Smells from the fridge are not always pleasant. Chilled apple pie may well fill the kitchen with a simply wonderful aroma – however, the smell coming from an alpine cheese is generally less well received. Frustratingly, it’s not always easy to work out why your fridge is smelly; fridge odours can occur for a number of reasons. Read on to find out why your fridge might be smelling bad and how to tackle this problem.
Avoid stale air
There are some simple steps you can take to prevent your fridge from smelling unpleasant:
- Always enclose strong smelling food. Be sure to use plastic or glass containers. Cardboard packaging, such as egg boxes, quickly takes on the odour of the food around it. It is, therefore, better to use egg storage trays.
- Clean your fridge every four weeks. Read our article on the best way to clean your refrigerator for more on this.
- If the fridge is switched off, the door must be left open. Otherwise this will also lead to bad smells.
- Make sure no liquids escape. These might otherwise find their way into the defrost water drain and then accumulate in the defrost water receptacle. If something tips over, rinse out the drain hole immediately with water and detergent. In most cases, the drain hole is on the back wall above the vegetable drawer or the BioFresh safe (if you have a Liebherr appliance with this feature).
- Liebherr appliances with a FreshAir activated charcoal filter always provide optimal air quality, so bad smells have no chance if the filter is changed regularly.
- DuoCooling prevents smells transferring from the freezer compartment into the fridge compartment and vice versa.
There’s no chance for bad smells with the FreshAir activated charcoal filter
Getting rid of that smell in the fridge
If you are met with an unpleasant odour when you open the fridge door, or if your appliance even smells when it’s closed, then action urgently needs to be taken. The following checklist will help you to quickly get fresh air back into your kitchen:
- Place a bowl of coffee or in the fridge. In some cases, this absorbs bad odours. Alternatively try bicarbonate of soda.
- Soft rubber parts acquire unpleasant odours particularly quickly. Therefore, replace rubber seals if necessary. To arrange this, contact our Customer Service team on 03330 147 888 (Option 2)
- Dirt may conceal itself underneath the decorative edges of the glass shelves. Remove these and then clean the decorative edges with a damp cloth. Do not loosen the decorative edges immediately. First, soak the glass shelf in warm water.
- A bad odour may also come from the drain hole for the condensation water. Therefore, clean the drain hole with water and detergent. Damp cotton buds or bottle cleaners are ideal for getting at the dirt more easily.
A bowl of ground coffee may help to absorb bad odours
If the smell has still not gone, it may also be coming from the defrost water receptacle or from the pipe. The cleaning, in this case, should only be undertaken by an expert, so please call us on 03330 147 888 (Option 3) for advice on this.
Had experience of bad odours coming from the fridge? What did you do to make the air fresh again? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.