OK here's the situation, we got this fridge from friends who were moving to Florida about 3 years ago. Never really had a problem with it. I believe this is a frost free, it mentions some defroster stuff on the schematic on the rear label (and we've never defrosted it
Abruptly last week I noticed milk, water, etc in the fridge was not as cool as usual.
Noticed things in the freezer were frozen but not rock solid like usual.
My wife tends to overstuff the thing (the freezer side especially) so we took some things out and I cranked up the thermostat (was set to around 3, bumped it up to around 7).
The fridge is running about 40-41 degrees F now, The freezer still doesn't seem to be freezing things hard solid like it used to. I did a brief webearch before finding this site, they all said to clean the coils "which will be on back or underneath behind a door". I pulled the fridge out, didn't see any on the back, and dont see any way to open a door on the bottom.
It looks like the coils may be in the lower back corner behind a cardboard(!?) grille. I havent taken that off yet but it's next on my list right after posting this message.
I also checked here
http://www.applianceaid.com/faqfridge.html#notcold
which also said to clean the coils. The seals are OK. The light goes on and off correctly. I'm not sure how to tell which fans are running and how. Unlike my window AC, I dont really hear the fridge so I'm not sure when it's going on and off.
I don't get the feeling that this is a dirt buildup on coil problem because it happened very abruptly one day. Nonetheless, I am going to clean the coils now. Will repost if they turned out to be very dusty.
The thing of it is, this is supposed to be a closed loop system, right? The thermostat tells the compressor to run until the thermostatic setpoint is satisfied. I dont see why turning up the thermostat would fix this problem.
I took apart the little tray with the controls in it, seems clean and OK. I didn't electrically test any of it, but the compressor does cycle on and off.
PS my wife wants to "just buy a new one" (of course) so please let me know if there's anything I missed before I waste over $400 on a new fridge
Abruptly last week I noticed milk, water, etc in the fridge was not as cool as usual.
Noticed things in the freezer were frozen but not rock solid like usual.
My wife tends to overstuff the thing (the freezer side especially) so we took some things out and I cranked up the thermostat (was set to around 3, bumped it up to around 7).
The fridge is running about 40-41 degrees F now, The freezer still doesn't seem to be freezing things hard solid like it used to. I did a brief webearch before finding this site, they all said to clean the coils "which will be on back or underneath behind a door". I pulled the fridge out, didn't see any on the back, and dont see any way to open a door on the bottom.
It looks like the coils may be in the lower back corner behind a cardboard(!?) grille. I havent taken that off yet but it's next on my list right after posting this message.
I also checked here
http://www.applianceaid.com/faqfridge.html#notcold
which also said to clean the coils. The seals are OK. The light goes on and off correctly. I'm not sure how to tell which fans are running and how. Unlike my window AC, I dont really hear the fridge so I'm not sure when it's going on and off.
I don't get the feeling that this is a dirt buildup on coil problem because it happened very abruptly one day. Nonetheless, I am going to clean the coils now. Will repost if they turned out to be very dusty.
The thing of it is, this is supposed to be a closed loop system, right? The thermostat tells the compressor to run until the thermostatic setpoint is satisfied. I dont see why turning up the thermostat would fix this problem.
I took apart the little tray with the controls in it, seems clean and OK. I didn't electrically test any of it, but the compressor does cycle on and off.
PS my wife wants to "just buy a new one" (of course) so please let me know if there's anything I missed before I waste over $400 on a new fridge