LESLIE: Going out to Wisconsin, right now, where Beth is dealing with refrigerator odor.
Beth, you’ve tried everything. What’s going on?
BETH: I’ve had the stinkiness for about a month now. I keep washing it down and the stink still stays. I put baking soda in it. Nothing’s getting rid of it. I was wondering if mold could grow in the walls of the refrigerator or if there’s some sort of filter in there or …
TOM: Well, bacteria can certainly grow. And sometimes when – especially if you’ve had a power failure or if a refrigerator sits outside and it kind of gets damp and moist, you get bacteria that will grow in the foam that’s in the wall or the insulation that’s in the wall. If the insulation got damp, that could be causing refrigerator odor.
One surprise fix for smelly fridges is vanilla extract. Once the inside of the refrigerator is clean, soak a paper towel in vanilla extract, and leave it in the fridge overnight.
Another suggestion that I might have for you for refrigerator odor, if you want to try this one more time, is to take everything out and clean the whole thing down with oxygenated bleach. So not just a simple kitchen spray but true, oxygenated bleach, because that has the best chance of killing any bacteria. But the problem, again, is if the bacteria is in the insulation, you’re not going to get to that. So, I would give it a good cleaning with oxygenated bleach and see if that will solve the issue.
BETH: OK. Thank you very much.
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