At the risk of stating the obvious, sounds like your fridge is too cold. When that happens I will bump up the temp a degree at a time and see what happens. I find it tricky to get just right because of the tenperature fluctuatations within the fridge. I just checked mine and food up top is about 39 and bottom just under 37. I bumped it down one degree. Oh and it had been set at 34, so I don’t take the digital display at its word.

I thought I had the worst fridge in the universe.

It is a pretty common problem. Poor design. Often adjusting your fridge temp does not solve the issue. I would get a fridge thermometer and test the various zones all over so you are familiar with the differences in temp. Keep your most perishable goods like milk in the coldest area, usually in the back. Make sure you don't have things over-stuffed in the back of any shelf. The door shelves are usually the less cold of most fridges.

I bought a 2-pack of thermometers. Lining the crisper drawer with a thick section of newspaper running up the back...thick like magazine thick...does work. Acts like an insulation barrier. (covered with plain white shelf liner) But mine was so bad I ended up finding a wire basket that fits my top shelf for all veggies. We just keep a layer of plastic water bottles in that drawer, then other beverages on top. The only nice thing about the entire ordeal is we now have a handy row of frozen water bottles as ice for our cooler. Only the back row in the drawer freezes over a couple days so we just put the thawed ones back in to reuse. (eventually they would all freeze)

Your meat drawer might be too warm for meat so get its temp. Might just be perfect for produce but I bet it is smaller.

^the fridge I speak of is at another home. My fridge here has been excellent for 12 years so I know what a good fridge can do. Produce lasts for e v e r.

For most refrigerators, there is no possible way you can have good temperature control.

Refrigerators have only one compressor to generate cold, and there are two compartments each requires different environment controls.

Once you have set the controls that works with both the freezer and the refrigerator, unless you make no changes to the food inside, the room temperature, and how often you open the doors, any change you make will upset the controls you set. That's why they always tell you after you change the controls, you need to wait a few days for it to :"stabilize and re-balance"".

If you have two nasty kids, one boy and one girl, there is no way you can keep them both happy all the time.

dcarch

Thanks, everyone, for the info helpful suggestions!

My crappy fridge is an all fridge, no freezer. It never stabilized. My good fridge is a dual compressor. One for each compartment.

Good advice to try and tweak it and hope to 'stabilize' the temp. I just see so many with similar frustrations I learned while trying to trouble-shoot mine a few years ago.

You might try the appliance forum with your make and model, (the first thing they ask) and see if anyone with similar problem has a solution.

Google it. It’s pretty common. Frozen lettuce. Iirc, from long ago is that the back of the fridge is the coldest so I am now careful to never shove the lettuce in the back. Thanks to all who answered here and I will do sleeves trick with thick newspaper as insulation. Thanks again and tia.

"---back of the fridge is the coldest ----"

Also depends on how often you open the door.

dcarch

Often the design is at fault. In a side-by-side for example, make sure the model you are buying has the cold air is entering from the top into the refrigerator side. Some models have poor insulation between fridge/freeze compartments. It could just be as easy as storing the lettuce on the middle shelf.

The only thing I am happy about new refrigerators design is that now many have (LED) lights in the freezer as well.

dcarch

I've stopped using my vegetable drawers for vegetables. I use the OXO Greensaver boxes on the shelves instead and use the drawers for cheese and other items that aren't so sensitive to colder temperatures.

I have a Greensaver box for lettuce (large) and one for mushrooms (smaller), but those are the only ones I have. I have not been using the carbon filters - is that important?

Great solution using duct tape and cardboard!

Franco Oyuela, thanks for the helpful info. I've never understood why people put potatoes and tomatoes in a fridge. We have citrus trees so one of my crisper drawers always holds lemons and limes. Sounds like I should store them out of the drawer. I know having some on display on the kitchen counter isn't great, but I like seeing them...and have plenty.