Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - Refrigerator Runs Half of the Time

I live in an apt. with a medium size GE Hotpoint which is less than 5 years old (guess). It seems to be running all the time. However, I did time it during periods when I didn’t open a door. It would be on about 25 minutes and off about 25 minutes, or running about half of time. The room temperature is 72-74 degs.

I had a maintenance guy from the apt. check it and he clean the condenser coils and claimed it worked fine. I have never experienced a refrigerator which runs this often. I would like others opinion. Am I just too sensitive to this since I have to pay the electrical bill?

All help appreciated.

If it runs a long time, make sure the freezer is not getting toward 10 below zero.

What can be happening is the baffle between freezer and fridge is blocked with some ice - or, freezer setting is set to maximum cold.

Some people read the numbers or letters and/or word "colder" and think that is what they want in the fridge section, and inadvertently adjust the freezer setting.

You waste electricity and cause compressor and fan(s) to run needlessly, and have icecream so hard you bend spoons.

The cause of the run time then is due to all the cold going into freezer, and not to the thermostat that is in the fridge section.

Make sure the light bulb goes out when you shut the door also. Although in these cases the fridge may never stop running. And even if it did stop, it may start up again in minutes.

Thanks, ecman. Measure the temp. – of course, but you made me think of it. I measured the refrig. part at about 38 degs and the freezer at +5. So, I think that is pretty close to OK. But not exactly low as I interpret the dial setting for a low setting. Maybe I have that confused. Still the temp isn’t bad. Shouldn’t require it to run half time.

I’m thinking it is low on refrigerant fluid. If there is a real small leak it should get worse. Does that sound right to you?

Only way I can see to tell if light is on all the time is to check it’s surface immediately after opening the door. It should be cold. But if at all warm, it probably was on. Make sense to you?
Thanks again.

If it runs and runs and you have the temp settings to colder than factory settings, I suppose it's possible you may be low on refrigerant.

If you told me that you measured 38 in the fridge and 10 below in the freezer, then I'd have you make sure the freezer control was not set to max. cold. But with your 5 degree reading and it running that much, yes, it does sound like it is really having a hard time reaching set temp.

It is like it is not capable of below 0 temps.

What are factory settings supposed to be and what are both your settings at?

And it is not even hot in your apt.

Before condemning it though, for major work, (or resolving to live with it this way til it dies out) make sure your coils are clean, the condensor (bottom) fan, if you have one, is running and running at full rpm, and your evaporator coils (up in freezer) are not iced. I'd pull the freezer panel and have a look and also see if chunks of ice are in there obstructing anything. If you had an infrared thermometer you could run the unit and see what the coils are capable of (should be well below 0).

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe these newer compressors are designed to run more frequently which has a lot to do with the efficiency. New age compressors are a lot smaller than the old work horses of the 60's and the frequent running means it's working just fine! Been in the appliance repair business 20 years and this is what I have gotten from the tech and service reps.
Have you noticed this frequent running just recently or has it always done this? A change in behavior might definatly mean something is amiss.

JNSwater