How to Remove Bad Odors from Your Refrigerator
Everyone knows it, everyone has experienced it before - you open the refrigerator door and an unpleasant odor hits you. In most cases, the cause is quickly found and removed. However, the unpleasant smell in the refrigerator is persistent and remains.
Often it’s not even immediately clear where the stench in the appliance is coming from. Then the tedious search for the cause begins.
Either way, when the refrigerator smells bad, you must do something! Especially if you notice the smell in the fridge before breakfast, you and your family will probably quickly lose your appetite. And the mental carousel starts spinning early in the morning - where does the smell in the refrigerator come from and what can you do about it?
We provide you with all the information, tips and tricks on how to quickly and reliably combat bad odors in your refrigerator.
Removing odor from the refrigerator - here’s how
To banish the unpleasant smell from the refrigerator, there are some home remedies in addition to commercial products that can work wonders. What you use is generally a matter of taste. That’s why we present all the options known to us. However, tried and tested home remedies sometimes reach their limits. At the latest then, you should resort to a commercial product.
Top home remedies against refrigerator odors
With the right home remedies, many refrigerator odors can be removed. They eliminate various odor notes and some even leave a new fresh scent.
Simply place a small bowl with the appropriate home remedy in the refrigerator. The listed remedies have the property of binding or even neutralizing odors. However, please keep in mind that especially the foods listed here as home remedies must be replaced after a short time. Therefore, we provide you with the replacement times.
- Lemon: For example, two lemon halves, a bowl of lemon juice or the peel of a lemon. The lemon is a very popular home remedy as it spreads a very pleasant smell. Duration: Replace after a few days
- Apple: Two apple halves. Duration: Replace after a few days
- Potato: A potato cut into slices. Duration: Replace after a few days
- Baking powder / Baking soda: The contents of a packet of baking powder / baking soda. Baking powder and baking soda are - according to widespread opinion - the best home remedies against bad smells in the refrigerator. They don’t just bind bad odors; they also neutralize them. Duration: Replace after one month
- Flour: A few spoons of flour. Duration: Replace after one month
- Coffee: A few spoons of coffee powder or an empty, open coffee powder package. It works best with freshly ground coffee. In addition to strong and pleasant odor masking, coffee has the property of effectively absorbing bad odors. Duration: Replace after one month or when a fresh bag is available
- Vinegar: A small bowl with some vinegar essence. Vinegar smells very strong; so if this smell is too strong for you, choose another home remedy. Duration: Replace after a few days
- Toilet paper: A roll of toilet paper. Sounds funny, but it works. Duration: Replace after two to three weeks
Commercial products against refrigerator odor
Those who don’t want to constantly change the home remedies in the refrigerator can buy special refrigerator mats in stores, which work on the same principle - like the above-mentioned home remedies.
Causes of bad smell in the refrigerator - Where does the stench come from?
Photo © Andrey Popov / Fotolia
Now you should investigate the causes. Because the smell in the refrigerator is not only unpleasant, it can also point to a problem that, in the worst case, can endanger your health.
There are many causes for an unpleasant smell in the refrigerator. The probably best-known classic is spoiled food. This cause is nothing serious and quickly remedied. But there are many other causes up to health-endangering black mold. We tell you what the causes are, where you can find the sources and how you can effectively combat them.
Spoiled food - the classic
What is not tightly sealed will eventually start to smell. Sometimes just a few drops of spilled milk are responsible. Here a simple cleaning of the refrigerator helps. If you see that something has leaked, simply wipe it away - in some cases that’s enough.
Strongly smelling foods
Certain types of cheese or sausage smell so strong that with a half-open package they cover all other smells. The solution here is very simple: Put them in a jar with a screw cap or in a special food container and clean the refrigerator thoroughly. But be careful: Plastics also absorb the odors and must later, when the cheese or sausage is eaten up, be thoroughly cleaned.
Bad odors stick to packaging
Just like plastic packaging, egg cartons (and other cardboard packaging) also absorb odors. Take out the eggs or food. Store the eggs in the designated egg tray in the refrigerator door. Keep loose food in jars or plastic containers. Throw away the cardboard packaging.
Bad smell in the refrigerator due to mold
Mold particularly likes to settle in the sealing fins of the refrigerator and causes a rather musty smell. But food also develops strong mold; for example, many types of vegetables such as carrots, zucchini or cucumbers. If the water (condensate) in the drain has been backed up for a long time, the condensate hole on the back wall of the refrigerator is clogged. Black mold can also develop here. The dirt that prevents the condensate from draining must be removed. How to proceed here can be found in the following video (“Refrigerator water doesn’t drain under vegetable compartment & smells - Solution: Clean drain and outlet!!!”). Further below we also explain the systematic cleaning of your complete refrigerator.
See here what to do when the condensate no longer drains. The video is produced by Energiespar-Formel and is easy to understand.
Even an old refrigerator can be the cause
The older the appliances get, the easier they start to “smell musty” on their own. After all, their interior consists mainly of plastic. For such rather “musty” smells there are odor removers and the above-mentioned home remedies.
Removing the cause of the smell in the refrigerator
Proceed systematically. The easiest method to remove the smell from your refrigerator is a systematic cleaning of the appliance. You completely empty the refrigerator and clean it thoroughly with, for example, rea-clean® Bio-Cleaner, which is specially approved for areas close to food. For particularly severe cases, you can treat the emptied refrigerator before cleaning with, for example, dipure® DESTRAL Odor Neutralizer.
How to clean your refrigerator properly:
- Remove all shelves from the compartments and door, as well as the inserts from the vegetable compartment.
- Optional: Treat the empty refrigerator and the shelves/drawers with an odor remover (Our recommendation: dipure® DESTRAL)
- Clean the interior of your refrigerator thoroughly with your preferred cleaning agent (Our recommendation: rea-clean® Bio-Cleaner).
- Wash all shelves and drawer compartments by hand carefully using water and dish soap or the bio-cleaner.
- The interior of the refrigerator as well as the shelves and drawers should be thoroughly rinsed with clear water before refilling with food.
- Clean the fins of the seals by putting a few drops of cleaner on a cloth, placing it over a blunt knife and carefully but gently running it through the fins. Alternatively, you can also use a toothbrush.
- Free the drain in the rear area of the refrigerator from dirt using, for example, cotton swabs. Here it is important that the condensate water can drain freely again. If the refrigerator smells like “manure”, the drain is often the culprit. A detailed guide is provided in the video above.
- Then put all the inserts back in.
- Then check all food items thoroughly before putting them back in the refrigerator.
Tip: Go beyond visual inspection; Smell the food and packaging and throw away anything that smells bad or seems strange to you.
The refrigerator should be thoroughly cleaned once a month in the manner just described in the future. This way undesirable refrigerator odors can be avoided. Then it will work again with the carefree brunch on Sundays and holidays.
Conclusion
When the refrigerator smells bad, odor removers or various home remedies provide quick relief; but in the end you still have to check where the smell is coming from. And then the opportunity is favorable to clean the refrigerator properly right away - best according to the instructions given above. Hygiene in the kitchen is an important contribution to maintaining your health. Therefore, problems like mold should not occur in the first place - or should be thoroughly combated immediately.
Updated on 27.02.2023