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My fridge is freezing everything in the salad drawer…

(15 Posts)
MayBee70 Mon 17-Jun-24 19:03:22

I turned the temperature down in the fridge down to its lowest setting as the milk was turning. The fridge thermometer is reading 5 which is the temperature needed to keep cream etc fresh. But the celery and cucumber in the salad drawer is frozen solid. I’ve never been able to get the temperature right in this fridge. Am I doing something wrong? I know that things sometimes freeze if they touch the back of the fridge but surely things shouldn’t freeze in the salad drawer? I have an under counter fridge in the kitchen and my freezer is in the utility room; thankfully the freezer is quite old and works in a room which gets very cold in winter. I don’t have anywhere in the kitchen to put a fridge freezer. ( I hate having to throw out food; wonder if I can make soup from the celery when it thaws out?)

foxie48 Mon 17-Jun-24 19:16:49

OH is the font of all knowledge, he says the salad drawer will be the coldest part of the fridge so try putting something else in the salad drawer and put your salad higher up. I think you could use frozen celery for soup. You could put a chunk of frozen cucumber in a gin and tonic but drink it before it unfreezes!

Whiff Mon 17-Jun-24 19:37:24

MayBee the celery will make soup from frozen . I made my 6 dinner stew today everything came out of the freezer straight into the saucepan and added boiling water and stock cubes ,S&p and pearl barely and brought to the boil and simmered it for 90 mins. Had portion for my dinner delicious.

My fridge setting is on 5 as per manufacturers instructions. My fridge is only 4.5 years old.

midgey Mon 17-Jun-24 19:42:48

My fridge freezes everything in the salad drawer too. My cure is a newspaper and some kitchen roll. Easy to replace when no longer clean and dry. It was too awkward to swap the salad drawer.

MayBee70 Mon 17-Jun-24 20:01:37

I’ll make the soup now. It’s not a very big fridge and by the time I’ve put mayonnaise and things like that in it there isn’t much room for much else. I get my milk from the milkman and it doesn’t last as long as milk from a supermarket. It’s so expensive I hate throwing it out but, having started getting stuff from him during the pandemic I want to remain loyal to him now. I’ll get some containers and put celery and stuff at the top of the fridge.

MayBee70 Mon 17-Jun-24 21:45:37

Soup’s turned out ok smile!

MissAdventure Mon 17-Jun-24 22:50:51

My fridge does it too.

I pensioned off my last one, thinking it was because it was so old, bought this one new, and it does the same thing!

Anything towards to backs of the shelves, or in the drawer gets semi frozen.

MayBee70 Mon 17-Jun-24 23:26:18

That’s good to know because I was looking at other fridges with a view to replacing it.

David49 Tue 18-Jun-24 08:42:28

It’s true cold air sinks you have the temperature set too low don’t rely on a cheap thermometer to be accurate. Our milk lives at the bottom of the door pockets where the fridge is coldest milk lasts 7days+

Assuming you buy supermarket milk if it goes sour it’s got warm at some point, they are very strict if a truck load arrives over temperature it gets sent back. A few do get milk from a local source, a farm or milkman it’s much more likely to have a shorter life.

welbeck Tue 18-Jun-24 09:57:18

your fridge sounds like it is set too low, ie too cold.
tweak it up a bit. just a fraction, and observe.
the top shelf is the least cold.
the bottom area, above the compressor is the coldest.
the salad box is in front of that, so likely to get v cold.
i've found milk delivered from mr milko was never kept cold enough.
this is in latter years, not the old days when everyone had it delivered. don't remember any problem then.

MissAdventure Tue 18-Jun-24 10:02:04

Thank you.

I've confused myself so much, turningt the dial up and down, that I've forgotten what number it should be on for colder/hotter.

So, the number on the dial needs to be higher?

welbeck Tue 18-Jun-24 10:09:08

usually, the higher the number, the colder the fridge.
but i find it's better to move it up or down gradually.
maybe if OP zapped it up to maximum coldness all at once, the poor compressor got a headache and overdid it.

David49 Tue 18-Jun-24 12:30:19

welbeck

your fridge sounds like it is set too low, ie too cold.
tweak it up a bit. just a fraction, and observe.
the top shelf is the least cold.
the bottom area, above the compressor is the coldest.
the salad box is in front of that, so likely to get v cold.
i've found milk delivered from mr milko was never kept cold enough.
this is in latter years, not the old days when everyone had it delivered. don't remember any problem then.

It was delivered every day because it didn’t keep very long.

MissAdventure Tue 18-Jun-24 12:35:53

Thanks, wellbeck. smile

Franbern Tue 18-Jun-24 12:43:22

You should contact the manufacturers of your fridge. WHen I had my kitchen done a couple of years ago I preferred a stand-alone |FF, and chose the Beko one with supposedly daytime/night-time lighting in salad drawer. Within a few weeks this was happening, and when the engineer from Beko came to me, he had to replace a part in motor itself that was misfunctioning.