Low cooling effect

Hello there
A Look at the Defrosting System:
Modern refrigeration systems, whether industrial or household, feature a defrost system. A refrigeration system works by developing temperature below the water's freezing point. Long hours of continuous operation may lead to development of a layer of frost or ice around the freezer or the evaporator coil. This hinders the cooling capacity of the evaporator, making it difficult for the cooling effect to pass into the freezer. Without refrigerator defrosting, the layer of frost or ice leads to loss of cooling and lessening of performance coefficient of the refrigerator and higher electricity costs. There are various defrosting methods that your fridge can employ. Take a look at some of these defrosting methods.
Thermostat Defrosting:
Thermostat is a basic component in all modern refrigerators. The device allows you to set the freezer temperature that you want, depending on your requirement. Most often, a refrigerator with thermostat comes with a small plastic tray which can be found below the freezer compartment. This tray is where the excess water from your freezer goes to. The thermostat works by stopping the supply of power that is received by your compressor whenever the temperature that you have set has been reached.
The refrigeration unit stops producing the cooling effect whenever the thermostat stops, which happen several times a day. And during this stage, the frost or ice collected on the freezer starts to melt, with the resulting water collected in the tray. A small tube connects the tray to a small outlet usually located at the bottom back side of your refrigerator. A pan is installed there where the tube brings the water resulting from melted ice after defrosting.

water valve may be closed

A lack of refrigerant or a compressor problem might be the cause of freezer low efficiency but that is unlikely to blame for the buildup of ice in the refrigerator.

A certain amount of ice is normal and initially in the evolution of the fridge there was a need for routine deicing, typically just a few times each year. Later a heating element was included to ease the task of defrosting.
These days the heating element is now automatically switched on briefly every time the cooling cycle finishes and the resulting water drained into a cup mounted on the compressor. The heat from the compressor evaporates the water and the fridge remains frost-free.

I expect your fridge should be frost free and clearly the auto defrost is not working. This shouldn't be a great problem and if everything else was good it would just mean routine deicing like the early days. Clearly everything else is not good and the buildup of ice is much more than normal.

Assuming it isn't caused by an elementary mistake like placing hot food in the cabinet there are two main causes of excessive ice buildup - one is a defective door seal and the other is failing cabinet insulation, the latter marked by the compressor needing to run longer to maintain a low temperature and parts of the outside of the cabinet feeling "chilly".

Assuming you are not low on freon:
I have seen this symptom caused by too much moisture in the system too, it freezes near the metering device which kills the refrigeration effect which makes it warm up, the ice melts and it starts working until moisture builds up and freezes which kills the refrigeration effect again.

it does take time to fill the ice bucket but if it is still running it is normal. My amana says it only makes 6 dumps a day but after it catches up it usually fills up within a week

Hi,

Many times a freezer and/or refrigeratordo not work right because of a dirty condenser coil...there are also many otherthings that can go wrong. If you are hearing a clicking or buzzing then check out thelast two tips.

If your refrigerator is running but warm, then...

Check out this tip that I wrote about that... it is a great place to starttrouble shooting your unit...and something that you can do rather then callinga repair person to do a simple thing for you...

Refrigerator Condenser Coil Cleaning Refrigerator Repair

Refrigerator Troubleshooting Refrigerator Compressor

Refrigerator Compressor Start Capacitor and Start Relay
Refrigerator or Freezer not Cooling or Getting Cold

heatman101

m,m,v

i knew you had a defrost issue, please review me if you would like

There are two things that make a central air conditioner freeze up, they are poor air flow, that means check your air filter, and your system is low on refrigerant, and that will take a serviceman to fill on refrigerant. For the time being set your thermostat cool/heat switch to off, and turn your fan switch to on. This will thaw out your cooling unit, and when the ice is gone you can switch the heat/cool switch to cool to resume cooling until you have figured out which problem you have.

'64 could be right, but these Malibu's also have a tendency to go through HVAC head control units, among other things. I have taken the head unit out of mine and cleaned the contacts, etc...with some success. However, from what I've seen, this is just a temporary fix. These units run upwards of $200 at a dealer, but you can get one online for just over $100. It is a really easy install.

Other common problems include:
-Cruise control modules going bad (cruise kicks off at will)
-Bad resistor on fan blower (only speeds 3-5 will work)
-Front coil springs breaking
-Front brakes wear funny, excessive wear
-Moisture in headlight housings

I'm guessing that ice is obstructing the spinning blade, you might try running it at a more moderate temp first and be sure your door seal is secure and closing completely, its also likely if ice is obstructing that it has over heated the fan several times and the blade is loose on the shaft and not circulating air effectively, you might be able to only replace the blade but if your going in you might as well do it right and replace the fractional hp motor as well.
Good Luck.