My fridge is NOT cold enough.

I have a fridge/freezer in a storage shed that doesn't cool properly. I cleaned the coils underneath of the dust and I somehow made it worse. It went from 50° to 58° in the day.
Any other thoughts? I know the seal could be leaking. Is that a matter of feeling for air around the door?
What about the hole I made for my shank/ tap? I can't imagine im losing that much thru a 7/8 hole with the shank in that same hole?
Do fridges need freeon (sp)?

Im so lost??? I just want colder beer!!!

How hot is it in the shed? How old is the fridge? Compressor could be going out or you have a coolant leak...

Fridges do use refrigerant, like Freon, (although probably not Freon unless it's old...probably a new coolant).

You shouldn't be losing much cold through the shanks, so it's not that. Do you have a lot of stuff on/around it? sometimes they have more coils in the walls/top, and if you have a bunch of stuff on both sides and on the top, they can't dump heat fast enough...

Hmmm well I do have a some coolers and some other stuff on top of it. I'll take those off and see what happens. Thanks didnt think of that. Would the top be warm to the touch if that was the problem?

The shed is probably 85degrees. Not ideal I know but its all I got.

Is the freezer staying really cold? The reason I ask is I had a similar situation last week. My kegerator is in my garage (ambient temp avg about 95 right now) and it started slowly getting warmer and warmer. When it hit 70 I took out the kegs and started planning a walk-in build. I noticed the freezer was still really cold but the fridge was warm and found out there was ice inside of the vents in the back of freezer and I couldn't see it until I took the back of the fridge off. I was keeping glasses in the freezer (I know, I know but I don't have a cabinet in the garage yet) and constantly opening the freezer door caused ice to form. I don't know why it didn't form on the inside of the vents where I would easily see it, but it didn't. I let the fridge sit there turned off for two days, works good as new now. And now I keep my glasses in the house and never open the freezer.

DirtBagRob said:

Is the freezer staying really cold? The reason I ask is I had a similar situation last week. My kegerator is in my garage (ambient temp avg about 95 right now) and it started slowly getting warmer and warmer. When it hit 70 I took out the kegs and started planning a walk-in build. I noticed the freezer was still really cold but the fridge was warm and found out there was ice inside of the vents in the back of freezer and I couldn't see it until I took the back of the fridge off. I was keeping glasses in the freezer (I know, I know but I don't have a cabinet in the garage yet) and constantly opening the freezer door caused ice to form. I don't know why it didn't form on the inside of the vents where I would easily see it, but it didn't. I let the fridge sit there turned off for two days, works good as new now. And now I keep my glasses in the house and never open the freezer.

Click to expand...

Yeah the freezer is definetly staying cold. I was going to reset the fridge when my keg kicks. Just unplug it and and let it sit for a day or two. I was thinkin that would be the only way to fix it without a service call.

You can get killer deals on fridges and freezers on craigslist. I have a fantastic one I picked up for $75. Sell yours for $25, get a new one for $75...

Refrigerators do use freon. If it was manufactured before (around) 1995, it probably has R-12 refrigerant. If it was manufactured after 1995, it most likely has R-134a refrigerant. R-12 refrigerant has better cooling properties than R-135a, but is known to hurt the environment (and supposedly create mustard-gas if rapidly heated), so R-12 is no longer available. If there isn't a leak in the refrigeration system, I doubt that you would need it to be recharged. I'm not sure how familiar you are with refrigeration, so I'll play it out as dumb (no offence). A refrigeration system transfers heat from one location (inside) to another location (outside). The cooling coils on the inside (the evaporator) will absorb the warmth from the inside of the refrigerator by using the freon in the lines, and that heat is transferred through the freon to the outside coils (the condenser) of the refrigerator, where the heat is dissipated out to the atmosphere. If there is a blockage, either preventing the air inside the refrigerator from being absorbed or preventing the heat from dissipating off from the outside coils, the refrigerator will not cool sufficiently, because there is no means of heat transfer. Ambient temperature plays a significant role in cooling as well. If it is 100+ degrees outside of the refrigerator, the heat from the condenser will not be able to properly cool, so the heat from the inside of the refrigerator (which is now in the condenser on the outside) will get circulated back into the inside of the refrigerator. A faulty thermostat can also be of concern. If the thermostat thinks that 50 degrees is actually 35 degrees, then the thermostat will turn of the compressor (which circulates the freon) when it reaches 50 degrees, because it thinks it's at 35 degrees. There may be also something wrong "pressure differential" unit inside the refrigeration lines. I say "pressure differential", because there are several different setups here. If that "pressure differential" unit is not allowing a for a restriction in the refrigeration lines, then the freon will just cycle through the lines without doing anything.

If the only thing you did was clean the coils I don't know why you have the temp swing. Did you also change the freezer setting to colder? That will close the dampener to the fridge section and could be your problem.

What is the fresh food area set at? the basic fridge is a freezer with a area that gets a small amount of cool air. Most freezer operate at -8 to -10 needed to get ice cream to become frozen. The fresh food area should be at this point about 37* or so. If your fresh food area is getting to 58*. Did you turn fridge down? It is also possible that the fridge was in defrost. newer units have a cycle every 12 hours or so to run a defrost cycle for 22 to 28 minutes to prevent frost form forming in the freezer if the unit was in defrost there is not cooling so it could have warmed up. Check after a n hour or so and see whats happening.