Garage Refrigerator ProblemsAppliance parts online, right part, best price and fast shipping. If you have a garage refrigerator you may experience many problems especially if in an unheated garage. There are many misconceptions about refrigerators in garages. This page will clear them upBefore we get started there is one thing I would like to point out, refrigerators are designed to operate at or around room temperature (67-77 degrees). Ironically, refrigerators do much better with warmer temperatures, than they do colder temperatures, which I will explain. Basically refrigerators will work fair up to around 100 degrees and down to about 55 degrees or so, but optimal temperature is room temperature. Garage Refrigerator Problems- Low Temperature Not running Most refrigerators (with the exception of newer high end refrigerators) are controlled by a cold control/thermostat in the fresh food section. Which means if the temperature in the fresh food section is at the set temperature (the cold control is satisfied) the entire refrigerator cuts off. This works fine at higher temperatures because when the temperature in the fresh food section gets to the set temperature the freezer is plenty cold. To understand all of this, it is important to know the fresh food section is cooled by cold air from the freezer on almost all refrigerators with a few exceptions. What happens is when the ambient temperature gets below about 50 degrees or so the refrigerator will not run long enough to cool the freezer properly. This is because the refrigerator doesn’t have to run very long to cool the fresh food section to set temperature if the ambient temperature is low. Refrigeration Problem Another garage refrigerator problem is the effect that cold ambient temperatures have on refrigerant and the oil in the compressor. Before I talk about this part you should know that it is basically a mute point because the refrigerator shouldn’t run at low ambient temperatures because of what I discussed above. But the refrigerator can try to run in low ambient temperatures if the light in the refrigerator is on or there is a heater installed to help it run more in cold conditions. On older refrigerators the oil can break down or thicken in cold environments causing the sealed system to clog. This will only happen in rare and extreme cases.
Sweating Humidity is a big garage refrigerator problem in the summer. The high humidity causes the refrigerator to sweat badly and can cause the defrost system to become ineffective in extreme cases. If the refrigerator has an energy saver setting, you must turn it off in the summer to help the humidity problem. What the energy saver does is turn off a heater near or around the door where the freezer and the fresh food doors meet. When the refrigerator isn’t in a high humidity environment you don’t need the heater and it is a waist of energy. But in the summer, a garage refrigerator (or any refrigerator for that matter) is exposed to a very high humidity environment. So, turn the energy saver off.
Garage refrigerators require more maintenance due to the extreme conditions they are exposed to. The door gasket can become brittle or hard more quickly. The best way to counteract that is to apply a thin layer of Vaseline around the entire gasket. This is very important if the refrigerator is exposed to high temperature/high humidity environments because the humidity problem will be much worse if the door gasket doesn’t seal properly. Normally I recommend doing this once a year but on a garage refrigerator, you should do it twice a year. The condenser on refrigerators need cleaning periodically, thus normally I recommend cleaning the condenser once a year but if your garage is dirty or dusty like a lot of garages, I recommend twice a year.
As I said above, refrigerators are designed to operate at or around room temperature. This page is not intended to discourage you from putting a refrigerator in your garage, nor is it saying that refrigerators will not work in a garage. It is simply pointing out the problems you may encounter with garage refrigerators. It is fine to have a refrigerator in your garage; I have one in mine but don’t expect the performance to be optimal when temperatures are extreme for extended periods of time. Also there are refrigerators that will perform better in garages and there are some designed to be used in garages. Return From Garage Refrigerator Problems |