20 Most Recent Roper RT21AKXKQ Top Freezer Refrigerator - Page 9 Questions & Answers

The problem is a defrost problem. The freezer coil has frost on it and thus restricts the cold air from flowing. This affects the refrigerator as it gets its cold air from the freezer. The ice will not make if the temperature is above 12*F and this also is why ice cream is like mush.

J,
Frost is indicative of an air leak (which means that the door seal is messed up).

Pardon me while I jump off into a thermodynamic primer here...

All of the "cold" is made in the freezer compartment. There's a fan in there that circulates this chilled air around... Only a portion of the chilled air is directed (ducted) to the fridge (beer) section.

Here's where the nifty thermodynamic whiz-bangs happen... Hot air balloons float why? Because they're lighter than the air surrounding it! (And a hot air balloon is "attracted" [like a magnet] to the coldest spot in the atmosphere) Ya know why? Because nature abhors a vacuum. Nature is always in a struggle to balance itself. So the cold air above actually pulls the balloon into the air and tries to stabilize its' temperature and equalize it with the surrounding environment (at that equalization moment, you wouldn't wanna be in the basket... know what I mean? Crash, Boom, Bang)

By "refrigerating", we are, by nature's rules, "breaking the law". We're actually pulling (removing) heat (calories) out of the food and transferring that heat to the outside of the fridge. Nifty, huh? Instead of applying "cold", we actually are removing heat!

Ok, OK... back to your issue. Frost is only water vapor that is suspended in air... When this warm air comes in contact with a "cold" surface it condenses OUT of the warm air and clings to the colder surface... think of a glass of iced tea on the patio, you know how the glass "sweats"? Imagine that your glass of tea is 22 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and now imagine what would happen to all the warm moisture laden air surrounding it. Yep, you're right... It would sweat out on the coldest surface and then quickly freeze/frost.

Now back to the balloon thing... (and nature). .. Cold air is "heavier" (more dense) than hot air, right? So if there's a leak (think of air as a fluid) of cold air [which flows toward the floor] there MUST be a replacement, right? (The whole "nature abhoring a vacuum" thing) Cold air flows out and warm (moisture laden) air fills the vacuum. Where does this warm air go?

Yep! It goes where the balloon goes! To the coldest spot it can find! (You're good at this!) Where's the coldest spot in the fridge, you ask? Well? It's at the top left, inside the cabinet. In the very back, you'll see the damper. It's used to adjust the amount of cold air flowing into the fridge compartment. When warm air hits this (the coldest part of the fridge) it immediately condenses and frosts over. This frost builds up a wall. This wall stops air from circulating. When air stops getting to the fridge, your eggs spoil, your mayonaisse stinks and your beer isn't worth squat.

Now for the "WHY" of it all... Could be several things allowing warm air into the fridge.

First thing to check is the rubber door gasket. Make sure it's seating properly all the way around the door. If it's not, the door may be warped... try to warp it back into shape. You have to do this physically.

Second, use some "Vaseline" and rub a thin layer of it onto the door gasket (the part that seals against the frame). Not only will this help make a good air-tight seal, it'll also help keep the door gasket supple and intact for the life of the refrigerator.

Take this knowledge and prosper... (only AFTER you've rated this soltion as "FixYa", though)

SG

check your thermostart setting or damper control or condenser fan

drain line is clogged

open the freezer compartment loo for ice build up on floor of frezer especally towards rear behind back panel. sounds like you have a clogged/frozen defrost drain tube. removing back panel of freezer will give you acess to drain trough, melt away the ice with a hair dryer, youll find a drain hole under there somwhere,pouring boiling water down the drain will clear it pretty quickly( i use a steam machine purchased from the infomercials)

Are you sure the ice maker is leaking? MOst often it is a blocked drain. The problem you are experiencing is normally a blocked evaporator drain line. Whether you have a side by side model or a top mount freezer the solution is relatively the same. Most top mount freezer models have a rear evaporator panel covering the aluminum evaporator coils. There are some instances where the evaporator coils are on the floor. These instructions are for top mount freezers where the rear freezer panel covers the evaporator coils. First of all, if there is an ice maker in your unit, this will have to be removed. Normally there are two screws which can be loosened and the body of the ice maker can be lifted off the screws leaving only a plug in harness to disconnect. Remove the harness either from the plug at the left wall or rear of the freezer and set it to the side. Next, remove all the screws securing the rear panel. Remove the rear panel exposing the aluminum evaporator coils. Be careful not to damage these coils as they contain the freon that cools your refrigerator. If you look closely underneath these coils, there will be ice from frozen defrosted water. Using a hair dryer and not a heat gun, melt all the ice and sop up the water with a towel. Now you will see a drain hole which is normally still blocked with ice. Pour hot water in this hole and sop it up. Keep doing this until you pour water down the hole and it drains into the evaporator drain pan either under or behind your refrigerator. Once you have unblocked this drain line, reassemble and plug the refrigerator back in. Set all controls to the middle settings and within 24 hours, your unit will be functioning correctly once again. If you need further assistance, we are here. Eric Campion

pull the thermostat out and short the two wires together and see if the fridge cools,

The model and serial number are usually located on one of the inside walls of your box. The condenser fan you are looking for is underneath the box. You might have to take some screws out from the back side of your fridge to access the fan, and coil. The coil must be clean for proper heat rejection. If you want to calculate the cubic feet multiply the hieght, width, and depth together. For instance a fridge that is 7ft tall x 3ft wide x 3 ft deep would be 63 cubic feet.

othjer then trying to reposition your compressor( shimming under a grommet) there is no way to "quiet" your compressor, and it is something tha can ONLY be changed out by TRAINED REFRIGERATION TECHNICIAN

If the thermistor sensor for the temperature control is going out that could cause the compressor the think it needs to keep running to cool the unit. The fan near the compressor should run only when the compressor runs. If the fan is running and the compressor isn't then you likely have a compressor start device problem or the overload is tripping from high heat, etc. That would make the compressor run (or try to) every minute or two if not just run continuously. Make sure all the coils under the unit are clean of fuzzy's and hair, etc. by doing a good vac. clean on them also. The compressor can be slightly warm to the touch but shouldn't be so hot that it is hard to keep you r hands on it for long. If it's around 130 degrees F, then it may be the start device problem and is in an overheat condition.

I may be able to assist...If you haven't done so already..UNPLUG The cord. Now, depending on where the wire was severed, will impact the degree of difficulty in reinstalling it.
I suggest that you position the fridge so that you can access the place where the cord actually goes into the fridge.
I assume that the cord passes thru a cable feedthru of some kind in the back so you may want to follow that into the fridge.
If the cord was severed outside the fridge you could simply join the 3 wires together as an inline connection ( making sure to keep the supply line, neutral and ground wires bonded to their corresponding ones ... meaning ground wire to ground wire, neutral to neutral and supply line to supply line... line may sometimes be referred to as the 'hot' feed.
If the cord was svered off internal to the fridge, try these steps..
You will probably need to remove an access panel on the back to see where the power cable is routed within the fridge. Once located, you will need to find where that cord was severed when it was pulled out. There should be 3 wires coming into the fridge from the power cord. I assume it came with a standard three prong plug that is compatible with a wall socket. You will have to identify which wire is which on the cord. It helps if you have a continuity meter or ohm meter for this. First, identify which of the 3 wires is bonded to the round terminal of the plug ( that would be your ground wire) That wire should be secured to the fridge frame with a bare screw of some sort. You may be able to trace the cord inside the fridge back to that point or you may be able to reattach the severed wire together using wire nuts to keep the wires joined together and electrically insulated from surrounding surfaces. Remember that it is critical to maintain the same point to point wire configuration as it came with. As a general rule of thumb, a bare copper wire or green insulated wire is typically the ground wire. Depending on the cord type, black insulated wire is normally the supply or HOT feed, and white is typically the neutral line. You may have different color insulation on your wires ( especially if it is a molded cable assembly ) so make sure you verify which wire comes from which terminal on the plug. ( round terminal on plug is ground, the longer of the two ( if it is a polarized plug would be your neutral and the shorter terminal would be the supply line. If unsure, get professional assistance. Hope this helps...

I assume 'too much ice' means unwanted frost.
It isn't the temperature causing the problem although the recommended temp is around -5 since lower than that doesn't seem to help food keep better. First you should look for a balance control that determines the flow of chilled air to the two compartments. The temp control will influence both of them so there is somewhere a control that allows you to influence the ratio between the two.
I don't recall seening any combined freezer/refrigerator without one but if you can't find one, check the gasket seating around the door to see if it truly still flush all the way around' it doesn't take much gap to let the compartment pull moisture out of the ambient air. 

tata75,
Happy to assist you,

you said,
For the past three days, water has been leaking/freezing at an alarming rate. The freezer had about 2 inches of ice built up and the bottom of the refrigerator is holding water, too. Both crisper s were FULL of water. I don't know if the ice maker connection is broken or what. Looks like I have to cut off the cold water completely to the sink to get it to stop.

Sounds like the ice maker or its line is leaking the water to me. And obviously it will freeze in the freezer.

You need hands on service.
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Thank You

That is then the first thing you will need to insure is running. The fan can be removed and checked. Now if the compressor is not running I would believe you have another problem. You can hear or feel the compressor running and the fan is usually connected to the compressor wiring so they both should be running at the same time. I have seen the fans run for a short period of  time after the refrigerator was turned off and then back on after cooling, so if stopped and starting of the condenser fan can at times trick you to believe the fan is OK   
 Hope I have been helpful, Sea Breeze

my 7yr old roper refrigerator top freezer stopped cooling and freezing but the light was still on with no fans. I dropped the thermostat cover and jumped the thermostat wires,no help . then i removed the wiring harness from the defrost timer and jumped the #1and #4 .She kicked off. I then replaced the defrost timer and it is running fine now 

Depending on the ice maker style, they typically work off a motor timer. The timer motor rotates to set up the ice making process... starting with letting water into an empty ice mold tray, allowing ample time for that water to freeze and then to rotate that mold so that the cubes fall out into the bin. In conjunction with that process, a small heater is turned on to release the frozen cubes from the tray. The 'ice tray full' lever signals the system to stop making ice so you may want to verify that the lever is down and not causing the ice maker to stop, If that's down then I suggest you monitor the position of the motor gearset underneath an access cover. With power applied, the gears should rotate and cycle thru an ice making process. If it does and ice fails to fall out, your heater may be defective. Hope that helps...

no real concern, it just happens on particular models , might never happen again (espessially if you wrapped copper wire around the heater and dropped into the drain tube) sit back and enjoy that youve repaired your refrig no need to worry about it happening again,

hello melissa take a close look inside the freezer you will see a little tab under the basket probably in different color puller down and it comes off