I have a whirlpool refrigerator, model # ED5PHE. A couple of weeks ago we opened the refrigerator and it was fairly warm inside, the freezer was fairly warm too and everything was starting to defrost inside. Must have been this way for at least a few hours based on the temperature of the food. We let it sit empty for about a week and it would cool back down for awhile and then warm back up occasionally too.
Fast forward to about 4 days ago I looked at the coils on the bottom of the refrigerator and there was an excessive amount of dust buildup underneath in the coil area. I cleaned it all out along with the fan down below too. Turned the refrigerator back on after a thorough cleaning and after a couple of hours everything seemed to be good and the refrigerator side got down to 34 degrees (was still turned to highest setting or very close to from playing around with the settings when it originally stopped working) and the freezer side temped around 0 degrees. For the past 4 days I have temped both sides at least 0 times throughout the day at all different times and both sides have given me very similar readings of roughly 34 degrees for fridge and 0 degrees for freezer.
Was planning to start putting items back into the refrigerator today, but woke up around 3 or 4 am last night, shot temps in the fridge and the fridge side was approx 57 degrees and the freezer roughly 52 degrees. Could these temps simply be due to the refrigerator/freezer hitting its defrost cycle? Do these temps seem excessively warm? During the defrost cycle does the refrigerator/freezer even change temperatures that much? Any ideas, suggestions, or helpful advice anyone can offer based on the above limited information?
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through and offer help. Have a great father’s day and looking forward to hearing back from someone.