Turn thermostat on, cooling fans kick in, i can feel compressor with my hand moving but no cooling inside freezer or fridg

There are several possible causes when a refrigerator doesn't keep your milk cold or your ice cream frozen. Before you attempt more complex repairs, try these simple fixes if your refrigerator is not cooling and if your freezer is not working:
·Be sure the fridge is plugged in and getting power. The light should come on when you open the door.
·Check the thermostat to make sure it hasn't been turned way down by mistake. If your fridge/freezer thermostat isn't working.
·Be sure the vents on the back of the freezer compartment aren't blocked by boxes of ice cream or frozen vegetables-the vents have to be clear for cold air to circulate.
·Vacuum the coils under or behind the fridge. Clogged coils can cause poor cooling.
·Check to make sure nothing is stuck in the condenser fan and that it spins freely (models with coils on the back won't have a fan). To do this, unplug the fridge and pull it out. Clean the fan blades and spin the fan by hand to see if it's stuck. Plugin the fridge and make sure the fan runs when the compressor is running. If the fan doesn't run, see the directions below, which show how to replace it.


Replace the Refrigerator Evaporator Fan
·Here are some refrigerator troubleshooting tips to help you zero in on the problem if you notice your fridge not cooling. If you can hear the compressor running but the fridge isn't cooling, the problem is most likely either frost-clogged evaporator coils or a stuck or broken evaporator fan. Evaporator fans often squeal or chirp when they start to go bad. You'll know it's the evaporator fan if the noise gets louder when you open the freezer door. The evaporator coils and fan are located behind a cover in the freezer compartment
·If you remove the cover inside the freezer and find the coils completely filled with frost, take everything out of the freezer and fridge, unplug it and let it thaw for 24 to 48 hours. Keep a few towels handy to soak up water that may leak onto the floor. When all the frost is melted away, plug the fridge back in. If it works, the problem may be a defrost timer, defrost heater or defrost thermostat. Replacing these parts isn't difficult, but figuring out which is faulty requires troubleshooting that we won't cover here. Call a pro if you suspect a problem with these parts.
·Normally the refrigerator condenser fan and compressor, located near the floor on the back of most refrigerators, come on when the thermostat calls for more cooling. If you don't hear the compressor running after the door has been left open for a while, it could mean the condenser fan is stuck or worn out or that the relay or compressor is bad.

Remove the rear lower panel on the unit check to see if the compressor is hot or if its running, should feel the vibration, also listen for any clicking noises.

Hi,

Your description is quite complete but is rather baffling. Pls bear with me while we process by elimination. A few basic/working ideas:

• most designs call for a single compressor to cool the freezer;
• the cold air in the freezer is drawn towards the fridge to cool that area;
• this is performed by a fan drawing air in the freezer through the evaporator;
• most would have a vent or air pathway to guide the freezer air;
• all would have thermostatic control to set the desired temperature;
• some designs have two thermostatic control , 1 for the freezer, 1 for the fridge.

As applied to your concern:

• compressor is working since freezer is OK;
• fan is working as you posted but is the air drawn from the freezer, better still, is the air forced/vented into the fridge?
• could you please check that the air is strongly blown into the fridge area;
• a little experiment, open the fridge door, look for and press on the door switch, the light should go out, after a lengthy seconds, the fan should trigger on, not only would it be audible, you would notice the frozen air swirling inside the fridge area. If you hold on long enough to the dorr switch, the compressor should kick in (if it is not already running) since the thermostat of the fridge area (if one is present) would sense that the fan is turning but the fridge area is not cooling.
  

Hope this be of initial help/idea. Pls post back how things turned up or should you need additional information.

Good luck and kind regards. Thank you for using FixYa.

sounds like you may have a stuck freezer control.try bumping that knob with the back of your fist,if it stops,that is it.if not it still may be the problem.let cool down in freezer for 10 min. open freezer door and turn knob back to off very slow,if it kicks off just at off ,control most likley bad.

Jason,
MOST refrigerators get there cold from the freezer side and circulate it via a fan that's also normally inside the freezer. There are three motors normally in a refrigeration system. The inside Evaporator fan motor that circulates air across the evaporator coil inside the box, the Condenser fan motor near the compressor that cools the freon after compression, and the compressor itself. If you open the doors (and sometimes you may have to hold in the door switches) do you hear a fan running? If not you could have a couple things going on: 1. The fan(s) has failed. 2. The freezer Evap coil may of iced over and the fan too is frozen stopped. 3. Your condensing unit:(compressor, condenser fan, condenser coils) has a problem.
It is important to know if the compressor itself is running. If there is a loose connection to the compressor via the start/over load relay (normally attaches directly onto the compressor), or if the start/over load otself is bad the compressor will not run. Best way to tell is via gauges but I doubt your frig has ports. Check to see if your compressor is really hot. Could be bad start/over load relay or bad compressor. Try unplugging your frig for say 30 min then, with your hand on top of a cool compressor, plug the frig back in and see if compressor smoothly vibrates for at least 5 min without becoming very hot or shutting off even though fan continues to run. The fact your fan is running TYPICALLY means the thermostat is calling for lower temps and the fan/compressor kick in together.



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this fan needs to run when the compressor runs,check fan blade for being jammed by ice if you have this much ice on back wall as ice will stall motor,if no fan there will be no cool air to refrige compartment also the defrost drain tray will fill with water then freeze over which in turn floods the freezer floor and refrige compartments cause it cannot drain to the pan in the bottom

If the refrigerator isn't cool, you need to answer some questions, then see if the compressor is running. First, answer these questions: Is the refrigerator completely dead? If so, see “It's stopped completely.” Is the thermostat knob turned to the proper setting? If not, reset it. 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: The compressor The Thermostat The overload, relay, or capacitor The defrost timer The condenser fan motor

First of all, there is only one thing that cools in a fridge and that is the freezer. The fresh food section is cooled by air forced into it from the freezer.

• You ice maker will not work if the temp inside the freezer is above 5 degrees. It has a thermostat inside it that enables it.
• The knob that turns the fridge off and on is the thermostat for the freezer.
• The other knob opens and closes a damper between the freezer and fresh food section.
• There is a fan that should be running that pulls air from the freezer into the fresh food section.

(The factory does make the discription of the knobs confussing)

Now. turn one of the knobs all the way one way and then the next. If it turns the compressor off, it's the thermostat. If it does not, try the other knob. Once you find the thermostat, set it in the middle of the scale. Now place the other knob the same. Check and see if you can either feel or hear the inside fan running. If so lets go to the back. This is where your compressor is. It is under the fridge and also has a fan that blows on it. You will need to remove the back bottom panel. See if you can tell if the fan is running. Also notice if the fan is blowing into a set if coils. You should also be able to fill the compressor, if it's hot, it's running. If these two are running, and you didn't see a coil at the fan. Take the front kick panel off the fridge and clean the coil that's under the fridge. If it's dirty, give the fridge a couple hours and see if it cools down. If so, this was your problem. If both knobs are set mid scale, both fans are running, the compressor is also running and the coils are clean. You most likely have a bad timer, compressor or thermostat. This is all that's left.
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You possibly have a compressor out. If you hear the fan motor kicking in it is more than likely the compressor. There isn't really an easy way to test a compressor to see if its gone out. You can put your hand on it to see if you feel it coming on however, check the compressor first to make sure it isn' t hot by touching it quickly with your finger. Good Luck

Dave

Generally speaking it is the refrigerator control that controls the compressor operation. Refrigerator is cooled by air from the freezer. When the refrigerator gets down to its designed temperature it shuts off the compressor. The freezer control determines how much air is allowed to flow into the refrigerator section and there-by controls the freezer temperature.