Fridge Above Freezer Was Not Working

1. no

2. no ...other than the air adjustment should be returned to midway or your milk might start to freeze....

Thanks for your reply. Yes I had to turn down the adjustment, otherwise, it seems fixed for now. Time will tell about the frost, but I seem to have saved $1150 for now. Now if the stock market would treat me so kind!

If you have a lot of frost in the freezer, it is possible that the heater on the evaporator coils is not working either due to a bad timer, open element or other similar problem that prevents the resistive heater from melting the frost off of the coils when the compressor isn't running. Hopefully you will find a paper schematic tucked away behind a grill or access panel in your fridge. That should give you some ideas of where to look.

Good luck with your quest !

Robin has a good point about the heating element.

Personally I have experienced a plugged drain line, that causes water to back up and freeze, increasing the ice in the machine. Now the defrost cycle is too short to melt all the ice, and the problem keeps compounding until the freezer is chock full of ice, and air flow stops.

I solved the problem by unplugging and defrosting the whole thing. I took the covers off the "cold" coils and waited until they had totally defrosted - (water everywhere, and that pinpointed the blocked drain. I use compressed air and blew out the plugged drain line (pees and corn).

It has been working fine since.

Another (the garage fridge) had the wires on the defrost timer burn off the spade connector to the defrost coil - it loaded full of ice also and stopped working.

We also have a small "beer" fridge - manual defrost - and when it is past due for a defrost and plugged full of ice - doesn't get cool very well - warm white wine.

The coils on the back of the machine need to be cleared of dust and debris with a shop vac to help transfer heat out of the interior as well.

There could be a couple of problems you should look at.

If the condenser coils under the freezer or up the back are clogged with dirt, pet hair or dust the refrigerator will not cool. Clean anyway since this is a periodic maintenance thing. You should be hearing the condenser fan running under the refrigerator if the condenser is under the refrigerator. If the condenser runs hot due to the condenser coil being dirty or fan not turning the unit will not cool. Since you are reporting frost in the freezer this most likely is not the main problem.

Do you hear the air circulating fan running inside the refrigerator section, you should hear it running since the refrigerator is not cooling.

Most likely the defrost timer that periodically defrosts the evaporator coils or a plugged drain under the evaporator. The only way to know is to remove the freezer drawer, then remove the back cover panel over the evaporator. If the evaporator is mostly clear of frost and ice than it will most likely not be your defrost circuit. There is a schematic in an envelope someplace under the freezer most likely on the side wall if you need it to debug the defrost circuit. If you are experiencing low or no air flow in the refrigerator section then the evaporator is plugged with ice and frost or the air circulating fan is not working, you should hear it running since the refrigerator is not cooling.

If you see ice under the evaporator and across the freezer floor then your defrost drain is plugged with ice. Defrost with hot (near boiling) water with a turkey baster or something similar. Do not chip ice from the coils with any sharp object like a screw driver or you will damage the coil and wreck the refrigerator. Use only hot water and do your best to contain the mess.

Hope this helps and good luck.