You stock the fridge full of food, you’re ready to enjoy a week’s worth of meals, and then it stops working.
This is every homeowner’s nightmare. What are you going to do if your fridge isn’t working? What will happen to all the food you just bought? There’s over $80 worth of food in there, will it all go to waste?
If you’re in this predicament, then be sure to follow these steps to know what to do when your fridge stops working:
Check for obvious fixes
First of all, look for any obvious fixes that might be present. Who knows, someone in your house might have pulled the door too hard, and the plug came out of the socket. All you have to do is check the socket and put the plug back in. It could be as simple as that!
Or, it may be the power source that’s failed. Are other appliances in your home suddenly not working? Do the lights turn on? If they don’t, then try and find an alternative power source for your fridge – like a mini generator. Every household should have one as a failsafe in situations like this. Even if the lights still work and everything else is turned on, double-check that the fridge doesn’t work when plugged into your generator. You never know, it may be an issue with the specific plug socket.
Don’t fiddle with anything
It’s tempting to try and unscrew things or poke around in your fridge. Don’t do this. Keep your hands to yourself and avoid touching anything. Your only concern should be the plug and power source. If you touch anything else, then you risk damaging the fridge further – or worse, harming yourself.
Call in the experts
Don’t attempt any repairs yourself, even if you’ve read an article on Google and think you know what’s up. Instead, call in the experts. Who do you call when a fridge is broken anyway? Do plumbers fix fridges or is it more of an electrician thing?
In truth, you don’t want to call either of these. Instead, try and find an actual appliance repair specialist. There are people and companies out there that explicitly deal with repairing appliances all the time. These are the experts you want to handle your fridge problem!
Preserve as much of the food as possible
This is the real problem – what do you do with all the food? Ideally, try and preserve as much of it as you can. The good news is that your fridge will still be cold for a bit after it has gone bust. So, it’s usually agreed that it can keep food for up to four hours with no power. Be sure to keep the door closed to make your fridge as cold as can be.
Hopefully, the experts will repair your fridge within this timeframe. Still, it’s worth taking out meat and other perishable foods and transferring them to either a cooler or a mini-fridge. A cooler back or box with some ice packs is a great substitute. It won’t be ideal, but it can keep your items chilled until the fridge is fixed.
There you have it – don’t panic, follow these steps if your fridge stops working. You should be able to save your food and fix your fridge as quickly as possible.
