Why is my refrigerator not cooling?

"Hi,

What is the make and model number of the fridge?

Regardless of the temperature the fridge should continue to operate. It shouldn’t stop just because the ambient temperature outside the fridge is hot.

However It may struggle to maintain the correct temperatures in hot conditions, especially if the doors are opened often, letting out the cold air.

Without knowing your particular fridge, the ""hot"" side may well be just the side where the condenser coils are located. These are normally warm to hot as this is where the heat extracted from the fridge is released by convection into the air. On hot days, since the fridge is running almost continually to maintain the temperature the coils are going to get hot.

Have you checked that the compressor fan is running and that the condenser coils are free from dust build up to maximize their cooling?

The fridge compressor should only stop when the fridge’s set temperatures have been reached (difficult to maintain with doors being opened therefore compressor runs a lot) and when the fridge is in its’ auto defrost cycle.

Most modern fridges have auto defrost. This means that at least once every 8-12 hours (varies by manufacturer) the compressor and evaporator fan are turned off for approx. 20 minutes whilst it is in defrost mode. This allows the ice in the freezer to melt and be drained away. No ice in the freezer allows for more efficient cooling.

You may have just caught the fridge when it was in the auto defrost cycle.

In this cycle, the temp in the freezer is allowed to rise to just above 32 deg F (0 deg C) to allow the ice to melt. The process is sped up by the control unit (or defrost thermostat) turning on a defrost heater near the evaporator unit in the freezer, where the ice build up occurs.

After a preset time lapse the fridge goes back into the normal mode and the compressor and evaporator fan (in the freezer compartment) are switched back on to drive the temp back down to 0 deg F (-18 deg C) in the freezer and by extension 37 deg F (4 deg C) in the fridge. This takes a bit of time to achieve of course.

Keep an eye on the temperatures just to see if they are near the “normal” range approx 37 deg F ( 4 deg C) for the fridge and 0 deg F (-18 deg C) for the freezer, but be aware of the auto defrost cycle which is when the fridge compressor (location is usually at the back of the fridge on the outside of the fridge not inside fridge or freezer compartments) is OFF and the freezer/fridge is not being kept cold/cool.

On a hot day if the compressor turns off more often than 2-3 times (in 24 hours) and for longer than 30 minutes, you may have a problem. You may find that the compressor is off (not running) first thing in the morning as the fridge has had all night, which is usually cooler than the day, to reach and maintain the set temps without the doors being opened at all so the compressor doesn’t have to do anything. This doesn’t mean that it should be off when you check just saying that it may be."