Refrigerator in a Cold Garage in Fairview: Why the Freezer Thaws

• Unplug the refrigerator, or switch off its breaker, before you move it or reach behind it.
• Do not remove any panel or cover, and do not put a heater or a lamp next to the refrigerator to warm it.
• Check the food in the freezer with a thermometer: frozen food that still has ice crystals, or is at 40°F or below, can be refrozen.

Fairview lies at the east end of the Portland metro, close to the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge. Several times each winter cold east wind blows out of the Gorge, and the National Weather Service warns of gusts of 40 to 55 mph near Troutdale and in the east of Multnomah County, with cold nights behind the wind.

An unheated garage follows the outdoor air, and a garage wall that faces the wind cools fastest. In the weeks the east wind blows, a garage can fall below the range a regular refrigerator is built for, and a garage-ready one can reach the bottom of its own.

This is the cold-garage pattern, and nothing has to be broken. The control is doing what it was built to do: it sees a cold fresh food section and leaves the compressor off. Move the refrigerator inside, use Garage Mode, or replace it with a garage-ready model.

When the garage drops toward freezing, the fresh food section can follow it. On a garage-ready GE model, the lower refrigerator setting GE gives for cold weather prevents it. On a regular refrigerator it is one more sign the garage is too cold for it.

A chest or upright freezer measures its own temperature, so a cold garage does not trick it the same way. Many are sold as garage ready; check the rating of yours before winter.

• In a cold garage, often nothing: the control works as designed.
• Defrost heater or sensor: frost or ice on the back wall of the freezer, in any weather.
• Evaporator fan motor: the freezer is cold and the fresh food side is warm.
• Temperature control or sensor: both sections warm in a mild garage.
• Start relay: a click every few minutes, and nothing cools.

• The freezer stays warm while the garage is inside the range the manual gives.
• Frost or ice builds up on the back wall of the freezer.
• Both sections are warm.
• It clicks every few minutes.
• It trips the breaker or smells of burning.

Refrigerator repair

Book a refrigerator repair

• Book online: choose the appliance, describe the problem and pick up to three times that suit you.
• We confirm one of your times by phone or text. You are not booked until we do.
• We come to your home, test the refrigerator and find the cause.
• You get the price before any repair begins. We repair it with your approval; if a part has to be ordered, we come back to fit it.

The diagnostic visit costs $89. If you go ahead with the repair, the $89 is applied toward it; if you decide not to repair, the $89 covers the diagnosis.

Our work and the parts we install carry a 90-day warranty. The terms are printed on your invoice.

What appliance repair costs

We repair refrigerators at home in Fairview and across the Portland metro area. Enter your ZIP code when you book and the form checks it right away.

All the cities we serve

• Freezer not freezing
• Refrigerator not cooling

All repair guides

The facts on this page come from these sources, checked when the page was written.

• GE Appliances: Top-Freezer Refrigerators - Garage Ready Models
• Whirlpool Product Help: How Garage-Ready Refrigerators Work
• KATU: Wind advisory for the east Portland metro (National Weather Service, Portland)