My 4 yr old Whirlpool freezer has never been cold enough

You need to remove all of the styrofoam packing material.
Any insulation material would be installed inside the body of the fridge/freezer. The packing material is there so anything inside the compartment (like metal shelves, plastic holders, etc. don't bounce around during shipping and either scratch up the interior, or break. That is all that it is there for.

all the fridge does is blow cold air from the freezer down into the fridge section so if the freezer is working then either the evap fan isn't working or the air ducts are frozen up.first thing open the freezer door,you should hear the fan blowing,if not the fan motor could be bad,if it is blowing,touch the back inside wall of the freezer,is there any ice or like snow on it,if so you have a defrost problem,one more thing to check,open the fridge door,look under the bottom draws,is there any water there? or any water dripping into the fridge section from the freezer,if so you have a blocked drain and the air ducts are frozen.let me know what you find,send the model number off of the fridge,open the fridge door and look on the left side up near the ceiling,you should see a tag with the model and serial numbers just send the model

the air ducts are froze up,if you lost your food you can just unplug it and leave the doors open and let it melt out,or you can unplug it,remove everything out of the freezer,remove the back inside wall of the freezer and melt out all the ice that you see,then look at the right side in the back down at the bottom of the freezer there's an air duct there,melt that out and in the fridge section look to see if you can see any air ducts on the left hand side wall,blow hot air into any of the air ducts that you see,just watch out,don't keep the heat blowing on the ducts for to long,you can damage the inside of the ducts,there's styrofoam in them and the heat can damage it,good luck it might be best to just let it melt out on it's own

ok,when you open the freezer door do you hear the fan blowing?all that happens is the freezer gets cold,a fan in the back wall of the freezer turns on and blows cold air up into the fridge section,a thermostat tells it when it's cold enough or it's getting warm then it will blow more air up top,if the freezer is working correctly then either the fan isn't working or the bottom freezer door was left open,warm air got sucked up into the air vents causing water droplets to be formed,then they freeze blocking the air vents with ice and now the cold air can't go into the fridge section.is there any ice on the ceiling of the freezer or frozen water droplets on the bags in the freezer?if so the door was left open.unplug the maction,and with a hair dryer blow the hot air into the holes on the back panel,keep doing this until you don't see any more water draining through the holes,turn it back on and see if the cold air is blowing up into the fridge.if the evap fan motor is bad the part number is W10128551 and it's around 25 to 30 dollars.you must of got the model number off of the book,it's not the full model number,check in the fridge section on the right hand wall near the ceiling and you should see a tag with the number on it.also down at the bottom kickplate,you can remove the kickplate and there should be a tech sheet tucked away in it,read it and it will tell you how to put the machine into defrost mode,if you can do this,instead of unplugging it if you have to melt it out with the hair dryer you can put it into defrost so the heater will come on and this will help you to defrost the vents quicker.let me know what you find and if you need any more help.good luck with your machine

next time send the model number,where is the freezer is it on top or bottom or side by side,anyway all the fridge does is get cold in the freezer and the evaporator fan blows cold air from the freezer into the fridge section and then it returns to the freezer just goes around until it gets cold enough and then the t-stat tells it to shut down so if the freezer is cold you either have a bad fan motor,open the freezer you should hear the fan blowng around in there if not the evap fan motor is bad,also touch the back inside wall of the freezer if there's any frost or ice on the back inside wall you have a defrost problem,bad timer or board,bad defrost thermostat or a bad defrost heater,the ice doesn't melt off of evap coil because one of the parts have failed,the air ducts get blocked with ice and the cold air can't blow into the fridge section,or if you see ice on the ceiling,side and back walls the door was left open and the air ducts blocked with ice,or one more thing if the freezer is on top and you have water dripping into the fridge section the drain in the freezer is blocked and the defrost water can't go down the drain hose,the water is freezing the air ducts up,the drain has to be cleared and all the ice has to be melted out,and yes there is one more thing it could be, some fridges have a damper in them,all it is is a door that opens and closes to let the cold air from the freezer blow into the fridge section so this is why you have to send the model number.but your problem is the cold air in the freezer isn't getting blown into the fridge section because the fan isn't working or the air ducts are blocked with ice.

Brush are vac coil in back of fridge, take everything out of freezer and clean inside make sure any drain lines in freezer and bottom of fridge are unobstructed, a small piece of wire ran in and out of these tubes will unstop them. This fixed my fridge.
Good luck

Use a vacuum and clean under your fridge. A dryer cleaning brush will help make the job go much faster. Use a good light so you can get all the lint out. Give it 12 hours to level out. hope this is helpfull.. Saw

The reason you had water dripping from the top is the frig goes into a defrost cycle every 12 hours or so and melts the ice build up. Now your drain line for the water to go down to bottom of frig is plugged more then likely with ice. Take the cover off back of freezer and get some salt table salt be good. And put it in the drain hole located roughly in the center of freezer cabinet. That will take care of the drain quick. Now notice to see if the fan on the inside of freezer is on. My hunch is that it is not turning. You can replace the little fan motor make sure you don't damage the fan blades you will re-use them. Be sure compressor is on cause the fan only works when compressor is on. Let me know what you find out.

HELLO AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUESTION.WITH REGARDS TO THE ICE BUILD UP IN THE BOTTOM OF THE FREEZER THAT COULD BE CAUSED BY ONE OF THREE THINGS.YOU NEED TO CHECK THAT YOUR HEATER ELEMENT IS WORKING OK AS THIS WILL CAUSE THE ICE NOT TO DEFROST FAST ENOUGH BEFOR THE FRIDGE COMES BACK ON.SECONDLY THE FAN NEEDS TO BE CHECKED IF ITS WORKING OK THAT CAN ALSO CAUSE IT.LASTLY YOU DEFROST CLIQSANS NEED TO BE CHECKED TO SEE IF THEY ARE SENSING THE TEMP CORRECTLY.GOODLUCK.MOHAMED

change the adaptive defrost board located in the upper right corner of refrig under the panel. remove panel by pulling on panel towards you from the finger holes in the rear. remove two 1/4 inch screws and two phillips screws. defrost manually with hair dryer behind panel in freezer.