Appliances
Fridge or freezer not cold enough? Act fast, check smart
The fridge is the only appliance in the house that never clocks off, so when it starts losing its cool there is food on a countdown as well as a fault to find. Work through these checks in order: most warm fridges are a seal, a setting or a dusty coil, not a dead machine.
By the Tickover team · Published 16 March 2026 · 4 min read
How urgent is this?
Sort it this week, watch food today
A drifting fridge will not flood the kitchen, but chilled food has a short safety window. Confirm temperatures today and keep doors shut while you investigate.
First, get the facts
Hands are terrible thermometers. Before deciding anything, put a cheap fridge thermometer (or any accurate probe) on the middle shelf and another in the freezer, and give them a few hours. The targets: 0–5°C in the fridge, -18°C in the freezer.
0–5°C
fridge target, measured mid-shelf
-18°C
freezer target for long-term storage
4 hrs
above 8°C and chilled food is suspect
Checks, in order
Confirm it has power
Interior light on? If not: plug, socket and the breaker. If the whole kitchen is dark, start with the power cut checklist instead.
Check the dial or display
Temperature dials get nudged by milk bottles more often than anyone admits. Set roughly mid-range, or 4°C on digital models, and rule out holiday or eco modes.
Run the paper test on the door seal
Shut a strip of paper in the door and pull. It should drag. Repeat around the full frame; anywhere it slides out freely, the seal is leaking cold air. Wipe seals clean and look for splits.
Give the cold air room to move
An overpacked fridge blocks the vents that circulate cold air, and warm leftovers straight from the hob push the whole cabinet up. Clear the vents, cool food before it goes in.
Unplug it and dust the condenser coils
The black grille at the back (or hidden underneath) sheds the heat. A blanket of dust makes the compressor run longer for less cold. Unplug first, then soft brush or vacuum nozzle.
Look for ice where ice should not be
Thick frost inside a frost-free freezer means the defrost cycle has failed or a door has been ajar. Empty it, defrost fully for 24 hours, then retest.
Reading the symptoms
One section warm and the other fine usually means an airflow or defrost problem: many fridge freezers make all their cold in the freezer and fan it upward, so an iced-up vent starves the fridge. Both sections warm with the compressor humming away is more serious.
Warm fridge triage
The sealed system, and where your hands stop
Seals, drawers, vents and coils are yours. The refrigerant circuit is not: fridges are sealed units, and the casing is never opened at home, by anyone, for any reason. If the compressor runs constantly but nothing gets cold, the refrigerant has likely leaked, and on most domestic machines that repair costs more than the fridge justifies.
That is the moment for the repair or replace maths, with one extra weight on the scale: running costs. An early-2010s fridge freezer can use roughly twice the electricity of a modern equivalent, a difference your smart meter will happily show you overnight, so an old machine with a dead sealed system is nearly always replaced, not repaired.
For the faults that are worth fixing, thermostats, door seals, fans and defrost parts, most single-fault repairs land in the £90–£180 band as a guide. Get the fault named before you approve anything.
Which fault is yours?
Self-Diagnose in the Tickover app works through your fridge’s symptoms in a few questions, tells you how urgent it is, and lines up a vetted engineer if the fix is not a DIY one.
Quick answers
What temperature should a fridge and freezer be?
Between 0 and 5°C in the fridge, and -18°C in the freezer. Cabinet dials are not calibrated in degrees, so check with a fridge thermometer left on the middle shelf for a few hours. Chilled food kept above 8°C for more than four hours should be treated as unsafe, however fresh it looks.
Why is my fridge warm but the freezer still cold?
In most fridge freezers the cold is made in the freezer and blown up to the fridge by a fan. If the vents ice over, because the defrost system failed or a door sat ajar, the fridge starves first while the freezer stays cold. A full 24-hour defrost often cures it; if the ice returns, the defrost circuit needs an engineer.
Can a fridge that has lost its refrigerant be repaired?
Rarely at sensible cost. The refrigerant lives in a sealed system that must never be opened at home, and regassing a domestic fridge means finding and fixing the leak first, which frequently costs more than the machine is worth. If the compressor runs constantly and nothing cools, plan for replacement and have the old unit taken away for proper refrigerant recovery.
How do I test my fridge door seal?
Close a strip of paper in the door, then pull it out. You should feel a clear drag; if it slides free, the seal is not gripping at that point. Work around the whole frame. Wipe the seal with warm soapy water, since grime stops it seating, and check for splits or distortion. Many seals are replaceable without replacing the fridge.
This guide is general information for UK homes, not advice about your specific property. Anything involving gas must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and notifiable electrical work by a qualified electrician. If you smell gas, call the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999. If you’re ever unsure, stop and get a professional in — that’s exactly what Tickover is for.
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