Does Air Circulate Inside a Refrigerator?

Features

• Most refrigerators have an attached freezer, either on top of the fresh food cabinet or as a side-by-side model with the refrigerator. You also can buy models that only have a refrigerator component. A condenser on the back or at the bottom of the frig cools a liquid refrigerant that circulates through the condenser coils to the evaporator coils and back by way of a compressor and a motor. Some appliances have separate evaporators for the freezer and the refrigerator. Cold air in a refrigerator without an attached freezer circulates naturally throughout the interior, while the more common refrigerator-freezer combination uses a fan.

Space Usage

• You may have heard that a full refrigerator is more efficient at staying cold than
  one with a lot of empty space. That's true, but only up to a certain point. If you pack your refrigerator totally full, that disrupts the circulation of cold air. This makes your appliance work harder and it may not cool your food effectively. If your refrigerator is packed tight right now, take out any items that aren't essential to keep cold, such as soda cans.

Considerations

• Buying a refrigerator that's the right size for your household is the easiest solution to keeping good air circulation inside, according to the California Energy Commission. You should be able to identify what's in the refrigerator without keeping the door open a long time and having to remove many items. Holding the door open while searching around inside further decreases refrigerator efficiency, as the appliance has to recover from the warm air that entered.

Additional Tips

• In contrast, if you refrigerator has a lot of empty space, fill containers with water and store them inside, suggests the California Energy Commission. You also can increase refrigerator efficiency by leaving a space around the appliance exterior. Don't place your refrigerator next to your oven or in an area that gets direct sunlight.