Why is My Refrigerator Not Cooling?

refrigerator coolant

There are several reasons for why a refrigerator won’t cool. If you would like to spare yourself some time and burden, give Nifty Nashville Appliance Repair a call for refrigerator repair in Nashville, TN. Our technicians are happy to come out and troubleshoot the cooling problem and repair it for you.

When your refrigerator is no longer cold, it’s time to figure out what the problem might be. Often times it is something as basic as a good coil cleaning behind the appliance. However, with new fridges, they are manufactured with various sensors too.

Before we investigate further, we inspect the most typical and simple reasons for this issue. Here are a couple of issues that we’ve found can lead to a refrigerator that won’t cool:

Is it plugged into an electrical outlet? This may seem like it’s a silly question, but we’ve been called out to jobs that this was the problem. For some reason, it was not plugged in. Maybe a child or pet unplugged it, or an electrician while doing a service visit. Whatever the reason may be, be sure the refrigerator is plugged in.

Check the thermostat inside. This is a very common problem for those with children in the house. After all, children love dials and buttons and so, without understanding they are doing anything wrong, they mess with them. So, be sure that the thermostat temperature isn’t the reason for the warm refrigerator.

Which Refrigerator Parts to Troubleshoot?

Check that all of the vents inside of the freezer area aren’t blocked with food or containers. This is very common since sometimes bags of frozen veggies get stuck in the back. There might be food in the way back of a freezer unit that has long been forgotten.

Be sure the condenser cooling fan is clear and clean of all debris. To check this, unplug the fridge and slide it out from the wall. The fan for most models is right at the bottom of the appliance or somewhere in the back of the freezer unit. A lot of times, people do not think to clean this section of the refrigerator. But, it is very important to keep it clean. And, it fills up with dust and fuzz quickly, especially in homes that have dogs and cats. So, get a clean rag and get the built-up dust out of the coils and fan.

This is not suggested for refrigerators that have a back coil system. Once everything is clean, plug it into the outlet and monitor if the fan moves.

The Freezer Unit is Cold but the Fridge is Not

There are a few more causes for a refrigerator that won’t cool after these obvious ones to check if your freezer is cool but the refrigerator is not. The evaporator coils have frost on them. This occurs because there is a malfunction in the defrost system. Or the automatic defrost experiences a problem. The evaporator fan motor is another cause.

Every fridge has a set of evaporator coils. These evaporator coils are what cool and then the fan pushes the cool air around inside the unit. The damper control assembly isn’t working the right way. The temperature control board carries the electricity to the compressor and fan, this is not likely the issue but it’s worth mentioning.

And, the thermistor might be defective, which is a small sensor in the appliance that displays the temperature. Having one of our technicians look at it is the best course of action but these are some of the most common issues.

ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES