I recently bought a new refrigerator, and just to make sure it's working right, I bought two standalone fridge thermometers to put in it, one for the freezer & one for the fridge portion. (We replaced our last fridge because it wouldn't cool lower than 45°F, even though its digital readout said the temperature was 34°F.)
The new fridge was down to 34°F this morning (according to the standalone thermometer) and about 30% full when I returned from a big shopping trip, and added a large amount of already-cool food to it, now it's about 80% full. But it's been over 6 hours since I added all that (already cool from the grocery store) food, and the fridge is still measuring above 47°F!
From the advice I read, above 41°F is in the food safety danger zone, and 2 hours is the maximum time food should be allowed to be in the danger zone. But my new fridge apparently can't get the food back in the safety zone within 2 hours; is that normal? How long should I expect it to take my refrigerator to recover from adding a bunch of already-cold food to it?