Why is My Refrigerator Not Cooling?

There are a variety of reasons a refrigerator won’t cool. If you want to spare yourself a little time and inconvenience, give Prime Pasadena Appliance Repair a call for refrigerator repair in Pasadena, CA. Our technicians are happy to come out and diagnose the issue and fix it for you.

When your refrigerator is no longer cold, it’s time to figure out what the issue could be. A lot of times it is something as basic as a good coil cleaning behind the appliance. But, with new models of refrigerators, they’re manufactured with various sensors as well.

Before we look too deep, we inspect the most common and easy reasons for this problem. Here are some issues that we have determined lead to a refrigerator not cooling:

Is the refrigerator plugged in? This will seem like it’s a silly question, but we have been hired for jobs that this was the reason for the issue. For some reason, the refrigerator was not plugged in. Maybe a a pet did it, or an electrician while doing a project. Whatever the case may be, make sure the refrigerator is plugged in.

Check the thermostat inside. This is a common problem for families with small children in the home. After all, children like buttons and dials and so, without understanding they are doing anything bad, they mess with them. So, be sure that the thermostat temperature isn’t the cause of the warm refrigerator.

Refrigerator Parts to Troubleshoot?

Check that each of the vents inside of the freezer are not blocked with food or boxes. This is very common since sometimes bags of frozen vegetables get stuck in the back of the freezer. There might be food in the very back of a freezer that has been forgotten.

Check that the refrigerator’s condenser cooling fan is clear and clean of all debris. To do this, unplug the refrigerator and pull it away from the kitchen wall. The fan for many models is right at the bottom of the appliance or in the back part of the freezer portion. A lot of times, people do not think about cleaning this section of the refrigerator. But, it’s very important to keep it clean. And, it piles up with dust and fuzz quickly, especially with houses that have cats and dogs. So, get a rag and get the collected dust out of the refrigerator coils and fan.

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

The Freezer is Cold but the Refrigerator is Not

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

Every refrigerator has a set of evaporator coils. These evaporator coils are what gets cold and the fan moves the cold air around inside the unit. The damper control assembly working correctly. The temperature control board which carries the electricity to the fan and compressor, this probably isn’t the issue but it’s worth troubleshooting.

And, the thermistor might be malfunctioning, which is a small sensor within the appliance that displays the temperature. Having one of our technicians look at it is the best solution but these are some of the most typical problems.

ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES

• Ice Maker Isn’t Working
• How Does a Refrigerator Work?
• Refrigerator is Noisy
• Refrigerator Water Dispenser Not Working