In trying to keep ourselves cool, we can easily overlook the needs of our faithful work horses that keep out food fresh year round. Imagine trying to keep your inner core cold, and the freezer at the correct setting when the room you are in is 80 or more degrees. Here are a few ideas from my experience.

If you have an older fridge, with the open coils in the back, there are specific things that can be done to keep it functioning better. First, keep the coils clean and dust free, by regularly vacuuming them or wiping them down with a wet rag. This increases the efficiciency of the cooling process. Also, the compressor, the round, metal motor in the back bottom section, is working overtime in the heat and prone to being over taxed. Place a small stand up fan on the floor and aim it behind the fridge, to disperse the accumulation of hot air behind it. This will take some of the burden off the compressor.

If you have a newer fridge it may need a boost, too. If you see moisture accumulating inside, up near the freezer, or dripping down the inside walls, it usually indicates that your fridge is stressed, especially if it is packed wall to wall with food. The best thing to do is keep the room that it is in to below 80 degrees, at least, or even cooler, if possible. Also, try to not pack it to the gills. That goes for any age fridge. The more full it is the harder it works.

One last tip is to place a towel or other cloth covering over the top of the fridge. It creates a little extra insulation to the freezer. I leave mine there year round. The little extra attention can prolong the life of your fridge, and also lower the cost of running it.

May all your fridges have a long and useful service. :-)

Thanks! It's getting to the point that I almost have to bail mine out with a bucket every few days. It's only 10 years old, and has been doing this for two. Never, ever again a Whirlpool.

I'm going to try to give it a fan and see if that helps. :)

They make the compressors a lot smaller, nowadays, straining the cooling system. Your age fridge would have a solid back, so a fan pointed there would not work. The goal is to disperse the heat build up from the compressor. In yours, the excess heat would be directed to come out of a lower front grate, down by the floor, in the front. If you put your hand down there when the fridge is running you should feel a lot of heat coming out. Place the fan on the floor pointing toward it. Also, getting the room it's in cooled way down is really crucial. MJ had a very good point, too.

Hope something helps.

Also, only open the door with a purpose. Open the door when you need something, get it and close the door. Opening the door and standing in front of it to try to find something interesting to snack on doesn't help the fridge.

If you are cooking and need 5 items over the next 15 minutes, pull all 5 out once at the start and all 5 back at the end.

And spontaneous fridge worship begins... :)

While we are on the subject my refrigerator works fine but

Due to the innoculation of mormonism and aversion to intamacy

my ultra mega tbm wife is frigid and that ain't cool.

any pointers?

Or you could come to Florida. We are having one of our most mild summer's of record. Spring was terribly cold too. Almost got too cold for bikinis back during spring break. Luckily most of the college girls stepped up, and dared to bare, thus saving the season.

It was in the 80s most of the day and has been raining off and on all day.

I chose a coil-less fridge purposefully. No way can I remember to vac those things off, so never having to do it made sense in terms of paying a little extra when I had to replace my fridge.

The other #1 dead useful tip you might have missed is to let things cool completely before you stick 'em in the fridge. Nothing makes your milk spoil faster than sticking a hot or just warm pot of soup in the fridge right next to a dairy product. The heat raises the temperature too high inside the entire fridge, causing it to work harder to get the temp back down to safe food storage.

But don't wait too long. Two hours and bacteria start to multiply at an alarming rate. I move the leftovers into a glass container, preferably in smaller amounts (Example: portion soup right out into bowls that can be nuked in the microwave to re-heat). Smaller quantities of food cool faster so they won't be too hot to put in the fridge and won't have to cool for 17 hours, which breeds botulism, among other tasty bugs.