Our Kemore 41 Series fridge is freezing some food on the bottom shelf (but no other food on above shelves or below in crisper seems to freeze)... why?
Does our fridge temperature go from warmest (#10) to coldest (#1)?? or vice versa?
Howie
No instruction manual, or hints on the dial to tell you which way is coldest? Buy a fridge thermometer at the grocery store and experiment. And, check the Sears web site. Many web sites offer instruction manuals via download, usually in PDF format.
Most refrigerators are colder at the bottom and near the back of the shelves. Cheaper models tend to display this tendency for some reason. Use the thermometer adjust the WORST spot so it's not freezing food, and then check the upper shelves to make sure the temp is cold enough to be safe. If you can't get the two zones into useful temp ranges, perhaps you can change where you store certain things. For instance, pickles have enough salt in the brine that they usually won't freeze (based on my experience with a stupid refrigerator). Fresh broccoli can be "frosted" a bit without suffering. It lives through light frosts in the garden.
Finally, try not to block the backs of the upper shelves with bulky things like bread. Better air circulation may help.
You want to check the owner's manual. If you can't find yours (shame on you) you may be able to download one from the Sears web site.
I don't know the style of fridge but many have two settings, one for the freezer and one for the frig section. They tend to work as a team so changing one can change the other.
The book will also tell you about any maintenance that you should be doing and are likely well behind on.
There is a fan that circulates air between the fridge and freezer compartments. This fan also blows air around the freezer compartment. If the fan stops or if the air duct becomes clogged with frost, the air will not circulate and you will have uneven temperature.
Try defrosting then verify that you feel cold air coming out of the vents in the freezer compartment when you turn it back on. Also do not overload the freezer such that the vents are blocked. If you have spilled an ice tray the water may have also frozen in the air duct.
Usually there are two knobs. One is the thermostat and clicks when you turn it when you are at the set temp. The other controls the size of the opening to the air duct mentioned above. Set the thermostat so that the fridge is cold but not freezing and adjust the other to balance the tempo between the compartments. Look at just about any owners manual for the same style (top mount, side by side) for better setting advice.
Sounds like you need to set the thermostat a little lower and close the freezer vent a bit. This will raise the overall temp a bit and balance more cold air in the freezer compartment
And, wait at least a day for the entire refrigerator to stabilize after you make adjustments. It sometimes takes that long, or longer.
This is pretty easy. When you fridge is not running, open the door and turn the dial in one direction. If the compressor motor starts running, then you have determined which direction on the dial is for "colder/coldest."
There is a lot of good advice already posted in reply to your questions. I would also add that you should purchase 2 inexpensive electronic thermometers with digital readouts. You want to monitor fridge temps without guessing. I like 40 degrees in the fridge and 0-10 in the freezer. Others would probably recommend 20 or so in the freezer.
Most of the electronic thermometers have a remote probe connected via a rather thin wire. This makes it easy to leave the probe inside the fridge and the display unit outside of the fridge, with the thin wire running over the door seal. Most of these units have a memory feature, which is great. If the clocks are flashing "12:00" when you come home from work, you can check these thermometers to see just how much the fridge warmed up during the power outage. If you leave town for a few days, this is even more important.
Gideon
I'll give it a try... thx!
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