How To Keep Food Fresh When Your Refrigerator Fails

Trips to the grocery store are getting expensive, and the last thing you want when you’re experiencing issues with your refrigerator is a great big food bill on top of repair costs. You can take steps to mitigate how much you have to toss when your refrigerator fails or the power goes out – and we’re outlining those tips in this guide.

By taking a few preparatory steps and educating yourself on what to do with your food, you’ll be saving yourself a ton if something does go wrong with your appliance. Ready to review how to keep your food fresh when your refrigerator fails? Let’s get started.

Easy Ways To Prepare For A Fridge Failure

Okay – maybe prepping for a refrigerator failure feels a bit excessive, but here’s the thing: the steps you can take to protect your food in the event of an appliance malfunction are tasks that can prolong the lifespan of your fridge in general. They can even help it to run more efficiently in the long run – that means less electricity used, which is better for the environment and your utility bill.

Consider trying out these tips. If your refrigerator does fail, you’ll be more prepared to save some food:

• Always keep a supply of ice in the freezer. It doesn’t even need to be a bunch of perfect little cubes – fill a milk jug, soft drink bottles, or even ziplock bags with water and let them freeze. Not only will you have a DIY ice pack on hand for coolers, injuries, and, yes, fridge failures when you need it, that extra ice will help your freezer to run more efficiently. Empty freezers are less efficient freezers, and simply keeping ice in them can be enough to maintain the temperature inside.

• Store chilled water in your fridge. Just like the ice packs in the freezer, chilled water in the fridge can help keep your fresh food compartment cooler a little longer. Fill a pitcher, jar, or bottle with water and leave it there.

• Make sure the refrigerator’s gaskets are in good shape. Your refrigerator doors are padded by rubber seals that keep cold air in and warm air out. Keep those gaskets clean by wiping them down every once in a while. You can also lubricate them with a very thin application of petroleum jelly – this will help them to maintain elasticity. If any of the gaskets start to crack, tear, or crumble, replace them to ensure your refrigerator is efficiently trapping cold air inside.
  • Check your gaskets once or twice a year or whenever you notice condensation forming on the door, either the interior or exterior. Clean them whenever you notice any crud.

• Keep vents clear. Most refrigerators have a component called a damper, which is a vent that allows cold air from the freezer into the refrigerator. Ensuring the damper and any other vents have at least an inch or two of space around them means your fresh food compartment will have adequate airflow and more easily maintain a cooler temperature.
  • Check that your fridge vents are cleared any time you restock it!

• Invest in a couple of refrigerator thermometers. Having battery-powered or analogue thermometers in your fridge and freezer compartment will let you know just how much the temperature in the compartment has gone up in the time your fridge was out of commission.

• Have at least one good cooler. Your refrigerator’s freezer compartment acts as a cooler already, but having an additional quality cooler will ensure you’ve got space enough to store anything that needs it.

Keeping Food Fresh When Your Refrigerator Fails

To start, you’ll want to know which items absolutely need to stay cold, and which will survive without being maintained at a constant low temperature. Here’s a quick overview for your reference:

• If you have any medications that need to be refrigerated, make sure they’re always properly stored. Check with your doctor for specific instructions and suggestions.

• Most dairy products (hard cheeses and processed are an exception), deli products, meats, eggs and egg products (like pudding), cut fruit and veggies, creamy dressings and condiments, fish sauces like oyster sauce, and any leftovers you have on hand are going to be more susceptible to bacterial growth and spoilage if the temperature climbs above 37°F. It’s important to try and keep these items cool.

• Fresh and dried fruits and veggies, fresh spices, fresh mushrooms, hard cheeses, butter and margarine, and most condiments not listed above are generally safe if held above 40°F for more than 2 hours.

• For freezer goods, your primary concern is whether or not they’re still frozen. Most frozen goods are generally safe if the item still has visible ice crystals and feels as cold as if it were refrigerated. You may want to crack open that ice cream and dig in, though – it won’t refreeze.

• If anything in the freezer has thawed completely and has been above 40°F for more than 2 hours, it should be discarded. The exception is that breads and juices can be refrozen – just toss them if they show signs of spoilage like mold or slimy texture.

Now that you know which food items to focus on, let’s take a look at your storage options.

Option 1: Leave it alone!

If you’re dealing with a temporary loss of fridge functionality and you don’t anticipate being without a refrigerator for long – for example, if you’ve got a power outage that’s going to last less than four hours – your best bet is to just keep the doors to your fridge closed. Opening the freezer and fresh food compartment doors lets cold air out and warm air in, greatly increasing the rate at which the temperature inside the refrigerator rises when it isn’t working.

A well-stocked refrigerator can maintain temperature for up to four hours (the freezer will stay cold for up to two days), keeping in mind that this number will vary depending on the climate and current temperatures where you live. If your fridge is going to be out of commission for longer than that, you’ll need to take steps to keep your food from spoiling.

Option 2: Relocate the essentials

If you’re going to be without a refrigerator for more than a few hours, you’ll want to prepare a cooler, but you don’t need to move everything. Focus on getting the more susceptible food items mentioned above – dairy products like soft cheeses, creamy condiments like mayo and ranch dressing, and thawed meats – into cold storage. Fresh fruits and veggies and standard condiments can generally survive on their own without much help.

Check out these additional tips:

• Space is at a premium, so don’t be afraid to reorganize your menu. Move the leftovers, dairy products, and deli meats up and eat those first so they don’t go to waste.

• In a pinch, your freezer can function as a cooler, but it probably won’t hold everything that was in the fresh food compartment, so having an additional cooler on hand will help.

• Tightly pack everything. Already cold food that’s close together will warm more slowly.

• If you’re adding bags of loose ice to your freezer or fresh food compartment, put the bags or the ice in a container to keep water from spilling everywhere as they melt.

The Next Step: Repair Or Replace?

Is everything safe and sorted? Great! Your next step is to determine whether it’s time to repair or replace your refrigerator. Outside of damage to the condenser system, which requires some specialized tools and training to fix, and control board issues with certain newer appliances, just about everything that goes wrong with your fridge is something you can probably fix yourself.

If you aren’t sure which way to go, we can help!

When is it time to replace your refrigerator?

Most manufacturers tag their refrigerators as having a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years, with some stretching that number out as far as 20. How long yours is estimated to last depends on the brand, model, and style.

While most fridge repairs can be handled at home without a technician, no appliance is going to last forever. Here are some signs that it’s time to ditch that old ice box and pick up a new one:

• If your refrigerator is more than 15 years old, it’s likely well into its estimated lifespan, and it may be time to replace it instead of repair it. You may also run into issues with even finding compatible parts if your appliance is particularly old.

• When repair costs start racking up, it may actually be cheaper to purchase a new appliance. Most refrigerator parts are pricey, but they’re still a fraction of the cost of a whole new fridge. You’re saving money by fixing the things that go wrong yourself, but as your refrigerator ages, more components will start to fail. Don’t let the cost of repairs exceed the price of a new appliance!

• If your family needs an upgrade, downgrade, or there’s a new feature you want. Maybe you’d prefer more freezer space to an ice maker, or want smart home features.

Fixing your fridge yourself with help from AppliancePartsPros.com

Many refrigerator issues can be solved with a standard toolkit and a genuine OEM replacement part. If you need some help diagnosing your issues and making your repairs, check out our blog and our YouTube channel – we’ve got guides for all the most popular makes and models of refrigerators, and we offer tips and tutorials for just about every issue you might have!

Once you know what’s up with your fridge, we can get you the part you need to fix it in as little as two days. Check out AppliancePartsPros.com for more information!