Your refrigerator is a major appliance that is necessary for your household. Your refrigerator holds all of your food and keeps it at the proper temperature so you have safe food to consume. It also holds food in your freezer so you can stock up on foods and have meals available to you as needed. Without a working refrigerator, it can be difficult to do these things, and it can be very stressful for you and your family. If your refrigerator isn't working properly, read on for a few issues you may encounter and how to repair them.

Not Cold Enough

If your refrigerator isn't cold enough, you may need to adjust the thermostat inside the refrigerator/freezer depending on where it isn't cool enough. Each side should have a thermostat dial that you can adjust manually. Your drawers may also have their own thermostat as well to keep foods such as dairy or vegetables/fruits at the proper temperature as well. If the thermostat wasn't the issue, be sure your refrigerator is able to cool itself down. If it's overheating, it may be causing your food to get too warm inside as well. Be sure you don't have anything blocking the coils at the back of the refrigerator, such as built up dust or other debris, and take everything off of the top of your refrigerator if you have anything stacked on top.

Freezer Thawing Out

If your freezer is thawing out and causing you problems such as thawing out your food, adjust the thermostat. If that doesn't do the trick, be sure you don't have anything blocking the vents inside the freezer. Sometimes if you have too much stacked inside, it can cause a problem with thawing. Clean your freezer out, or move some items to a different freezer if need be to see if this helps the situation.

Ice Build Up

If you have ice building up in your freezer, you may need to thaw out your freezer. If the freezer is building up with ice, your food is going to get freezer burned, which can take away the flavor of your food and cause it to go bad, which means all of that food could be ruined. To thaw out your freezer, you may have a setting on your freezer, but if not, you can unplug your freezer/refrigerator, keep the doors open, and thaw it out manually. Be sure to keep your food safe in coolers until you can replace your food in your freezer/refrigerator again. If it freezes up again and you've adjusted the thermostat, contact an appliance repairman for help.

Your refrigerator/freezer is going to give you problems from time to time over its lifetime. If you encounter a problem that you aren't sure how to repair on your own, contact an appliance repair company like A OK Appliance Service for help.