Every year something seems to stop working during prolonged cold periods...my outside lights refuse to function and the Christmas lights generally give up the ghost, but now the fridge is paying silly devils too.

It's not old and functions well normally and says its 3+ in the fridge and -20 in the freezer, but this morning most things are frozen solid! I had a Clamato slushie for breakfast and had to chip bits off the onion dip to put in my son's wrap! I've now taken everything out to warm it up and get the air circulating in the fridge.

The house isn't cold...well given the Arctic conditions outside, the house is wonderful! It does get chillier at night though. Salad has always had a tendency to get a bit crunchy in winter, but nothing like this.

I've googled it and normally there is only a problem for beer fridges in garages, but my kitchen isn't cold. The unfinished basement is underneath the fridge, but even that is above minus.

Is there anything I can do to improve this please? Have any of you experienced this?

What brand is it? Usually folk complain the fridge is NOT cooling but the freezer is OK. That's what happened to ours and I had to replace the defrost heat element and temperature sensor. (Samsung 2 door, known problem, repair kits available on line). For the fridge to get down to freezing infers that either a sensor is faulty , or if it has a seperate condenser the thermostat is non functional , or if it has a single condenser then maybe the air flap is stuck open - this diverts some of the cold freezer air into the fridge and it's this that actually cools the fridge.
Now, when ours was playing up, the control panel said the fridge was at 3 degrees! Unplug the unit for a few minutes then replug and it should recheck the sensor reading and/or give a fault code. Ours read 7 degrees and I identified the fault code as the heater element not working correctly.It was not defrosting the fridge side and the heater element was encased in ice - loads of youTube videos available. Here's one

All we've ever had here was the freezer part on the original came-with-the-house fridge-freezer eventually only being good enough for use as a fridge and the top shelf of a small fridge just below the freezer compartment sometimes icing up cans.

We had a problem like that with an olde whirlpool fridge. It was the temperature control board or something similar. Replaced it once then it become beyond economic repair. If it’s in the house I doubt it’s anything to do with the extreme cold. Or if it is you’ve got bigger problems like your house being below zero!

There are a few basic things that can contribute to this:

Blocked drain hole
Food touching the back of the fridge
Lack of air circulation around the back of the fridge (fluff etc)

Too much refrigeration is normally from clogged filters. Make sure you have the correct clearances for the vents (check you manual) and that they are free from any dust build up.

Thank you so very much...greatly appreciated. I believe that all of the difficulties arrived from a frozen drain...and then just grew! We believe it is cope able with....but I come home to yet another fun time when the fridge is all over the kitchen table I am told it will all be well as soon as this magic part that we need arrives from Amazon!

https://www.1000tools.com/blog/how-t...rigerator.html