We ordered a brand new American-style fridge-freezer three weeks ago. After using it for a few days, I didn't think the food from the fridge felt as cold as our old fridge, so we put a thermometer inside, and the internal temperature was 8 degrees. This was with us setting the temperature at 4 degrees as per the manufacturer's recommendation.
We then reduced the temperature setting to 1 degree, gave it a day, and the internal temperature would not get lower than 7 degrees. We also bought two new fridge thermometers to check it wasn't a faulty thermometer - the readings on all three thermometers were consistent within a degree.
Note - the freezer was fine at around -20 degrees.
We spoke to manufacturer, who sent an engineer who agreed it was a fault, so we had a replacement delivered on Monday.
Switched it on at 9.30pm, the internal temperature at 6am on Tuesday was around 5 degrees. So far, so good we thought.
I then filled the fridge yesterday with a lot of room-temperature items. Mainly bottles and jars, as I don't want to put anything inside yet that actually needs to kept cold. But I understand it's actually more difficult for a fridge to cool itself when it's empty, and having some items inside is preferable.
The internal temp first raised to 12 degrees (which makes sense I think due to the 'warm' items being placed inside, rather than refridgerated items), was then 10 degrees at 9pm last night, and still up to 8 degrees this morning....
Note - the freezer is fine again at around -20 degrees.
Given the fridge has now been switched on for 36 hours, should it have come down to a 'fridge' temperature already, or do we need to leave it longer still?
I can't believe we would have been unlucky enough to have received two new fridges with identical faults!
Does anyone know if American-style fridges run warmer in general?
Current plan is to give it until tomorrow morning and then I guess this one will also have to go back! Has made me cautious about ordering a similar one from a different manufacturer.
Any advice or insight would be welcome. Thanks.