Why Is My Fridge Running Constantly?
In most cases it's one of three things: dirty condenser coils, door seals that no longer seal properly, or a condenser fan that's stopped.
All three make the compressor work harder to hold the same temperature, so it runs and runs. Two of them you can check yourself in about five minutes.
Start with the coils
The condenser coils are how your refrigerator gets rid of heat. They're either underneath at the front, behind a grille, or on the back of the unit.
Pull the fridge out and look. If you see a gray mat of dust and pet hair across them, that's almost certainly your answer. The heat can't escape, so the compressor never catches up.
Vacuum them with a brush attachment. It's free, it takes ten minutes, and it's the single most common fix for this problem.
Then check the door seals
Close the door on a dollar bill, so half of it is inside and half outside. Pull gently. If it slides out easily, the seal isn't holding at that point.
Try it in several places around the door. Seals wear unevenly, and a gap at one corner is enough to let cold air out continuously.
Worn seals mean the fridge is cooling your kitchen as well as your food.
Listen for the condenser fan
The condenser fan sits near the compressor at the back or underneath. With the fridge running, you should hear it.
If the compressor is running but the fan isn't, heat isn't being carried away and the compressor will run constantly trying to compensate. That one needs a technician.
Other causes worth knowing about
The thermostat reading wrong. If it thinks the fridge is warmer than it is, it never stops cooling.
A door left ajar. Obvious, but it happens more than people admit — usually a drawer or a tall bottle stopping the door closing fully.
Hot weather, or a garage location. A refrigerator in an unconditioned garage in a Utah summer is genuinely working harder, and some running time is normal.
Recently stocked. After a big shop, a fridge runs longer than usual for a day or so. That's expected.
Failing defrost system. Frost builds up where cold air should be moving, and the system struggles.
When it's worth calling someone
If the coils are clean, the seals hold a dollar bill, the fan is running, and it's still going constantly — that's a technician's job. You're likely looking at the thermostat, the defrost system, or in older units a sealed-system problem.
It's also worth not ignoring. A compressor that runs constantly for months wears out, and the compressor is the single most expensive part of a refrigerator.
If you need it looked at
We repair refrigerators across Salt Lake, Davis and Utah Counties, from Bountiful to Lehi. Every visit starts with a $99 diagnostic, credited toward your repair.