Fridge temperature

[Pinky678]

What temperatures are your fridges?

In a new rental. During heatwave the fridge seemed to give up, top half seemed cold and is showing 1-5 degrees but bottom was measuring between 8-11. Our kitchen actually stayed coolest out of whole house made it to 26 max by last couple of days (as opposed to the inferno on upper floors!). realised problem when I took out chicken that wasn’t cold. Before that I had noticed veg in veg drawer was going off faster than I expected…

landlord sent out a repair person who didn’t find any faults but cleaned vents and made some adjustments. After waiting 24 hours (and the weather cooled down at same time) the bottom still didn’t go below 8-9. Last couple of days it’s made it to 6.8 first thing. Top shelves still seem ok.

We went back to agent and they said they’d spoken to repair person who said he’d done a full inspection and the fridge was cold and temp going down when he was there and no faults? They will send them back out as landlord would prefer not to replace if it can be repaired (fair enough). Apparently it’s not within warrantee but has a sticker on front saying 10 year guarantee?

after a week with small kids with food allergies and a semi functioning fridge I’m getting quite stressed - and have thrown away a lot of food and paranoid about making them sick. Only 2 working shelves which I’m dubious about isn’t enough. I’ve stuck my meat probe in milk and yoghurt it’s saying 10 even tho feels cold. For example I bought milk and despite putting it on the colder shelf the packet swelled up in morning when still unopened so I had to bin it. I also have no car so not that easy to shop daily..

Im worried with another heatwave coming it will get worse again?

just want to know am I being unrealistic.. we are new to tenancy and it’s a short lease already as landlord planning to stop renting, we wd love to be able to extend so don’t want to piss them off and feel like I’ve been told I’m lying? We are new to tenancy as just sold our previous home and having to go through agent etc is an adjustment! I really hate making a fuss

short version what temp are your fridges?
would this be ok for you?
thanks

Forgot to say - the freezer (attached to side) is working fine!

My fridge is set at 3 degrees. I would not be ok with anything above 4 degrees.
Sounds like there might be an issue with the cooling fluids?

My fridge is also set to 3 degrees and the thermometer I have inside says it is that cold.

Ours is set to 3, which it is usually at. We were away last week and we got back to a not very cold fridge - we moved it away from the wall and kitchen units and it recovered pretty quickly. It’s usually fine where it is but struggled in the particularly hot weather.

I looked on the manufacturers guidance and it said as long as it reaches 8 degrees it’s working as expected and they wouldn’t fix it even if it was still in warranty. I would not want my fridge to be 8 degrees, and I’d be furious if the manufacturer decided it was ok.

When ours was consistently 7 degrees we replaced it because that's not food safe. And the milk went off really quickly so I did want to think what was happening to the meat!

From a food hygiene perspective, it needs to be below 5 degrees.

Ours is currently 3 degrees.

Thank you all. I don’t know why I’m doubting myself I just don’t like making a fuss/ feel like a child having to ask permission and I was quite surprised when they came back and said engineer said it was cold?! If it was mine I would have just replaced it already but I can’t just get rid of their fridge..

I work for a company that manufactures medical devices, industry standard “fridge” temperature is usually 2-8C so yes yours is too warm if it’s regularly going above 8.
(Also I think food hygiene fridge temperature is colder than 8C but not sure)

Just bear in mind the internal temperature may be lower than the digital display says.

At my work we have medical vaccine fridges with data loggers inside. The display said they went above range during the heatwave but when I downloaded the data loggers they were all well in range.

Avoid opening the doors unnecessarily, make sure the airflow around the fridge is clear and don’t panic.

Thanks that’s interesting about your data logs
for this fridge though It has hardly anything in it and hasn’t for several days now, and everything is spaced/ not touching back/ blocking vents…
I doubt it is colder than it says given the reason I checked in first place was food not being cold/ milk going off… and also when I check the food with temp probe it’s all around 10…
inwas just questioning whether others would in fact be cool with 8-10 and if I’m the issue !

And yes door opening has been kept to very bare minimum! But even after being closed overnight it’s 8 at the bottom

And whether other people’s fridges actually stay at 4 degrees !

lol just seen this on newsfeed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c77yejxnvpxo

I have a thermometer which I keep in my fridge to check the temperature which should be about 4 C The dial in my fridge does not represent the actual temperature in my fridge. In my fridge 1 is the warmest setting and 5 the coldest. Due to the warm weather it’s now set between 4-5. It’s usually on 3