Refigarator and freezer no longer cold enough. freezer is not freezing and refigarator is not cold enough, food is going bad. Unit is not yet 5 years old.

you may find the old unit was lower watts so took longer & cooked/heated better all the way through. a way to fix this is lower temp settings or pause and stir the food to help heat it up more even.

If it is your freezer, check to make sure that the air vents inside the freezer are not blocked by food. Putting too much food in an blocking the air vents will prevent the freezer from freezing. Air needs to circulate inside the freezer for it to work properly. This can also cause excess freezer ice collecting on freezer or in foods. Dust and lint will collect under and behind a frig. Pull the frig out from the wall, unplug it. Check for lint under and on the back of it. If it has accumulated some, vacuum it all off and plug it back in and wait a while to see if it gets cold. The fan pulls lint and dust under the frig and it stops the cooling system. If this doesn't work, it may need the freon (can't spell it correctly) stuff replaced. If these don't work, you need to call

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 thencheck out the last two tips.

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

Check out these tips 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

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 thencheck out the last two tips.

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

Check out these tips 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

Hi, There can be many reasons why your refrigerator is freezingyour food. To see what could be happening and to figure out how to possibly fixyour problem. Take a look at this tip which contains many of the causes andsolutions to fix the problems.

Refrigeratoris Too Cold and Freezing Food
heatman101

Your Ice maker may be the cause. if it is not holding water the water may be landing on the bottom and freezing, causing the ice build up and obstructing the air transfer from the freezer to the refrigerator. You can remove or replace your Ice maker. Then you will have to defrost your freezer to get everything back to normal.

Hi,

Many times a freezer and/or refrigerator do not work right because of a dirty condenser coil...there are also many other things that can go wrong.

If you are hearing a clicking or buzzing then check out the last two tips.

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

Check out these tips 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

Refrigerator Troubleshooting Refrigerator Compressor

Refrigerator Compressor Start Capacitor and Start Relay

Refrigerator or Freezer not Cooling or Getting Cold

heatman101

Hello,

When the refrigerator side is getting too cold this is because the control of the compressor has gone bad in some way...

There a few different things that could cause the unit to lose control over the temperature of the fridge side.

If your refrigerator has a damper door that opens and closes to allow cold air to move to the fridge side the damper linkage or the damper motor may have broken or gone bad.

The coils in your fridge may have frozen over and now the air does not move at all so then the ice builds up and can freeze parts of the fridge side.

The thermostat has gone bad and so now the compressor runs continually. This will not be noticed readily on the freezer side but will show up quickly on the fridge side.

Many newer model refrigerators use an electronic sensor or thermistor to read the temperature and supply the info for the circuit board and often a digital readout.

So, here is how I would go about troubleshooting this problem.

Check the coils for ice, defrost the coils with a heat gun or hairdryer, then check for the reason why they iced over. Defrost control or defrost timer bad? Evaporator fan bad?

Check the damper door to see if it is stuck in the open position. If it is then check the motor and the linkage.

Check to see if the refrigeration unit will shut down if the thermostat or digital setting is turned up to a higher temperature. If it continues to run then find the cause and fix it. It may be a bad thermostat, sensor, or control board.

Sometimes with a change is weather to a cooler climate this will be enough to also affect the inside temperatures. Make sure that a bit of adjustment in the thermostat or setting of the temperature will not solve your problem very simply.

I hope the above helps.

Good luck.

The evaporator coil behind the cover on the back wall inside the freezer will ice up under normal conditions. Every 8 to 10 hours for around 20 minutes the defrost timer (or in most newer models the electronic adaptive defrost control) will turn the defrost heater on to melt the built up ice. There is a defrost thermostat which prevents the heater from overheating the freezer by breaking the heater circuit when the temp reaches close to 32 degrees F. The entire cooling system shuts off during the defrost cycle and starts back when the timer advances through the cycle.

If this ice is not melted it will continue to build up until the air can’t flow over the coil to circulate the cold air through the freezer and into the fridge. The temperature change in the fridge is usually noticed first followed by the freezer.

If the defrost thermostat is bad it can prevent the heater from coming on OR it won’t turn the heater off when it gets too warm. It is clamped to the evaporator coil at the top to sense the temp. If it appears to be misshapen it is bad.
With an ohm meter it should show continuity when cold and none when warm.
You can also bypass the thermostat to see if the heater comes on then. If it does then you know the thermostat is bad and needs replaced.

The defrost heater is located on the evaporator. It is in a tube which is at the bottom and can also go up the sides of the evaporator. On some types you can see a burnt spot if it’s bad. With an ohm meter it should show continuity from end to end when disconnected from the wiring in the freezer. You can also test the wiring for voltage when it’s in the defrost mode.

If you have a defrost timer you can test it. It can be located under the fridge behind the kick panel on the front. Some are in the fridge with the controls at the top. You can turn the defrost timer till it clicks and everything shuts down. The heater should now come on. If it does, replace the timer because that means the timer is not running. If it doesn't, check the heater and defrost thermostat. Turn the timer again till everything starts back up to end the defrost cycle.

If you have an adaptive defrost control instead of a timer, replace it if the heater and thermostat test good. It is located in the fridge with the controls in some models and on the back in others.

You could call for service. It is commonly possible that there was a loss of gas, or the thermostat is defective, or the compressor is weak. The refridgeration service man should be able to check for all of this.

Jerry G.