Not freezing freezer is cold, but not cold enough food is slowly defrosting

Hello Jim;

My name is Peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.

If you are getting cooling and not freezing your problem is not your overload relay or capacitor, otherwise you would get no cooling at all.

You have one of 4 potential problems.

1.) Frozen Drain - This is a common problem. Your unit goes through a defrost cycle every 8-10 hours, everything shuts down for about 20-30 minutes. This is when your defrost heater turns on and defrost your cooling (evaporator) coil. If your drain is frozen, a wall of ice builds up behind your lower back wall. This prevents the cooling fan from running and air flow through the cooling coils.

You need to remove the lower back cover to see what is going on. there are several screws holding it on. First remove the rubber seals on both sides. They just pull out.

If it is a block of ice, use a hair dryer to melt the ice and clear the drain. Do not try to chip away, you will damage the coils.

2.) If you observe the cooling coil fan not running and vibrating, then you need to replace the fan.

Part Number: Substitution: 3-60336-001 Cost from Sears: $115.00. You can search the internet and get this part for about $80.00.

3.) Defrost Heater - You may have a bad defrost heater. Observe, is the glass tube black or is the wire inside broken?
Part Number: Substitution: 3-80405-003 Cost: $40.00

4.) Refrigerant leak or obstruction - If you observe a block of ice in the upper right hand corner of your cooling coil, then you either have a leak or an obstruction. A repair of this nature with a service company is about $500.00.

5.) Bad Bi-Metl (Thermostat) - In the upper right corner is your cooling coil thermostat.

Part Number: Substitution: 1-81801-001 Cost: $30.00

If you observe the flat back has popped open, then replace.

Check to see if the evaporator fan is running. If not, that is your problem. If it is running, it is likely frozen up due to a bad defrost system. Next possibility is the freezer is about to meet its death.