Your Refrigerator May Be Too Cold. Here’s How To Find Out

A fridge that is too cold or too warm will have a hard time keeping your food fresh. Product is very vulnerable to fluctuating temperatures, but almost everything you store inside benefits from keeping your icebox set at the magic number,

Nothing to waste, I tried to find out how cool my fridge is since there is no built in thermometer. The main goal was to make sure it was set to that Goldilocks zone: the recommended temperature to keep as many items as fresh as possible without freezing.

Here’s how it went down and what I learned after testing almost every setting on my refrigerator.

What temperature should your fridge be?

Scientific consensus places the ideal freezer temperature at 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) or less — cold enough to keep bacteria in check, but not so cold that it freezes soft foods.

Your refrigerator should be set at 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius) or lower. It might seem like anything below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) would do the job, but the cold target is there for a good reason: it keeps food frozen even when you open the door, add new ingredients, or go out for a while. As a bonus, lower temperatures also accelerate freezing, which means smaller ice crystals and better preservation.

I conducted experiments using real-world scenarios

When testing the freezer’s temperature settings, I didn’t remove all of my food, though I did move the most sensitive items — fresh produce, eggs, and glass jars — into temporary coolers for cold testing. Similarly, I couldn’t keep things out of the fridge or at warm temperatures for more than two hours.

All this required me to keep my test short. Every time I opened the door, checked the temperature or changed a setting, I touched the test. This conflict, while troubling my scientific mind, yielded findings that correspond closely to real-world situations where you might open a full refrigerator multiple times per hour.

Refrigerator thermometers make these tests possible

As with any experiment, I needed a way to measure and track temperatures over time. For this test, I used three different types of temperature sensors: ThermoPro Refrigerator Thermometers, Hatusoku Digital Thermometer with external sensor and the newly announced Ikea Timmerflotte smart temperature and humidity sensor.

ThermoPro is the most convenient option for many people because it can be hung on shelves or turned back into a useful position. The built-in light also helps you see the LCD in low light — like my fridge, which has no internal light.

Hatusoku’s long temperature probe makes it a great choice for a thermometer that you can stick outside the fridge for quick checks. However, the probe is very sensitive and almost always responds when I open the door.

Because it’s so sensitive, the min/max setting isn’t that useful. Consider waiting a few minutes after the cooling cycle before checking the temperature. You also need to contend with additional wire when placing the probe.

Timmerflotte made my test arsenal after I floated the idea to a company representative. They were just as curious to see how the sensor worked in the fridge as I was. However, the developer with the company said that the sensors can manage the internal temperature of my refrigerator, but that the instrument may interfere with its communication with the Dirigera smart hub. (Fortunately, I had no connection problems during my testing.)

Because it’s a smart temperature sensor, the Timmerflotte gave me real-time temperature readings without requiring me to open the refrigerator. Ikea sent enough sensors so I could track the temperature on both the front and back of the fridge, which was incredibly helpful in finding the perfect setting. The Ikea Home Smart app didn’t have a way to track the temperature over time — I couldn’t see any trends beyond my own testing.

However, I should note that the minimum temperature of the Timmerflotte was about 14 degrees F (minus 10 degrees C), so it could not track the temperature of my refrigerator. It turned off again after 12 hours because cold temperatures and Alkaline batteries don’t get along.

How I checked my refrigerator’s temperature: Limitations and caveats

My refrigerator uses a simple dial thermostat to control both the refrigerator and freezer. The dial lists the numbers 1 through 9, with 9 being the coldest setting. Starting at 1, I measured the temperature for at least 20 minutes (usually longer with cold settings) to allow for stabilization after each compressor cycle.

Here’s the rub: My results are unique to my home and refrigerator.

• Although GE still makes my refrigerator (Model GTR15BBMRWW), it is an older model with a possible manufacturing date of April 2001. The owner’s manual even recommends setting the temperature control dial to 5 and adjusting from there.
• I have a lot of food in my fridge because of Thanksgiving preparations. With such a large thermal load, it takes a long time for the temperature to stabilize after the correction is made. A large food load also restricts air flow during cooling, resulting in cold and hot spots.
• The average temperature of my kitchen during these November tests was about 64 degrees Fahrenheit, which affects how long the refrigerator lasts.
• Opening the door frequently during the test affected the results.
• I tend to use a cooler in the summer to keep food safe, and GE’s advice reflects this. Even then, I only put things that are safe to freeze in the back of the fridge, just in case.

In the end, my measurements were more consistent and reliable in the refrigerator than in the freezer, which fortunately stayed below 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) during the entire testing period. (I often write this until I forget to capture the readings of the refrigerator thermometer on Levels 2, 3 and 4.) However, the temperature of the refrigerator was not always at 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius) or below until I got to Level 4.

My test results and my takeaways

In the end, Level 5 (actually below this) was the only one that kept all my food within the target range. The front, back and freezer all met the aforementioned food safety guidelines. Some settings froze things in the background or kept things in the foreground too warm.

You can see why I canceled the test after Level 8, which put the entire refrigerator at or below freezing. This rate also caused the compressor to run continuously for about an hour before shutting down.

So, I couldn’t risk spending at least that much time trying to hit Level 9, which I suspect might turn my entire refrigerator into a freezer — even if the freezer compartment doesn’t quite hit 0 degrees Fahrenheit. (I don’t have a cooler big enough to hold a freezer’s worth of food.)

In my fridge, Level 5 is in the middle, which is probably what the manufacturer intended when considering the various settings. From a user perspective, I found that impressive. My main takeaway from the results is that refrigerating at a colder temperature doesn’t mean it’s better, which is sometimes my instinct when I see that food spoils quickly.

Should you check the temperature of your refrigerator?

If your food is constantly spoiling or freezing for no reason, it may be because your settings are not calibrated correctly. You may not even know which setting is meant to hit the target freezer temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) or less. If so, doing the same test on your fridge would be wise.

I recommend getting a a set of refrigerator thermometers as I do. I consider them essential for simple fridges like mine, which use a dial thermostat that doesn’t display the actual temperature.

While most refrigerators have a digital thermostat with a target temperature, an independent refrigerator thermometer can help you learn more about your refrigerator. For example, you’ll be able to move the thermometer to find cold spots or track temperatures during a power outage.