Used fridge not cold enough

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Refrigerator

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Renee @silvaticus

Rep: 1

Posted: Jun 9, 2019

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Used fridge not cold enough

II bought a used Whirlpool et19rk/et19rm refrigerator from a place that sells used reconditioned appliances on Wednesday. We got it installed and running yesterday (Saturday) around 4pm. It has been upright since we got it home. As of right now, 7:30 am the next day, the temps in the fridge and freezer are both still too high. The freezer is 15 degrees and the fridge is about 45. Cold air is blowing into each compartment, but the temp doesn’t seem to get any colder than I stated above. Do I just need to wait longer for it to cool off, or is there something wrong with the fridge?

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LadyTech @ladytech

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Posted: Jun 22, 2019

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Renee, it takes a refrigerator up to 48 hrs to reach temperature. Adding bottled water, sodas and items that don’t spoil in the fresh food section will hold the cold and help it get colder faster. Put Containers of water without lids in the freezer. This helps as well, plus you’ll know when the water freezes it’s safe to put food in.

It sounds like you might have laid the refrigerator down when moving it. This is the worse thing for a refrigerator. The refrigerant has oil added for the compressor, it stays in the compressor. When the compressor is running, it creates pressure that turns the liquid refrigerant into gas. The gas moves into areas that liquid doesn’t go. When you lay a refrigerator down, not only does the liquid refrigerant flow to these places they aren’t supposed to go, but the oil flows with it.

If you leave the unit upright and unplugged for several days, you might get lucky and the liquid will drain back into the compressor. If you plugged it in right after you moved it, you could have a problem in the sealed system. Not good.

I sell used appliances and always tell my customers to never lay it down. In fact, I wont warranty it if they lay it down.

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