Orange light in front is flickering almost constantly. What might this mean? The food seems frozen -ice cream is fine as are breads and meats.

You don't note whether or not you've adjusted the thermostat. Ice cream (and juices) requires at least zero degrees, if not minus 5 degrees, for storage. Meats, fish, bread, etc. can become rock hard at much higher temperatures. Try setting the thermostat lower.

increase the thermostat to a more cooler one, ideally at -5 F

Hi,
The defrost may be lasting too long....and ice cream is always the first thing to melt... you need at least 10 F to keep ice cream hard...
Check out these tips...they can help you figure out whats going wrong with your refrigerator and why it is not cooling

Refrigerator not Cooling or Fridge not Cooling

How to Defrost Refrigerator Defrost Timer Problem

Water Running in refrigerator from Freezer

heatman101

Melody, It appears that possibly either the kids accidentally turned the freezer off, or something being taken out/put into the freezer, got pushed into the control knob and caused it to turn off. (Just trying to help the kids avoid taking the full blame with that one!)

The good news is that your freezer is probably fine and just got turned off somehow. You can put it back to the middle setting and adjust it from there to get the coldness you want for whatever you're keeping in it, (meats, ice cream, veggies, etc.)

The indicator lights are to let you know that you have power going to the freezer and the other one lets you know that the freezer is working and the compressor is operating. I'd keep an eye on it for the next few days though, just to make sure that everything is working the way it should, just in case. You can take an old plastic milk jug (1 gallon size) and fill it with tap water and put it in the freezer on the middle shelf. If after 3-5 days, the temperature is staying cold enough, the jug of water should be fully frozen. You can also put in a load of bread and see if that freezes nicely after a day. If the above items are properly frozen after 1 and 3 days, then your freezer is working properly and the culprit was very likely, just the control knob getting turned off, somehow.

I'd also suggest that you might want to lock the freezer, if your's has one, to help minimize any chances of the settings getting changed, etc. Of course, if you've got ice cream and kid snacks stored in there, then your children will keep looking until they find the key anyway!

You should check any of the food items you had stored in the freezer and if they got defrosted completely, you'll likely have to toss it all out, the only exception is bread, (which is typically not much good once it's been frozen anyway), but can be used to "fill-up" the freezer to keep it operating efficiently when you don't have much stored in it. I usually just mark the bags of old thrift store bread with the date I put it in the freezer and toss it after a year.

Bread is an inexpensive way to load up the freezer so it runs better and helps save you some energy costs, even when you don't have much other higher priced food in it.

I hope you find this Very Helpful and best regards!

bread and ice cream are the 1st things to defrost and it sounds like a gas problem and at 25 years old time for a new i think.

One reason for the fan running is that it is trying to distribute the air in the compartment. Look at the very rear of the freezer on the bottom and see if the little vents, which allow water to disperse, are not filled with frozen ice. If so, turn off the fridge (unplug it) and use a hair dryer to melt that ice until it is all gone. That will probably fill the condensation pan under the unit and you'll need to empty it.

not freezing icedraem is an issue, bread not so much, different breads contain different ingrediants that may or may not freeze, forst offthough wher is unit located??? in garage??? if so be aware that it may not operate efficiently ion ambient temps lower then 55 degrees, but if this is in your kitchen i would suspect a "refrigeration"/sealed system issue, perhaps "low on charge and not able to maintain a frozen set temp. Meat may stay frozen ( for a little while anyway, but the ice cream is the first to show indications of problem

When you open the freezer compartment do you hear a fan blowing? If no the take off the back cover and replace the fan. The compressor has to be on at the same time for the fan to work. If you know what I mean. let me know what happened. thanks.

Hi,
As the weather is getting warmer for many people their freezer and/or refrigerator do not work right because of a dirty condenser coil...

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

Refrigerator Condenser Coil Cleaning Refrigerator Repair
http://www.fixya.com/support/r4024657-refrigerator_condenser_coil_cleaning

Refrigerator Troubleshooting Refrigerator Compressor
http://www.fixya.com/support/r3885294-refrigerator_troubleshooting

Refrigerator Compressor Start Capacitor and Start Relay
http://www.fixya.com/support/r4023749-refrigerator_compressor_start_capacitor

heatman101

Hi Jody,
The only thing you give me that would allow me to solve this issue, is based on the fact that the freezer is getting warmer, and fresh food section is staying cold. So, knowing nothing more than that, I must sadly say that you need a new refrigerator to solve this issue 100%, as it sounds like you have a failing compressor, or a slow leak in the sealed system. Both scenarios are terminal.
Thank you for contacting me at Fixya.com
Dave E. (Illeagle)