Chosen Solution
Hello everyone! We bought a used/few years old fridge last year and on Friday I noticed that in the fridge near where the light bulb is located there was some ice build up that was all of a sudden melting. I actually had to place a bowl in the fridge so the water wouldn’t get our food wet. Then I noticed that the fridge wasn’t getting cold but the freezer was working, in fact some of our stuff is getting frost bite. I checked the fan on the back of the fridge and it’s working perfectly fine. Any ideas what it could be? We want to try and fix it ourselves instead of calling a repair man because we’re trying to budget our finances. Update (06/03/2020)
Hi @jywatkins , What is the model number of the refrigerator? When you say “I checked the fan on the back of the fridge and it’s working perfectly fine”, do you mean the condenser fan on the outside of the refrigerator or the evaporator fan inside the freezer compartment hidden behind a panel? It is the evaporator fan blowing cold air from the freezer compartment into the refrigerator compartment that cools it down to the set temperature If you didn’t check the evaporator fan then disconnect the power to the refrigerator and remove the panel inside the back of the freezer compartment and check if it is iced over or if there is an ice build up on the evaporator unit at all. If the evap unit is iced up, then you have a defrost problem, which could mean the refrigerator compartment does not get cool. This could be caused by a faulty defrost heater, faulty defrost thermostat, blocked drain tube or a faulty control board. If the evap unit is not iced over, reconnect the power and manually operate the door switch which is located in the door jamb and check if the fan operates. The fan will not operate if a door (any door, freezer or fridge) is open so operating the switch fools the control board into thinking that the door is closed. The fan should be running if the compressor is running. If there is no door switch visible then it’s a hidden magnetic reed switch, so close the door and listen for the fan operating when the doors are shut and stopping when a door is opened or mark a fan blade with a marker pen and check if it has moved after the door has been closed for a few seconds. If the evap fan doesn’t operate then it is either a faulty fan or a fan power problem from the control board. If the evap fan works OK but no cold air is being blown into the refrigerator compartment then there may be a problem with the air damper unit between the two compartments. The air damper has a flap that closes off the duct when the set temp has been reached in the refrigerator compartment to prevent it getting too cold
