People are just starting to realize what the numbers inside your refrigerator actually mean; This is not the temperature.

They are a vital household appliance in any kitchen, but for decades people have used refrigerators and freezer refrigerators to store vital foods such as milk, fresh meat and vegetables, without realizing that they had never set up the refrigerator correctly.

Whether it is an integrated refrigerator freezer or just a freestanding refrigerator, there is a small white dial on the inside of the white goods item, usually at the top right of the door hinge, to adjust the temperature.

But it’s not that simple. While actually changing the dial affects how cold the refrigerator is, the numbers marked on it do not actually refer to degrees C in most cases.

Reddit members explained the problem; The numbers on the dial actually mean how strong the refrigerator’s cooling setting is. So higher numbers mean colder, not lower numbers.

One of them said: “The higher it is, the colder it is… The numbers on the refrigerator’s temperature dial indicate the refrigerant strength. The higher the number, the colder the refrigerator stays. Setting it to 5 will make your refrigerator the coldest.”

Some people will mistakenly think that 1 corresponds to 1C and therefore colder, but this is not the case with most models on the market today.

This could mean your food will spoil more quickly if you don’t set the right temperature, or if you set it too cold it could lead to ice building up at the back of the fridge.

Others pointed out that, just to make it a little weird, there are a few fake refrigerator models that actually use the C rating.

But there’s a handy trick to determine how yours is working.

Here’s how to find out: “Turn the dial in any direction until the compressor (black motor on the back) turns on and off.

“If the compressor is already on (you’ll usually hear a humming sound) and it turns it to a higher number and then turns off (you’ll hear a click and a little rattle) you’re making it even hotter (it’s going off because it’s already too cold).

“If you hear it coming, then you make it even cooler.

“It sounds complicated, but basically when the compressor comes on it makes it cooler, when it turns off it makes it warmer.

“Turn around and see which road does what!”