How does a refrigerator work?

A fridge doesn't make cold. A compressor pumps a refrigerant round a loop. It boils in a coil behind the freezer panel, soaking up heat from inside, and gives that heat to your kitchen through hot pipes in the fridge's side walls.

Read how it works: How does a refrigerator work? · The history of the refrigerator · More boxes on Glassbox

Chapters in this interactive model

1. Inside a refrigerator: A box of foam, a pump, and pipes that carry heat out into your kitchen.
2. Keeping the cold in: Heat creeps in through every wall, and rushes in when you open the door.
3. The fridge’s cooling loop: Squeeze, cool, squirt, boil: then the thermostat switches it off.
4. Frost, and how fridges get rid of it: Every door opening lets in water. It ends up as ice on the coldest surface.
5. Why cold keeps food fresh: Bacteria double every 20 minutes when it’s warm. Cold slows them to a crawl.
6. Energy, stars and your bill: The one appliance that never switches off: small savings add up.