Hi, I have an Amana refriderator (Model ATB2232MRW) which I bought new in February 2009. Recently, the food section has stopped being cold enough to store food in. I've placed a thermomter in it and it's 62F. The freezer is working fine, and is maintaining a temperature of 0F. I've emptied both the freezer and food sections, and I turned it off for 24hours with the doors open, thinking that maybe something was blocking the flow of air (packaging or ice build up). I've plugged it back in and still no change. Is this something that I can fix on my own? Suggestions? Thanks, Keith

Hi Marcel,
Thank you for contacting fixya.

Our ice maker recently had its water inlet freeze up, preventing water from filling the trays. The mechanism kept dutifully trying to push nonexistent ice cubes into a bin that never filled up, which might account for the knocking noise in your case.
To defrost it we just unplugged the unit, took all the food out of the freezer section, and left the door open for a couple of hours. It wasn't long enough for any of the frozen food to defrost, and since we were careful to minimize opening the refrigerator section's door, the food in that part stayed cold enough to be safe as well.

need more information. whats exactly is the problem. let me know ill fix ya.

is there any frost on your food packages or on the ceiling where the light is?if so the door was left open and the air vents are froze up or you have a bad damper or evaporator fan motor,open the freezer door,do you hear the fan blowing?if so the fan motor is good,check for ice on the ceiling and packages,if that checks good look at the back inside wall of the freezer,if that's covered with like snow or frost you have a defrost problem or also you have a damper in your model,it's closed and won't open to let the cold air in from the freezer.
http://www.repairclinic.com/PartDetail/Damper/R0161050/223353
go here,this is the part,all that happens is the evaporator coil in the freezer gets cold,the evap fan blows the cold air from the freezer up into the fridge section,in your model the damper door opens to let the cold air in,when it gets cold enough the damper closes and that's it,so if the door wasn't left open and the fan is blowing in the freezer you have a bad damper.

I realize this is an old post but information is always helpful if it is correct. I have a GE Model TFX22ZRB, Main tools needed are a refridgerator thermometer, a cheap multimeter, 1/4" hex driver, phillip screwdriver and regular blade scewdriver, above all, alow time for tempeture change when measuring tempeture. The freezer is running at -8 degrees C or aproximately 28 degrees F. I don't care about 1 or 2 degrees at this point in the freezer, the defrost system is working ok, The freezer is cold enough. The fresh food section is running at 48 degrees F, the damper is wide open between the freezer and cold food section, I manually removed the damper door and controls since I am only interested in seeing if I can drive the fresh food section colder. Looks like the fresh food thermostate controls the compressor and not the damper to shut off the cooling process when the tempeture gets cold enough. Since the fresh food section does not get cold enough (this should be in the uppers 30s F) there is no need to move the fresh food thermostate out of the normal range setting (mid point in my case) with the operator control. Defrost heaters ok, this unit uses 2 heaters hooked in series with a evaporator coil thermostate also in series with the heaters. Heaters aproximately 25 ohms total risistance, coil thermostate open at room temp and closed when below 32 degrees. Only other item in circuit is the defrost timer, this can be manually advance to open and close the defrost circuit, in my case, when in the defrost mode, the evaporator fan stops and the heaters heat up. The defrost timer in my case has a 12-16 hour cycle time and a 30 min defrost time, so in a 24 hour period I may get only one defrost cycle. One item of importance. make sure something has not fallen in the lower back or the fresh food section of the refridgerator to block the air flow return, this will effect the coo;ing process. Now with the damper wide open, the defrost circuit working ok I am going to look at the evaporator fan itself for speed, shifted blades or the air circulation between the freezer and the fresh food section, I have cleaned the condenser coils but I am leaving the condensor and compressor out of the equation since the freezer is cold enough but at this point I am considering the possibility, I may need to replace the fridge if the compressor is not working to par.

Frost can build up for multiple reasons. Most common is the start os an iceblock. Other reasons can include condensation from door being left open or opening too much. It can also happen from backsplash from the inlet tube for the ice maker. If the fridge is running non stop. It sounds like the ice block is forming and the temps are not getting to the program temps. If at factory setting the freezer should be at or around 0 degrees and fridge should be between 42 and 48 degrees. Has the fridge shutdown at all to go into defrost? The defrost timer may have went out and is causing an iceblock. If there is an ice block always change bimetal/ defrost thermostat.

If you need any further assistacne please feel free to comment me.

If you see frost behind the back wall or begin to notice the fresh food compartment getting warmer then you might have a defrost problem. The defrost system is a heater and termination thermostat inside the evaporator and A timer. The termination thermostat shuts down the heater when it gets to be warm enough for the frost to melt. It is important for the thermostat to kill the heater because the defrost mode is 21 minutes long.
If that heater was to stay on for 21 minutes the ice box would be severely damaged. The Timer might be hung in the run mode and not jumping into defrost every 8 or 10 hour as it should. The heater element might have gone bad or the termination thermostat might be swollen and failed. That is some ideas to check. Service manual


If you need further help, reach me via phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/dan_73bbd84fe1d95b61

Good day,
The issue you described sounds typical of a failed automatic defrost system. The components involved include a defrost control, either mechanical or adapative(electronic) in style, which is mounted in the fresh food section behind the main controls.
In addition there is a defrost thermostat and main defrost heater mounted in the the freezer compartment on the top and bottom of the cooling coils respectfully.
One or more of these parts has failed.
Your post seems to indicate you want to have a service company repair the machine, as they should, since it is one of the simplest and most common problems with refrigerators.

Picking a quality service company should be painless and fairly quick in terms of time. Warranty on the sealed system is 5 years but your problem lies elsewhere and is covered by the one year warranty part.

For your information, I have included a link explaining the details with your issue.

http://www.appliance411.com/faq/howdefrostworks.shtml

Seems like you set it at the lowest as you mentioned, try the recommended setting. The lowest is the coldest, that will freeze up your food items.

if there is frost build up on rear wall of freezer section the unit is not going through defrost cycle which builds up frost on evaporator and restricts cold air flow to the fresh food section. one of three things are bad. defrost heater, defrost thermostat or defrost timer. if no frost on rear wall you might be low of freon.

I have the same refrigerator and the SAME problem. The freezer unit didn't work at first (for about a week) and then it started freezing solid with not way to control the temp. When that happened, the refrigerated section stopped working and has not worked since (two months). Help!!