Fridge Repair?

[SMcK]

Our refrigerator has stopped working. It barely gets above room temp. The freezer is fine. Anyone have any suggestions for a fix I can do myself?

-Scott

[trader4]

Sounds like it could be an airflow problem. The fridges I'm familiar with do the cold generation on the freezer side, them move the air, usually via a fan to the fridge side. One easy thing to check is that no opening between the freexer and fridge are blocked. Could be as simple as something falling and getting in the way. Or frozen up and iced over. Is it frost free and is that working?

[ransley]

Ice could be it, I had one that got blocked by ice and needed a 24hr defrost the block of ice was so big.

[SMcK]

It's frost free. I don't see a lot of icing in the freezer, other than where water spilled on the freezer floor from ice trays. There are a couple of vent-looking things that don't look frozen. There were some bags partially blocking them, which I just moved. I can wait to see whether that makes a difference. I can supply pictures of said vent-looking things if you think that would help.

It occurrs to me that I'm not hearing a lot of noise from this thing. Is there a way to determine whether the fan (or whatever) that blows cold air to the refrigerator is functioning?

-Scott

-Scott

[The Daring Dufas]

The fan that circulates air between the freezer and refrigerator compartments could be bad or frozen over. It's a common problem for the fan in the freezer compartment to go bad. Here's a link to a site that has a picture of a top freezer refrigerator with an explanation of defrost systems.

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

Dear Scott,

Dear Scott,

You can usually open the freezer door, and push the button along the hinge edge of the door jamb. That will make the freezer think the door is closed. If the fridge isn't in defrost, the fan should come on. Nice low pitched noise that hard of hearing old men like me can hear.

You can usually open the freezer door, and push the button along the hinge edge of the door jamb. That will make the freezer think the door is closed. If the fridge isn't in defrost, the fan should come on. Nice low pitched noise that hard of hearing old men like me can hear.

[Stormin Mormon]

You most likely have a frost free refrigerator. Which isn't defrosting. Or, the fan isn't blowing cold air into the fridge side.

Should be able to find some troubleshooting guides, online. Typically an electrical problem or electrical part needing replacing.

[gfretwell]

You didn't say what kind it was but Whirlpool (Kenmore Roper etc) side by sides have a small louver on the side wall on the top shelf that should have cold air coming out. If you had this blocked it can ice up. To get to it for a look you need to take the back cover off the INSIDE of the freezer. As another poster said, unplugging it, opening both doors and letting it defrost for a day will usually fix it. You can also do this with a hair dryer pretty quickly once you get that back cover off inside the freezer That is handy if you can't really live for 2 days without a fridge.

[Bubba]

Your fridge is getting warm and so are you. Try the evaporator fan. Bubba

[stan]

As said by many (and assuming that the wording "Freezer is fine" refers to that part of the same fridge not a separate unit?) first thing to check is that cold air is being distributed properly between the freezer and fridge sections. There may be little wrong at all except icing (can occur during/ following very humid weather or frequent opening of fridge) even in frost free models (A defrost cycle is sometimes only a fixed timer! that doesn't allow, under all conditions ice to be dissipated). Very steamy food in fridge can also cause frosting! Maybe a fan problem or blockage of vents between freezer and fridge sections? If not icing then more serious trouble shooting of the fan, defrost timer, door switches etc. etc is indicated. That can often be done fairly simply without much in way of any test gear at all, with simple tools. Unlikely IMHO at this stage to be anything wrong with the basic cooling/compressor system; AS LONG AS IT ISN'T ALLOWED TO PERSIST and overheat!

.

[Chris Hill]

It could be the fan or air passageway between the freezer and refrigerator, or your freezer may not be fine. Don't just look and feel, get a thermometer. The freezer should run around 0F and the refrigerator should be at 38F or below. If the freezer isn't cold enough, you likely have a bigger problem than air movement to the refrigerator.

[SMcK]

I think the freezer was actually running colder than normal, as the booze we keep in there appeared to have frozen, which it never does normally.

We've removed everything from it, unplugged it and opened the door, to see if thawing might free a frozen fan. If that doesn't work, I call the repair dude.

Thanks for all the help folks. :)

-Scott

[evodawg]

If it is the fan that's easy to replace. You can order one online, just do a google search for Refrig parts or Appliance parts. I replaced the one in my house and it ended up costing around $35.00. Delivered in about 7 days if you can wait that long.

[SMcK]

Just a followup.

I ended up calling someone. He thought it was ther fan motor, picked up a new one and installed it. It still didn't work. That's when he remembered that GEs had "computers." He replaced the computer board and it worked. Not wanting to charge me for a new motor if the old one was good, he tried the old one and it worked.

Problem solved.

Until that night around midnight. The fridge stopped working again and would just make clicking noices every second or so as the compressor tried and failed to come on.

I called him back first thing in the morning and he came out and put yet another computer board in it and the new fan. That was Friday. It's been working fine ever since.

-Scott