The top and bottom coils ice up and there is no cold air. i'm not sure of the model #. what causes that and how to fix it?

Ice build up on the coils can cause this. If there is ice then you need to check the defrost timer first to see if it works. Then check the defrost coil, then the fan.

If the bottom freezer section of the Gladiator Freezerator is thawing out the usual cause is from the coils in the back of the top refrigerator section being iced up. The ice blockage prevents the fan from circulating cold air into the bottom freezer section. These units have a design flaw due to the defrost drain freezing up preventing water from draining out from under the coil. The long-term solution is to remove the back wall of the refrigerator section to get to the coil, thoroughly defrost the coil making sure the drain tube is clear, then wrap a couple turns of #12 or #14 copper house wire around the bottom of the defrost heater element and run it a few inches into the drain tube. Advise unplugging the unit when you do this.

I've had this fix on my Gladiator for a couple years and it has been working perfectly ever since. The freezer stays a constant 0 degrees F and no more thawed out food.

Check for ice / frosting inside the freezer .... If present you probably have a defrost problem.... This causes the freezer coil to ice up and block the air flow ... the causes could be a bad defrost heater , defrost timer, defrost sensors, or control board. Also make sure that the condenser coil is clean. remove ALL dust with a vacuum and a coil brush .the coil is located either on the bottom or on the back side of the unit... You didn't give the Make and model #

Air conditioning is all about the proper airflow across the condenser and evaporator coil (coil panel). Be sure your filters are clean and there are not any obstructions such as a dirty condenser coil. Also check all tubing and fitting connections for signs of oil which would indicate a refrigerant leak and has now caused the AC to be insufficiently charged.This would cause ice build-up on the evaporator (coil panel) and the out-put of only 70 degrees.

If it has a fan in the freezer it need to be running to circulate the cold air.
If the coils are not icing up evenly from top to bottom you have a system low on freon.
The light frosting is normal.
A model number would really help to troubleshoot the problem.

you might have a defrost problem. Frost free models have a heating element that is controlled by a timer to automatically defrost ice, defrost timer turns on defrost heating element every 12 hours to melt ice in freezer and allow good air flow.
You can test defrost element with an ohm meter(located inside freezer coils-will have two wires going to a plug connection), if OK replace defrost timer (located in various places depending on make and model

Check to make sure the fan in the freezer compartment is working and not blocked. This delivers the cold air to the refrigerator. The fan should run every time the freezer calls for cold.

Most likely evaporator coils are iced near solid...few hours unplugged would have helped just a little...needs major defrosting though.
The automatic defrost cycle will never fix it when it gets this bad...if it's still working yet.

I have one of these and have had to use heat gun/ hair dryer more than once to defrost it.

Probably the cause...which will need fixed or it will do it again sooner or latter...is the melted frost/ice goes down a little drain tube and dumps into tray to evaporate above coils...this tube gets plugged first with dust and then when melted frost drains and stands in tube the tube get plugged with frozen water.

You see it is important to unplug or fridge will self destruct.

I have a Fisher and Paykel E442B upside down, which is a very similar model, and I just fixed the same problem (temperature was around -4C even though I set the fridge temperature as warm as possible).

The cause of my problem was excessive ice build up on the side of the evaporator coil (which is in the back of the freezer compartment behind the rear plastic panel). I had the same problem around a year or so ago, so I expect it to be a regular occurence. To defrost the coil, I removed all the drawers in the freezer, and the plastic insert by pulling out the bottom of the panel out and rotating it upwards until it released at the top. There are a couple of snap-in tabs holding the panel in, so with a bit of pulling they released. The tabs are either side of the slot at the bottom of the panel.


I then supported the panel horizontally on the top shelf so that I didn't have to disconnect the thermostat wire and the circulating fan wire.
With a small fan heater set on low, aimed roughly at the ice buildup on the left hand side of the evaporator coil, I defrosted the ice built up. This took around 2 hours or so. Then put it all back together and it worked fine.

I'm not sure why the ice build up on the side caused the problem, but presumably it interferes with the proper flow of cold air to the fridge compartment.

If you don't seem to have ice build up like I did, then it could be a thermostat problem, or a fan problem (a symptom of which would be fridge being colder at the bottom than at the top).