My wife left the refrigerator side open for an hour yesterday evening around 8pm and since then, although it may just be a coincidence, the unit is no longer cooling on the refrigerator side. After about 12 hours of cooling, I would think the refrigerator side should be back to normal.
When I checked the fridge this morning before work, it seemed that the freezer side was cool, although not as frigid as what I remembered it to be when previously opening up the freezer. Nothing was melting, it just didn’t seem as cold as it usually is. The pound of bacon I had put back in the freezer was about 2/3 frozen after being in there for what I would guess to be about 7 hours.
On the fridge size, it’s pretty warm, probably 60 degrees. I can barely feel any cool air coming out of the top left vent.
From what I have read, it sounds like it could be a faulty defroster on the freezer side, a bad opener for the vent that leads into the refrigerator compartment, or a bad control panel. I did not see any ice buildup on the back wall of the freezer. I don’t think this unit has a defrost timer that I can check. Is the defrost action controlled by the control panel?
When I get home, I plan on opening up the back of the freezer to check to see if the evaporator coil is frozen.
From other’s experiences with this model, what else is likely to be the issue on this particular unit that is about 6 years old?
Freezer side is cold and frozen, feels like good air flow. Checked the evaporator, and it was frozen on only the bottom 1/5 of the coil, which i’m thinking is the result of it constantly running trying to cool the refrigerator side. The other 4/5 of the coil were a shiny silver. I took a hair dryer and melted that little bit of ice.
After turning the fridge back on, I don’t feel much air volume flowing out of the diffuser on the fridge side. What’s coming out is cold, it’s just not much of it. On the freezer side, I can feel good icy cold air flow blowing up through the top into the ice tray compartment.
How do I check the diffuser and the thermistor attached to it? How do I check to see if the diffuser is closed?
My theory at this point is that the diffuser is not opening when the thermistor is telling it to. And since the thermistor on the fridge side is saying "keep on cooling", the evaporator coil is continually running and getting slightly frozen from running straight for who knows how many days straight. Or it’s the control board. Please help me diagnose.
Why is no one replying to this thread? I have read the sticky and feel that I am asking intelligent questions that a search could not uncover. Hmmmmmmmm.
