Navigating the Frigidaire Refrigerator Recall: What You Need to Know

An Inside Look: Understanding the Frigidaire Recall

Understanding Recalls: What They Are and What Happens

Before delving into the specifics of the Frigidaire refrigerator recall, it's essential to understand what a recall entails and the processes involved. A recall occurs when a manufacturer or regulatory authority determines that a product poses a safety risk or fails to meet regulatory standards. This action is taken to protect consumers from potential harm and ensure the integrity of the product.

Recalls can be initiated for various reasons, including defects in design or manufacturing, safety concerns, or failure to meet regulatory requirements. In the case of appliances like refrigerators, recalls may be issued due to issues with components such as ice makers, electrical systems, or structural integrity.

When a recall is initiated, the manufacturer typically works with relevant regulatory agencies to notify consumers of the issue and provide instructions on how to address it. This often involves contacting affected consumers directly, issuing public announcements through various channels, and coordinating efforts to repair or replace the affected products.

For consumers, being informed about recalls is crucial for your safety and well-being. It allows you to take appropriate actions to mitigate risks and ensure the continued safe use of your appliances. In the case of the Frigidaire refrigerator recall, understanding the nature of the issue and how to respond is essential for protecting both individuals and families from potential harm.

Recall Announcement: Frigidaire Refrigerator Recall

In February of 2024, Frigidaire issued a recall for nearly 400,000 refrigerators due to a critical issue with an ice bucket component. This recall affects Frigidaire's side-by-side refrigerators equipped with slim ice buckets, which were sold between November 2015 and September 2019. These refrigerators were distributed through major retailers such as Lowe's, Home Depot, Frigidaire.com, and other authorized dealers across the United States and Canada. The models ranged in price from 1,400 to $2,400.

Incidents and Previous Recalls

The recall was initiated due to a specific piece of plastic within the ice bucket assembly that is prone to breakage. This breakage can result in plastic fragments falling into the ice dispenser, posing a significant choking hazard and risk of laceration injuries, particularly to children. As of the current date, Frigidaire has received at least 343 reports of incidents related to this issue, prompting the comprehensive recall of all affected refrigerators sold within the specified time frame.

It is noteworthy that this is not the first instance of Electrolux, Frigidaire's parent company, recalling refrigerators due to issues with their ice makers. In 2022, over 370,000 Electrolux and Frigidaire refrigerators were recalled following nearly 200 reports of the ice-level arm breaking into pieces and falling into the ice bucket, posing choking hazards. These recalls affected various refrigerator models, including side-by-side, top-freezer, and French door configurations. The recurrence of such issues underscores concerns regarding the efficacy of the frost protection measures implemented by Frigidaire in their freezers.

What Can Consumers Do?

For consumers who may be unsure whether their refrigerator is affected by the recall, it is essential to perform a quick check. If you purchased a Frigidaire side-by-side refrigerator with a slim ice bucket between 2015 and 2019, and your model matches one of the following:

[DGHK2355TF, DGHX2655TF, FFSC2323TS, FGSC2335TD, FGSC2335TF, FGSS2635TD, FGSS2635TE, FGSS2635TF, FGSS2635TP, FPSC2277RF, FPSC2278UF, FPSS2677RF, LFSC2324VF, LGHK2336TD, LGHK2336TF, LGHX2636TD, LGHX2636TF]

It is recommended to cease using the ice maker immediately until the issue is resolved. Even if it hasn’t broken yet, there’s no guarantee that it won’t if the model numbers match. 

Taking Action

Affected consumers are encouraged to contact Frigidaire or the Electrolux Group to request a free replacement of the defective ice bucket assembly piece. Additionally, individuals may wish to explore options regarding a potential class-action lawsuit. Schmidt Law is currently in the early stages of organizing such a lawsuit.

Prioritizing Safety: Appliance Rescue Service

At Appliance Rescue Service, we prioritize the safety of your home and family. Whether it's addressing broken appliances or informing you about critical recalls like this one, we are dedicated to ensuring your peace of mind. We understand that appliance issues can arise for various reasons, not just due to faulty components. If your appliances break or malfunction, regardless of the cause, we're here to help.

Please visit our website or contact us at (214) 599-0055 today to schedule a maintenance appointment for your appliances. Our team will work with you to set up a convenient date and time that fits your schedule. With our expertise and dedication to quality service, you can trust us to keep your appliances running smoothly and your home safe.

Explaining the Basics of Appliance Recycling

Why It Matters To You And The Planet

Imagine a world where every home, every neighborhood, and every city makes a conscious choice towards a greener, more sustainable future. A world where your old appliances, once destined for the scrapyard, find new life and purpose, reducing your energy bills, lessening the load on our aging power grids, and shielding our fragile environment from harm. This world isn't a distant dream; it's within reach, and the key to unlocking this greener reality lies in something you might have never considered - appliance recycling. In the pages ahead, we'll unravel the complexities of this vital practice and show you how, by recycling your appliances, you can become an eco-warrior, an economic champion, and a guardian of the planet. Welcome to the beginning of a journey towards a brighter, more sustainable tomorrow.

Unveiling Appliance Recycling: A Green Solution

Courtesy of Vlada Karpovich

Let's start by clarifying something: recycling, surprisingly, can mean a couple of different things when it comes to appliances. It might mean the resale or reusing of a unit, or it might mean the breaking down of the unit as far as possible and reselling the valuable scraps while everything else is sent on to a landfill. This second option is especially problematic, as it does not contain or safely dispose of the hazardous chemicals contained within the refrigerator. Our point here is that "recycling" can be a vague term that does not always line up with best environmental practices.

It is important to figure out how to recycle your appliances and how to do it safely, as the outcome is directly tied to your future health and that of everyone else. We all know that at this point.

The concept of reduce, reuse and recycle has probably been drilled into our collective consciousness for 30 plus years at this point - at least in the United States.

What most people don't know, though, is that recycling doesn't have to just be paying somebody else to take the appliance off your hands. In fact, there are several ways that recycling appliances can actually benefit you. By working with us through this four post series, we'll show you how you can benefit from recycling appliances, how the environment benefits, your partners you can look to in the process, and how to go about it.

Eco-Warriors Wanted: The Environmental Impact of Appliance Recycling

Now that we've told you why you want to be involved with recycling, let's take a look at the environmental impact of it.

The most obvious benefit of recycling household appliances is personal energy savings. The lower bill is nice, but especially nice is the knowledge that you're helping reduce overall usage in your area. 

Think of how often during the summer Texas has rolling brownouts because of the age of our electric grid. How often do you have to prioritize utilizing your washer versus running your air conditioner? Now think about if every household was able to switch over to modern, efficient, energy-saving appliances. Given that household appliances are among the biggest draws on the electric grid, you can see how beneficial this could be to Texas as a whole.

Now we won't say that industry, agriculture, entertainment venues or schools don't have their own impact on the grid. However, those things are much larger than our purview here at Appliance Rescue.

Recycling your major appliances allows for the recovery and reuse of materials. For every appliance that gets recycled and broken down, that's one less that has to be created from scratch. The energy isn't put into mining new materials from the Earth; the fuel isn't used for processing those materials. Instead, what has already been used can be reused, and the hard workers in our factories and appliance sections are still able to be paid.

Another benefit is that the recycling of these parts reduces the emission of harmful substances that negatively impact our ozone layer. 

In Texas, we are acutely aware of the heat every summer. You have days at a time where you're told "don't go outside if you can avoid it," because it is just that hot. We are more acutely aware of this than people in some of the farther north areas of the country. Part of the reason for the growing heat year-over-year is the impact we've already made on our ozone layer.

While we cannot go in-depth into all of the myriad things (both caused by humans and caused naturally by cycles within the Earth) that are affecting the ozone layer, we can say that the materials used within major appliances do affect it if allowed to just release into a landfill. If we could stop adding to that, we won't say that it's a miraculous cure for the heat - but it is one less step toward making it any hotter.

Another topic to consider is E-Waste. For the last decade or two, the concept of e-waste has started to filter into our understanding of recycling and issues with the environment.

Courtesy of Pixabay

Many of us wouldn't look at our appliances and think that they would be contributing to this problem. After all, e-waste is from things like cell phones, computers, tablets and gaming consoles - not your refrigerator or your oven, right?

Nope! As we shift towards smarter appliances, this means that your e-waste also includes your appliances. There are circuit boards within your stove. There are tablets built into your refrigerator. If you've got Wi-Fi connectivity, that requires its own set of bits and bobs built in, which means another layer to be conscious of when disposing of your appliances.

However, all of this e-waste contains valuable resources that can be reprocessed and reused. Metals, glass, plastics: all of these can be returned to a purified state and reused for making other materials, either for new appliances or for something else entirely.

Think back to science class as a kid. One day, if you were lucky, your teacher pulled out this beautiful silvery liquid to show the way that it could collect on surfaces, be manipulated, and then group back together easily at room temperature. And then, at the end of the display, you were told that although it looked like fun, it wasn't. It was definitely not something you could play with bare-handed because it would get into your skin, then into your bloodstream and from there into your brain.

Or maybe you remember learning about the story of Alice in Wonderland and the dark reasons why the Mad Hatter is mad in the first place.

Yes, we're talking about mercury. Mercury is in many older models of refrigerators; more of them than you might think. Unfortunately, when old refrigerators aren't recycled properly, that mercury does leech out of them and into the ground below. Then it works its way into the water, which then goes into the plants, on into animals... And while it does take time, just like microplastics, it eventually ends up in what you're eating. Even for all of our best attempts at eating organic, or fair trade, or vegan - without taking care of where materials are disposed of, it still circles back around. Everyone - elders from even the most isolated tribes all the way to scientists studying in their labs - will tell you on every level, everything is connected. Unfortunately, that means that if you feed the water table mercury, you will eventually be feeding it to yourself.

A final point to consider is that recycling major appliances or even minor ones as we'll cover in a later post, does not simply benefit you. It doesn't just benefit the planet. It also greatly impacts our economy in a positive way.

With the amount of trash that gets collected just in a single year, there is an amazing amount of job security. You need people to sort everything. You need people to handle the processing. You need people to handle extraction. All of these (and so many more) are necessary jobs that would not exist if not for recycling. More importantly, the industry can stand to grow further, given how little is actually being recycled as of right now.

By recycling your major appliances as a consumer, you are telling the industry as a whole that this is something that matters. You are saying that you want to ensure it continues, and that it is worth their time and resources to see it done more often or more thoroughly.

Not only do you support jobs when you recycle, you also support the creation of a circular economy. When things are broken, they have multiple options. Right now, you might look at it and see there are only two choices: take it to a landfill (and probably pay a fee), or call somebody like us and have it repaired.

But what about when it gets to the point that even our best technicians can't keep your appliances running any longer? It might not be that we don't know how to fix something, but instead that we don't have the materials or tools, or that the parts simply are not being made for this model any longer. At that point, a circular economy says, instead of sending this off to a landfill to become just another piece of garbage (taking up space and not having any use), the next step is to break it down. Take every single piece and material that we can out of this. Instead of having to purchase new, raw materials from a company that's going to rip them out of the Earth, we can reuse what we've already harvested. The circular economy is good for you the consumer, it's good for the economy of the United States, and it's good for the planet! Three wins in one.

Leading the Way: The Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program

If you've been paying attention, you might have noticed that at several points we touched on how few people or industries or companies recycle right now. We've also mentioned that recycling does not always mean the best environmental practices.That is where the Responsible Appliance Disposal, or RAD, program comes in.

They are a leader in responsible recycling practices. The RAD program was developed by the US environmental protection agencies partnership, launched in 2006 to protect our ozone, cut greenhouse gases and benefit communities like ours.

The RAD program recognizes partners all over the country who are committed to collecting and disposing of old appliances using the best practices. These partners are going well beyond what is currently required by federal law.

 They take on the responsibility to recover things like insolation foam out of  end-of-life appliances. They also collect the less efficient models of appliances from the secondary market. From here they work with recyclers to ensure that the materials are handled properly and broken down safely to comply with federal law. 

Together, we've uncovered the immense potential of appliance recycling and its profound impact on our world. As you embark on your journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle, remember that Appliance Rescue is here to support you every step of the way. When your faithful appliances are in need of care, trust our expert technicians to breathe new life into them, ensuring they serve you for years to come. Let's make recycling a part of our daily lives and embrace a future where both our planet and your appliances thrive. Join us in this eco-conscious mission, one repair at a time. 

You can reach out to us via our contact page or by giving us a call ((214) 599-0055). You can also connect with us on Facebook. 

Additional Resources For Things We’ve Mentioned Throughout :

Waste | Take Care of Texas

https://www.epa.gov/rad/responsible-appliance-disposal-rad-partners-affiliates-recyclers

Additional Reading: 

https://appliance-rescue-service.com/blog/appliance-disposal2023

Frigi-Know: Your Guide to Refrigerator Troubleshooting

Unlocking the Cold Truth: Your Essential Guide to Refrigerator Repairs and Myths

We get a lot of questions about refrigerators and how to go about repairing them both before and during a maintenance call. We’ve been asked all sorts of things from the normal ‘can’t you just repair a compressor?” to “can my fridge explode??” and everything in between. So we’ve rounded up the ones we get most often while working on refrigerators and are answering them here. 

Repair-oriented questions 

Can Refrigerator Doors Be Removed/ Replaced/ Adjusted?

Fridge doors can indeed be easily removed, and when you’re done you just pop them back into place. They can also be adjusted. Most shops will have screws to help you align the doors properly, they might even be included when you purchase a fridge. If not, or if you’ve had your fridge for a while, you can always ask at a nearby hardware store.  As to replacing doors, this one is more.. Dependant on you. There are shops that can replace a door for you, we can even do that if you like. However, we will say that you might want to look at the fridge you have and consider if it’s worth it. If you’ve spent 10-15k on your refrigerator, then yes, replacing a door is absolutely a good call. On the other hand, if you only spent a third of that? Then you might as well buy an entirely new fridge for the price of getting a new door. 

Can A Refrigerator Compressor Be Repaired?

Yes! However, we will say that it’s not typically cost-effective to repair them. There’s two reasons for that. The first point is that repairing a compressor isn’t a guaranteed way to extend the lifespan of the part. You can often repair the part only to have it break again before long. Additionally, not all compressors can be repaired at all. Some are built so that once they break, that’s it, you’ll have no choice but to replace it. 

We will also point out that while a pro can replace a compressor,  attempting to do it on your own is ill-advised. Most refrigerator compressors are not cross-compatible and you’re more likely to do further damage to your fridge in attempting to replace it. It is a complex job with many potential failure points if you aren’t intimately aware of what you’re doing. 

Additionally, the failure isn’t always the compressor. It might be your fans, it might be that your refrigerator is frozen over, or it might be that the poor thing is choking on dust bunnies. While some of our other posts have pointed out ways to tell what the issue is, it’s not always easy. 

 Can You Add Freon To Your Refrigerator?

Can you the individual? No, or at least not easily. Additionally, if you’ve replaced your refrigerator since 2020, it’s no longer freon. Can a professional add freon to your refrigerator if that’s the type of coolant it uses? Yes. 

 Can My  Refrigerator Leak Freon?

Most assuredly it can, and we hope that yours never does. Freon is a gas, so the only thing you’ll smell is a slight chemical odor. Additionally you won’t see the freon itself it is leaking, instead you’ll have an oily residue that’s leftover from the freon. The only reason it will be leaking though is if something got a hole poked into it. Have you recently done a DIY repair that went wrong? Or were you a bit too pushy with making scraping out some built up frost? These are the reasons that having a professional come in is important, because you don’t want to have a freon leak. 

Can Your Refrigerator Explode 

Yup, we’re going to answer this one, so that next time a small child in your life asks, you can answer it. 

The surprising answer here is yes, a refrigerator can actually explode. HOWEVER it’s exceedingly rare. So, this is a thing that can only happen with newer fridges. Older fridges used freon, and freon doesn’t explode. R-600 however is flammable. So, to make this one happen, you’d have to a) have a newer fridge utilizing R-600 as the coolant, and b) it would have to have a hole in the line, c) it would need to have very little circulation around it and d) you’d need something with a spark. While the first one is more common these days between older fridges failing due to age, and rebates being offered to shift away from freon-based refrigerators, the rest aren’t. So long as you take care of your fridge, having a hole in the line and little air circulation isn’t likely to happen. Or if they do, you should be calling in a repair technician to fix one or both issues. As to the last, we hope and trust that all of our readers know how to be safe around fire. 

So yes, technically, your refrigerator can explode. BUT it’s such a rarity that it’s more likely that any time you hear of it you should suspect foul play rather than a natural occurrence. 

In conclusion, refrigerators can be a source of many questions and concerns, both for those looking to repair them and for those curious about their potential dangers. From adjusting doors to the complexity of compressor repairs and the use of refrigerants like freon, we've covered some of the most common queries surrounding these essential appliances. It's important to remember that while refrigerators technically have the potential to explode under specific circumstances, it's an exceedingly rare occurrence, especially with older models. By ensuring proper maintenance and addressing any issues promptly, you can keep your refrigerator running smoothly and safely, reducing the likelihood of any unexpected and dramatic outcomes.

If you find yourself in need of professional assistance with your refrigerator or any other appliance, don't hesitate to reach out to Appliance Rescue Service. Our expert technicians are ready to help you with all your appliance repair needs. You can give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or visit our contact page to schedule an appointment. We're here to rescue your appliances and provide you with peace of mind.

Additional Reading:
Refrigerator Cooling Issues? Check These 5 Things!

Why Is My Refrigerator Making Weird Noises!?

Appliance Deep Dive Round Up

Putting It All Together To See What Makes Appliances Tick

Appliances might not be the most interesting topic in the world, but they are a basic part of the American home. They make our lives easier, most of the time. According to Merriam-Webster, “ an appliance is a device or piece of equipment designed to perform a specific task, typically a domestic one.”  Over the last year we’ve broken down every major appliance in the home, to go deep into what makes the different appliances work and what matters. 

Each of the posts covers the important parts of their appliances. How do the appliances work? What sort of variations are there? What are the differences that are important to know if you’re looking to purchase? What features would you expect to find? So that’s the way each one works. We want to highlight the different posts, make them easier to find, and most importantly, show off something from each of them that might be of interest. 

All About the Refrigerator 

Let’s start off looking at the 5 major styles of refrigerators. When it comes to refrigerators you’ve got freezerless refrigerators, top freezers, bottom freezers, side by sides, and french doors.  Even though the first three are listed by the location or lack of a freezer, they are still refrigerators. Why are they listed by the freezer then? Probably because they’re still refrigerators without much of a change. Even the Side by Sides and the French Door refrigerators are most defined by how they’re set up rather than any change in what they do. While that might seem odd, it’s because refrigerators don’t grow by leaps and bounds in terms of food storage. They grow by tiny moments, small improvements to how long food stays good. So the biggest factor for you as a home owner, is how you want them to look. 

All About the Freezer

The freezer is both very similar and yet very different from the refrigerator. It doesn’t change much from one year to another, but instead, it slowly improves how long food can be kept. Changes to a lack of frostbite or lack of ice building up, they’re great! But overall, the freezer doesn’t change much in terms of its function. Instead, how the freezer is set up is what changes. For the freezer, your types are the portable freezer, a chest freezer,  an upright freezer, and drawer freezers. 

All About the Oven

Ovens are fantastic and have been for quite some time. The earliest ovens have been found in 29,000 BC. The varieties we have now are many, and the features are even more plentiful. We have gas and electric ovens, we have convection ovens, and steam ovens as well.  Our favorite feature though is a toss up between the warming drawer and the steam clean function. No matter how many times we fix ovens that have that feature we have to be grateful for it. 

All About the Stove 

  When it comes to the stove, everyone knows about gas stoves and electric stoves. The fights between the chefs will continue for ages yet, but for us, we love the induction stove. The fact that it’s nigh on impossible to be burned by the stove now is a fantastic thing. We also love that many stoves also offer continuous grates, which is wonderful for making breakfast foods of all sorts. After all, who doesn’t love breakfast? 

All About the Dishwasher

For dishwashers the types you might have include built-in, drawer, portable, countertop and integrated. Dishwashers are constantly changing though and offering new tools and techniques to make them better. When researching this we found that our favorite feature was the sensor wash.  This one feature makes it much easier to manage your water bill, and only uses the amount that’s needed to clean the dishes. 

All About the Washer

We’re tempted to say that the best part of the article is adding ‘laundry’ to the list of things that are consistent in life, but that would be a rather morose thought. Instead, for us it was learning about the existence of washer-dryer combinations. It’s not an efficient machine. It’s not an easy to use machine. The fact that it exists though, is where any appliance starts, as it can’t get better if it doesn’t exist yet. 

All About the Dryer 

And finally we have dryers. There are so many different types of dyers. They can all be said to do the same thing, but how they go about it? That’s wildly different. You’ve got gas dryers and electric dryers, but that’s just the power source. More important are the heat pump condenser dryers which use a technique similar to a refrigerator to make a dryer work many times more efficiently than the dryers any of us grew up with. 

And that’s that! If you’re looking to find out more about the options as of right now (2022) these are the posts to check out. Upgrades will come with time and we’ll update the page as well, diving in and letting you know what we’ve found as always. Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below, which article do you find the most useful? 

If instead you’re here because one of your appliances is making the holidays a nightmare, we can help with that! You can reach out to us on our contact page, or by giving us a call at ((214) 599-0055). Even with the holidays, we’ll work with you to find a time that works best for you. At Appliance Rescue Service our goal is to get your home running smoothly again, whether it’s an oven that won’t stay lit, a dishwasher that isn’t draining or a dryer that’s squeaking.

3 Keys to Maximizing your Refrigerator's Potential

So what do we use our refrigerators for, anyway? Isn’t the goal to keep food fresher, longer?

If you want to keep food fresher longer- and maximize the life of your refrigerator – then consider these simple, every day tips from Appliance Rescue in Dallas, Texas:

·      Clean the Compressor Coils:

Compressors, or evaporators as some manufactures call them – are at the heart of the functionality of your refrigerator. Check your manufacturer’s owners’ guide to locate the coils, then use a coil brush – available at most appliance shops – to clean them with ease. It only takes a few minutes, but by cleaning the coils you are helping the refrigerator run more efficiently and last longer. A good rule of thumb is to perform this step every 6 months.

·      Give Your Refrigerator a Good Wipe Down:

At least once a month, wipe down the inside of the refrigerator with a damp cloth to remove gunk and spills that may have built up. Pay close attention to the door gaskets, as they are frequently overlooked, but should they get sticky and dirty, they may not seal as well, leaking air and causing lapses in performance.

·      Don’t Overload the Refrigerator:

Refrigerators are designed to be filled with delicious goodies, but don’t overfill it. A key to freshness and efficiency is the proper air flow within the refrigerator. Not to mention – an inefficient refrigerator means higher utility bills.

·      Worried you have an issue? Call Appliance Rescue! If you are concerned that your refrigerator is not operating at it’s optimum efficiency, give our team of refrigerator repair experts in Dallas a call today! We will come out and give youa complete estimate with no surprises before any work is begun. Our goal at Appliance Rescue is to be the best appliance repair company in the Metroplex, with top notch customer service and quality work.