Check the food before the fridge
- Fridge not cooling? Put an appliance thermometer in the fridge and the freezer. You want 40°F or below in the fridge and 0°F in the freezer.
- Above 40°F? Move perishables somewhere cold. Throw out food that's been above 40°F for more than 2 hours, or if you don't know how long.
- Then check the plug, the settings (including any cooling-off mode), the door seals and the vents inside.
- Still warm after those checks? Book appliance service.
When a refrigerator is not cooling, the number on its display is the temperature you asked for, not the one your food is sitting at. We'd put a thermometer in each compartment before changing any setting, because few refrigerator controls show the actual temperature (opens in a new tab).
Keep the fridge at 40°F or below and the freezer at 0°F. If the fridge is warmer than that, move perishables somewhere that can keep them at 40°F or below. Food that's been above 40°F for 2 hours or less should be safe to eat. Anything longer, or if you're not sure how long, goes in the trash. Out of the fridge, that 2-hour limit drops to one hour when the air is above 90°F.
A fridge that's cooling back down doesn't give warm food extra time, so keep perishables cold somewhere else until the thermometer shows the fridge has recovered.
It's silent or the light is off
Open the door and look for the light. No light can mean there's no power to the fridge (opens in a new tab), though a dead bulb looks the same, so check the display too.
If the plug is safely within reach, make sure it's pushed all the way into its grounded three-prong outlet. Don't move the fridge to get to it, and don't use an extension cord or adapter. If the outlet or circuit needs checking, call an electrician.
Gone quiet but the lights work? It may be defrosting. The compressor and fans stop during a defrost cycle, and on GE fridges that can last 30 to 45 minutes depending on the model. Keep an eye on the thermometer while you wait.
The light's on but it isn't cooling
Lights and a working display mean the fridge has power, but cooling can still be set wrong or switched off. Check the settings for both compartments, make sure the controls haven't been turned off by accident (opens in a new tab), and look for a demo or cooling-off mode.
Samsung fridges, for example, show OF OF, O FF, OFF OFF or scrolling bars in Cooling Off mode (also called Demo or Shop mode), and they won't cool until it's turned off. How you turn it off depends on your control panel (opens in a new tab). On the Samsung RF263TE and RF263BE models, you hold Energy Saver and Freezer together for 5 seconds (opens in a new tab).
On a GE GNE27JYMFS
The GNE27J controls (opens in a new tab) sit at the top of the fresh-food compartment: a membrane panel with Freezer and Fridge temperature pads. These steps are for that panel, not a knob-control fridge.
- If the panel reads OFF, press the Fridge pad or the Freezer pad once to turn cooling on. The display should show the preset 37°F for the fridge and 0°F for the freezer.
- If cooling is already on, use the temperature pads to set the recommended 37°F fridge and 0°F freezer settings.
- If the display shows tc, TurboCool is on. The fridge setting can't be changed while it runs, and it doesn't affect the freezer temperature.
Don't hold both pads together to get cooling back. Holding both for 3 seconds turns cooling off (opens in a new tab).
Give a changed setting 24 hours to settle, and keep checking the thermometers in the meantime. Just put away a big grocery load, food that sat out, or warm leftovers? That's what TurboCool is for, and it can also help after a long power outage. Hold the Turbo Cool pad for 3 seconds and the display shows tc.
A defrost pause on this model takes about 30 minutes to end.
Doors that don't seal and blocked vents
Look for trays, platters or pizza boxes (opens in a new tab) keeping a door or the freezer drawer from closing, and move them.
To test a door seal, close the door on a piece of paper and pull it out. A little resistance means the seal is working (opens in a new tab). If the paper slides out easily, clean the seal with dish soap and a damp cloth and try again. If it still fails, book service. A new fridge that isn't level side to side can fail the test because the doors don't line up, so have the installer check the leveling.
Inside, move tall containers forward so they don't block the cold air, and leave room around the food for air to move.
Check the air vents in both compartments for frost. Frost on the vents keeps cold air from getting through (opens in a new tab). Don't chip it off with a knife or anything sharp, because that can damage the fridge. If you hear the fan hitting ice, a noise that stops when you open the door, book service. Samsung says defrosting only gets rid of the ice for a while (opens in a new tab), and only service fixes the cause.
Just installed, just restocked or back from an outage
| What happened | What to do |
|---|---|
| It was just installed | Allow about 24 hours for it to cool down with the controls set correctly. You should notice some cooling in the freezer within about an hour. Still warm after 24 hours? Book service. |
| You added a lot of warm food | It needs some time to cool that food down. Use TurboCool if your fridge has it, and move perishables if the thermometer climbs above 40°F. |
| The power was out for a long time, and the freezer is cold but the fridge isn't | On the GE GNE27JYMFS, allow 24 hours for both compartments to reach their settings. |
| The power was out briefly | Leave it plugged in. On GE fridges, the compressor's overload protection cycles until the system settles and then cooling resumes on its own, so there's no need to unplug it and plug it back in. |
If a fridge that's been running fine turns warm without one of these reasons, we'd book service rather than wait another day.
Other things that keep a fridge warm
Where it sits matters. GE says a fridge may not cool properly in a spot that gets colder than 60°F or hotter than 110°F, and it needs air space around it, with the exact clearance depending on the model. If yours is boxed in, have the installer check the space against its installation instructions.
Dirty condenser coils make the cooling system less efficient. Some fridges don't need their coils cleaned, and on others only a certified technician can clean them (opens in a new tab), so check your manual first. If getting to the coils means removing a grille or panel, leave it to service.
Some faults are inside the fridge, where you can't check them safely: a fan motor that has failed, a control fault or a refrigerant leak. On some fridges they show up as an error code, so write down anything the display shows. All of them need a technician.
Booking service and what to tell them
If the fridge has power, cooling is on, the settings are right, the doors seal and the vents are clear, but the thermometer still reads too warm, book appliance service through your fridge brand's support site or service line. Repairs belong with a qualified service professional. GE owners can start from GE's cooling support page (opens in a new tab).
Tell them the model number, the thermometer readings for both compartments, what the display shows, whether it's running, when the problem started and anything recent like a new install, an outage or a repair visit. Mention any door that won't seal.
Leave the fridge plugged in while you wait, so the problem is still there for the technician to diagnose, unless the power cord is damaged. Keep perishables cold somewhere else in the meantime.
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