Why is My Refrigerator Not Cooling?

refrigerator not cold

There are many reasons a refrigerator will not cool. If you would like to save yourself a little time and hassle, give Cooper Appliance Repair a call for refrigerator repair. We are eager to visit and diagnose the issue and fix it for you.

When your refrigerator is no longer cold anymore, it is time to determine what the issue is. Often times it’s something as basic as a routine coil cleaning behind the appliance. However, with these modern fridges, they are equipped with various sensors too.

Before we investigate further, we monitor the most typical and common causes for this issue. Here are a couple of of the things that we have determined can lead to a refrigerator not cooling:

Is it plugged into an outlet? This may seem like it is a silly question, but we’ve been called out to jobs that this was the reason for the problem. For some reason, it was not plugged in. Maybe a kid did it, or an electrician doing a project. Whatever the case might be, make sure it is plugged in.

Look at the thermostat inside. This is a common problem for customers with children in their house. After all, children are fascinated with buttons and dials and so, without understanding they are doing something bad, they play with them. So, check that the thermostat temperature isn’t the cause of the warm fridge.

Refrigerator Components to Inspect?

Check that the vents inside of the freezer area are not blocked with food or containers. This is common since bags of frozen vegetables get jammed in the back of the freezer. There might be food in the way back of a freezer unit that has long been forgotten.

Check that the refrigerator’s condenser cooling fan is clear and clean of all debris. To check this, unplug the refrigerator and pull it out from the kitchen wall. The fan for a lot of models is just at the bottom of the appliance or somewhere in the back of the freezer unit. Often times, homeowner do not think about cleaning this area of the appliance. But, it is important to keep it clean. And, it piles up with dust and fuzz quickly, especially in houses that have cats and dogs. So, grab a rag and get the built-up dust out of the refrigerator coils and cooling fan.

This is not recommended for refrigerators that have the rear coil system. Once all clean, plug it into the wall and monitor if the cooling fan spins.

The Freezer is Cold but the Refrigerator Isn’t

There are many reasons for a refrigerator not cooling after these more common ones to take a look at if the freezer is cool but your refrigerator isn’t. The evaporator coils have frost on them. This occurs because there is a failure in the defrost heating system. Or the automatic defrost has an issue. The evaporator fan motor can be another cause.

Every fridge has a pair of evaporator coils. These coils are what cool and the fan moves the cool air around inside the unit. The damper control assembly is not working correctly. The temperature control board which transports the electricity to the compressor and fan, this probably is not the issue but it’s worth mentioning.

And, the thermistor could be malfunctioning, which is a little sensor inside the appliance that displays the temperature. Having one of our repairmen look at it is the best course of action but these are a few of of the most typical problems.

ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES