Food section not cooling

You probably have one compressor that cools the freezer section and the refrigerator section. Usually the freezer gets cooled directly with the cooling coils. A fan blows cool air to the refrigerator section. The air flow to the refrigerator may be modulated with some time of "air door". What you have written says to me, is that the fans and air doors are working but there is enough cold for the refrigerator but not enough for the freezer.

Here is what I would do:

1. Put a thermometer in the refrigerator and in the freezer.
2. Be sure the coils underneath or behind the refrigerator are clean. If they are very dirty, clean them.
3. Keep the doors shut for at least 12 hours and then read the thermometers and write down the temperatures.
4. Freezer temperature
   1. If the freezer has started freezing again, you fixed it by cleaning the coils
   2. .If the freezer temperature is between 0 deg F and 32 deg F, consider putting the food in a cooler and packing in some dry ice to try and save it.
   3. If the freezer is warmer than 32 deg f, throw away the food.
   4. Doctors and hospitals are pretty expensive. I would throw away the food no matter what the thermometer read.
5. Look inside the freezer at the cooling coils. See if they are ice coated or not.
   1. If the freezer is above 0 deg F, and the coils are ice covered, the defrost control is not working. Unplug the refrigerator for 12 hours and let the ice melt. (Keep the doors shut.) Then, plug in the refrigerator for 12 hours and check the temperature like in step 3.
   2. If the freezer is above 0 deg F, and the coils are NOT ice covered, the compressor is not working.
      
6. Call the service technician. When she comes out show her the temperatures and tell her what you found out about the ice on the coils.

Good luck

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.

Changing the freezer settings won't really make a difference because regardless its still going to be freezing. The way the machine works is the freezer cools the fridge, and there should be a control in the fridge that operates the baffles in the airway between the freezer and fridge and reduces the amount of air that enters into the fresh food section.

If you need further help, I’m available over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/jason_4570d45317834dd3

If you have the door alarm continuously beeping you will need to try and hard reset the unit. Turn the circuit breaker for 4-5 minutes and retry the unit. But if still the 5 beeps are coming on, then its problem with control panel board.Its not detecting door closed.------- The control board needs to be inspected.---------- If the doors are not getting closed, that means some cold air is getting out and thts why temp is not getting set.This is one possibility of temperature problem.-------- But if both doors are closed tight and no issue of air getting lost out, then other possibility for this problem is weak compressor.-----------

The compressor just keeps on running.The problem is weak compressor.The refrigerant in the compressor is got low.The compressor is weak.The compressor needs to be replaced.-------------- The working procedure of this unit is as follows: --- The compressor starts then it cools the freezer section. When the freezer reaches its cooling level the defrost cycle starts functioning. In this cycle the fan in the freezer section starts running and the cool air in the freezer section is passed to the fridge section and the fridge section gets cold. The air from freezer to refrigerator passes from the section, in that section the damper is located.------------ But as you mentioned that freezer not cooling this indicates problem with compressor.When compressor cools the freezer section then fridge section gets cold.If freezer section is not getting properly cold then fridge section will not cool properly/.So the problem relates to compressor.---------- In the compressor there is a refrigerant called FREON.With the help of this Freon the compressor cools the freezer section.Freon is a gaseous type cooling agent.The compressor will stop cooling when coolant gets leaked from its chamber.--------- Again recharging the Freon is possible, but the cost for that recharging is approx the cost of new compressor.So its always advisable to get compressor replaced.Because new compressor has warranty for few years.------------------ You can get required parts from from online sites like: --- www.repairclinic.com or from searspartsdirect online site. --------- This should help.Thanks.Helpmech.

Its the problem with compressor,The problem is weak compressor.The refrigerant ( R12) in the compressor is got low.The compressor is weak.The compressor needs to be replaced.-------------- The working procedure of this unit is as follows: --- The compressor starts then it cools the freezer section. When the freezer reaches its cooling level the defrost cycle starts functioning. In this cycle the fan in the freezer section starts running and the cool air in the freezer section is passed to the fridge section and the fridge section gets cold. The air from freezer to refrigerator passes from the section, in that section the damper is located.------------ But as you mentioned that freezer not cooling this indicates problem with compressor.When compressor cools the freezer section then fridge section gets cold.If freezer section is not getting properly cold then fridge section will not cool properly/.So the problem relates to compressor.---------- In the compressor there is a refrigerant called FREON.With the help of this Freon the compressor cools the freezer section.Freon is a gaseous type cooling agent.The compressor will stop cooling when coolant gets leaked from its chamber.--------- Again recharging the Freon is possible, but the cost for that recharging is approx the cost of new compressor.So its always advisable to get compressor replaced.Because new compressor has warranty for few years.------------------ You can get required parts from from online sites like: --- www.repairclinic.com or from searspartsdirect online site. --------- This should help.Thanks.Helpmech.

The problem which you mentioned is related to faulty/ weak compressor.--------- I will explain with more detail.------

The working procedure of this unit is as follows: --- The compressor starts then it cools the freezer section. When the freezer reaches its cooling level the defrost cycle starts functioning. In this cycle the fan in the freezer section starts running and the cool air in the freezer section is passed to the fridge section and the fridge section gets cold. The air from freezer to refrigerator passes from the section, in that section the damper is located.------------ But as you mentioned that freezer not cooling this indicates problem with compressor.When compressor cools the freezer section then fridge section gets cold.If freezer section is not getting properly cold then fridge section will not cool properly/.So the problem relates to compressor.---------- In the compressor there is a refrigerant called FREON.With the help of this Freon the compressor cools the freezer section.Freon is a gaseous type cooling agent.The compressor will stop cooling when coolant gets leaked from its chamber.--------- Again recharging the Freon is possible, but the cost for that recharging is approx the cost of new compressor.So its always advisable to get compressor replaced.Because new compressor has warranty for few years.------------------ You can get required parts from from online sites like: --- www.repairclinic.com or from searspartsdirect online site. --------- This should help.Thanks.Helpmech.

In my GE side-by-side refrigerator (model number GSS20IEMDWW), there is a motor-controlled flapper door between the freezer and fresh food side. Cold air from the freezer side cools the fresh food side when that flapper door is open.

It is located at the top of the fresh food side on the dividing wall between the fresh food side and the freezer. If this is blocked with something (large left-over container, soft drink bottles, etc), it _may_ be enough to prevent sufficient cooling of the fresh food side.

Of course, there may be a more serious problem with the flapper door mechanism or the control unit that signals the flapper door to open/close.

The vegetable and deli drawers may have a small opening (manually controlled with a wheel or a slider of some sort) that connects those drawers to the freezer side, thus explaining how those areas are still functioning as expected.

When the compressor is running, if the fan by the compressor and the fan inside the freezer are both running, and there is no frost on the back wall of the freezer (if there was frost would indicate a defrost issue) then check the air dampener. It is located at the very top left back side of the fresh food section. If it is not opening up, no air will flow from the freezer compartment (where all the cooling takes place) into the refrigerator section.

Check to make sure that the fan in the freezer is running whenever the compressor turns on to cool the unit down. If the fan's not going, warmer moist air from the fridge will make the air duct frost up. The fan needs to be running to blow the cold air into the fridge section.

Does freezer cool like the cold food section? Did this suddenly happen, and frozen food began to thaw?  Most freezers control the cooling in the cold food section. The freezer must work fine before the cold food section will work fine. Let us know more, Thanks JT