After 6 years my once super cold refrigerator is not cold enough. I have adjusted the settings. The refrigerator sections is too warm to keep milk fresh & the freezer can not freeze ice hard. There does not appear to be any frost in the freezer, nor any accumulation of dirt in compressor or grille.
It's not cool
If the refrigerator isn't cool, you need to answer some questions, then see if the compressor is running.
First, answer these questions:
Next, see if the compressor motor is running
The compressor is a football-sized case with no apparent moving parts. It's on the outside of the refrigerator at the back near the bottom. If it is humming or making a continuous noise and your refrigerator is still not cooling, there may be a more serious problem with one or more of several different components, we recommend contacting a qualified appliance repair technician for further help.
If the compressor is not running but you do have power to the refrigerator, there may be a problem with one or more of these:
Cooling is poor
For an overall understanding of how refrigerators should work, read about refrigerators in the How Things Work section of our website. A refrigerator or freezer that is cooling, but cooling poorly, may have a problem in one of several areas:
Evaporator coils
Condenser
Poor cooling is often the result of a heavy frost build-up on the evaporator coils or a condenser that is clogged with dust, lint, and dirt.
Evaporator coils
Poor cooling is often the result of a heavy frost build-up on the evaporator coils. You can't see these coils without removing a panel on the inside of your freezer. A sure sign that there is a build-up is the presence of any frost or ice build-up on the inside walls, floor, or ceiling of the freezer. Such a frost build-up usually indicates a problem in the self-defrosting system or damaged door gaskets.
The refrigerator is supposed to self-defrost approximately four times in every 24 hour period. If one of the components in the self-defrosting system fails, the refrigerator continues to try to cool. Eventually, though, so much frost builds up on the evaporator coils that the circulating fan can't draw air over the coils. There may still be a small amount of cooling because the coils are icy, but with no air flow over the coils, cooling in the refrigerator compartment is quite limited.
Here's an inexpensive, though inconvenient, way to determine if the problem is with the self-defrosting system. Remove all of the perishable food from the refrigerator and freezer, turn the thermostat in the refrigerator to Off, and leave the doors open for 24 to 48 hours. (Be sure to have several towels ready in case the melting frost and ice causes the drip pan to overflow). This allows the refrigerator to defrost "manually." When the frost and ice build-up has completely melted away, turn the thermostat back to a normal setting. If the refrigerator then cools properly, it indicates a problem with one of three components in the self-defrosting system:
If it still does not cool properly, there may be a problem with the refrigerant level or the compressor. You may need to consult with a qualified appliance repair technician to further diagnose the problem
Condenser
Self-defrosting refrigerators all have a set of coils and a cooling fan, usually under the refrigerator, that need to be cleaned regularly. If these coils get coated with dust, dirt or lint, the refrigerator may not cool properly. The coils may appear to be a thin, black, wide radiator-like device behind the lower kick-panel. To clean them, disconnect the refrigerator from the power source, use a refrigerator condenser brush (see the Appliance Accessories section) and your vacuum cleaner to clean the coils of any lint, pet hair, etc. You may not be able to get to all of the condenser from the front, it may be necessary to clean the remainder of the condenser from the rear of the refrigerator. I feel heat/warmth on the front edge of my refrigerator....why?
Older refrigerators had electric heaters on the edges of the refrigerator cabinet to help prevent moisture from building up, especially in the hot/hazy weather in the summer time. These electric heaters usually had a switch where you could turn them on or off...had words like..."switch here to prevent moisture"...switch here in damp weather".... in the picture it is in the top left of the control assembly.
Then along came the energy crunch. The manufactures stopped using the electric heaters and started running a pass of the hot condenser tubing on the edges of the cabinet where the electric heaters use to be. This is often called ayoder loop tube SxS version and the yoder loop tube Top freezer version. This has now replaced the electric heaters. If you feel heat/hot around the door opening of your refrigerator you should....
- clean the condenser coils as a dirty condenser can make the tubing hotter than normal
- check/clean & replace if necessary the condenser cooling fan ( # F ) motor, if the condenser fan motor is slow or has quit the yoder loop pass will get very warm/hot to the touch
- If the condenser coils are clean and the condenser fan motor is running ok, check the fresh food and freezer section temperatures...if the refrigerator is not operating well and the temps inside are warming up, you could feel more heat/warmth than normal
Change the Heating element inside the back of the freezer. I did this and now my fridge works great.
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Was able to correct problem after reading your response. I checked the compressor in greater detail (this time I remove the refrigerator backing, last time I just peeked thru the grille) and discovered a handful of dry dog food inside the coils, no dust, just dry dog food. I had a mouse problem about three months back, my wife noticed that sometime was dragging dog food to the refrigerator area. Although there did not appear to be frosting on back freezer wall, I removed the freezer panel and discovered the evaporator coils had quite a bit of frost built up. I followed the rest of your instructions on defrosting. Thanks for all your assistance.
Can anyone give me a list of items that I should replace. Even if it has not gone out or is the root cause of the coils freezing over. I want to peplace the items that most often go out and ofcourse fix my refridg.
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