigerator models; you will just need to check the user manual of the Refrigerator’s model, which you have.

The desired temperature of your fridge would be mentioned in that, keeping it that way not only helps in saving money and refrigerator efficiency, it also helps in keeping food fresh as well.

Step 5: Check the door seals

This is insanely important as neglecting this can result in a lot of issues, let’s discuss what exactly it is…

So, by any chance, if the Refrigerator’s door is not sealing correctly, it may result in multiple issues such as cooling, gas, compressor failure.

Loose seals let the air cooling go outside the Refrigerator and that waste electricity as well.

Moreover, it then requires extra effort and hard work from the Refrigerator and its compressor to maintain the temperature.

On top of this, it results in fridge gas issues that require a technician, and that results in additional costs.

Here’s the simplest way by which you can get rid of the sealing issue.

You just need to take a toothbrush along with warm water and baking soda.

Gently clean the corners of the Refrigerator to get rid of stubborn stains and food residue.

Doing this, twice or thrice a year, is more than sufficient to maintain a long term efficiency for your fridge.

Step 6: Keep the refrigeration unit dry

Well, keeping the unit dry has to do a lot with the maintenance, as it is a crucial aspect that we need to understand and take care of.

At times, the liquid gets accumulated on the shelves and surface of the Refrigerator, which needs to be cleaned at regular intervals.

Cleaning the spills is very important; too much moisture sometimes causes the Refrigerator to over freeze. Checking it once a week is advisable.

In-depth check maintenance and removing moisture from the floor of the fridge requires a technician service call, if applicable.

Step 7: Keep your Refrigerator away from sunlight

Well, this is extremely important, it is advised to keep your Refrigerator away from direct sunlight.

It would be even better if you keep it completely away from sunlight, let’s understand why is this important?

So, what happens is, the refrigerators are designed in a way that the machine consumes excess electricity and power.

Direct sunlight affects the coil heating and other parts of the Refrigerator, which is one of the significant reasons for machine failure.

The worst part is, this cause of failure can void the warranty of the machine. So, there is nothing much required.

You can try to keep the Refrigerator anywhere in the corner of the house or at any preferred place. Just that, it should not have any connection to the sunlight.

Step 8: Keep food and fruits covered.

Well, this might not directly help in the way of maintenance, but in a way it does, I’ll explain how:-

So, to maintain the freshness of the food or fruits, we keep it in the Refrigerator so that it can be eaten at a later time.

However, have you ever realized that it has a lot to do with the temperature and the fridge maintenance as well?

To maintain the efficiency of the cooling and freshness of the food, it is suggested that you keep the food or fruits covered in aluminum or plastic foils.

Also, make sure you keep the gasket clean, and it is appropriately compatible and fit with the refrigerator door.

The gasket is the black placket rubber, which is at the corners of the door when the refrigerator door gets closed. It starts to get compressed to make sure there is no air gap.

The entire process ensures that the food, fruits, and vegetables remain fresh for a more extended period at the same time refrigerator cooling efficiency gets maintained.

Step 9: Keep your refrigerator solo

I am sure that it sounds weird; however, this is also one of the factors which affect the performance.

Obviously, all of our refrigerators would be placed next to any appliance in our house. Be it, washing machines, gas stoves, or dishwashers.

It’s completely alright to keep it anywhere in the house; after all, it all depends on your convenience and preference.

However, the fact is, the heat of other appliances gets moved to the Refrigerator through metal conduction sources, and that’s alright too.

Just that, it is something that forces your Refrigerator for extra efforts to maintain the temperature and that impacts on the compressor.

To avoid this, it is advised to keep your Refrigerator at any corner of the house, and it should have sufficient distance to other appliances.

Step 10: Avoid keeping hot food in the Refrigerator

A lot of us keep hot food inside the Refrigerator without realizing that it can affect both food’s freshness and refrigerator performance.

I’ll explain how

As mentioned above, every Refrigerator is set up at a specific temperature, and its job is to keep all the material in the Refrigerator maintained at the same temperature.

So, as we place hot food inside the Refrigerator, it takes some extra effort and energy for the Refrigerator to make that particular hot item temperature equal to all other items placed inside the kitchen.

Placing the items in the Refrigerator at an average temperature not only helps in reducing the heat generated by the Refrigerator, it also helps to avoid foodborne illness!

Step 11: Perform Defrost if Required

This place plays a vital role in and is required to be done at regular intervals.

If the refrigerator model that you have has an inbuilt auto defrosting, then it isn’t required to do it manually. However, if it’s not the case, then a manual defrost is required. In direct cool refrigerators you need to perform it manually however in frost free fridges, you get the auto defrosting feature.

You can also refer to the direct cool vs frost free fridges guide in which can find which one is better and efficient.

Now, the question is, how often defrosting is required?

How do I do it?

Don’t you worry, I am here for you.

So, whenever you figure out that the frost is accumulated at around half an inch or more around the interior walls of the interior, then that’s the right time to defrost the Refrigerator.

It’s pretty simple to get it done:-

Unplug the Refrigerator, remove all food, fruits, vegetables, and the other items placed inside the Refrigerator.

Now, keep the Refrigerator unplugged for a while to make sure the frost gets melt within some time.

Once the frost is melted, clean the Refrigerator until it’s dry.

Note: Some models of best refrigerators have a Defrost button that can be used during the process.

Once the temperature of the Refrigerator is average, place back all the other items back, including food, fruits, or vegetables.

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Conclusion:-

Now, you can try it, and it will definitely work!

I hope that all of you can see the potentials and benefits of The Millennial Technique for your refrigerator maintenance in the best possible manner.

With these steps, you already know how you can save a lot of money on technician service calls by just following these simple tips and tricks to keep your Refrigerator long-lasting.

Feel free to give any suggestions or advice to add on, if you find this information valuable I’d appreciate a social share and a comment!