Freezer cold but not freezing. coils are frozen.

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.

Hi,

Many times a freezer and/or refrigeratordo not work right because of a dirty condenser coil...there are also many otherthings that can go wrong. If you are hearing a clicking or buzzing thencheck out the last two tips.

If your refrigerator is running but warm, then...

Check out these tips that I wrote about that... it is a great place to starttrouble shooting your unit...and something that you can do rather then callinga repair person to do a simple thing for you...

Refrigerator Condenser Coil Cleaning Refrigerator Repair

Refrigerator Troubleshooting Refrigerator Compressor

Refrigerator Compressor Start Capacitor and Start Relay
Refrigerator or Freezer not Cooling or Getting Cold

heatman101

Hello,

Most times this is a bad cold control, but there are other things to check for. Make sure the condenser fan is working and the coils are not covered with dust. A separated heat exchanger ( small capillary tubing soldered to the large suction line ) can separate from one another and make the fridge run too long. - tape tubing back together. A poor working evaporator fan motor could also make the fridge run too long and freeze - replace the fan motor. An inefficient compressor or refrigeration system could make the fridge run too long and freeze - have a service tech check this out. A misaligned control settings, make sure the air damper and cold control have not been bumped and are out of normal settings. Stuck open air diffusers or air dampers are becoming more and more common for allowing too much air to be blown into the fresh food section and freezing things. On all frost free fridge's the freezer temp air is blown into the fresh food section, if you have "easy" to freeze items ( eggs, veggies in water, etc ) in front of or under where the freezer temp air comes out, they could freeze - store them in a different spot. Doors not closing properly making the fridge run too long is something else to check for.

Hope this help in solving the problem....

remove the rear cover inside the freezer if it has a lot of frost on it,then the evaporator coil is frozen up and you cant blow cold air over or thru a solid block of ice,defrost it,then check the defrost heating element,defrost thermostat and timer or defrost circuitry for no power or defective components,you can use a hand held hair dryer to defrost it quicker

freezer may be iced up,defrost it and try again

Sounds like a defrost problem to me.

First culprit could be a refrigerant leak and needs to be charged. If the evaporator is frozen solid it won't push enough sub zero air to freeze. Call a trusted ac&or repair man

Hi Jody,
The only thing you give me that would allow me to solve this issue, is based on the fact that the freezer is getting warmer, and fresh food section is staying cold. So, knowing nothing more than that, I must sadly say that you need a new refrigerator to solve this issue 100%, as it sounds like you have a failing compressor, or a slow leak in the sealed system. Both scenarios are terminal.
Thank you for contacting me at Fixya.com
Dave E. (Illeagle)

The model number would help but it sounds like a sealed system leak or restriction. If thats the case I would not suggest trying this yourself. The water should freeze overnight and the frost should keep going to all the shelfs that have coils in them.

The only thing I could suggest is looking at the evaporator (inside coil / cold bit) and making sure it is not frozen over reducing the airflow through the coil. If it is then put it onto a couple of defrost cycles to clear the ice build up. Not sure exactly of this type but would assume you also have a sight glass on the external unit, you can check this to see if when running the sight glass is clear (fully charged). Another check is looking at the compressor and the larger of the two lines (suction) should be cold back to the compressor (this line is normally insulated). However I would suggest your best course of action is a good refrig. techy. Hope this helps.