My fridge stopped cooling! Help!

forgetit

Sat, Nov 16 2019, 10:08 pm

I had this exact same thing(minus the yogurt). Freezer was working and fridge not.
Try this: Unplug the fridge. Tilt it on its side (lean against counter and get someone to hold it). Clean the bottom of the fridge around and inside motor as much as possible. I vacuum and then clean with rag.
This saved my fridge twice, and I now know to do it once a year.
Good Luck.

amother

Sat, Nov 16 2019, 10:25 pm

forgetit wrote:

This is a side by side.... I can't find the motor.
But I tries unplugging it for a bit.

forgetit

Sat, Nov 16 2019, 10:54 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

This is a side by side.... I can't find the motor.
But I tries unplugging it for a bit.

I dont know why a side by side wouldn't have the motor on the bottom. I think most fridges do. Otherwise, call your manufacturer or see if a home repair guy can help you figure out where it is over the phone.
In my case, a simple unplug didn't help.

amother

Honeydew

Sat, Nov 16 2019, 11:19 pm

We had the same thing happen twice recently. Both times the coils in the freezer had frozen over because the heating mechanism in the freezer had broken. Although the freezer was at 0 degrees, no cold air could blow into the refrigerator. You probably need a repairman to come and defrost the coils and replace that heating element. Before you do this, just make sure that the vents in the refrigerator are not blocked because that would also stop the flow of the cold air.

miami85

Sat, Nov 16 2019, 11:42 pm

In my freezer-on-top unit, we had an issue where there was ice getting caught in the vents and the fridge wasn't getting cold. When we defrosted the freezer (auto defrosting too) it helped. We were having this problem right b4 yom tov.

etky

Sun, Nov 17 2019, 12:17 am

miami85 wrote:

We also had this problem right before yom tov, at 10 pm the night before erev chag. Great timing Can't Believe It

. Our immediate concern was to salvage the cooked food in the fridge and freezer so it wouldn't spoil overnight, before the repairman could come and fix the problem.
Anyway, we had had the problem before so we knew what the basic issue was and we did what the repairman had done then: we unscrewed the back panel of the freezer and melted the ice that was covering the coils with a blowdryer.
This 'fixed' the problem but we had the technician come anyway the next day.
Good thing we did. The coils icing over is a symptom and there are three things that can cause the issue: the heating element, the timer that controls the heating element and I think the third was the compressor but I'm not sure I remember correctly.
In our case it turned out to be the timer. Last time this happened (like 10 years ago) it was the heating element.
So defrosting the freezer, in our case, would have been only a temporary fix. He replaced the timer and b"h it has been fine since then.

amother

Babypink

Sun, Nov 17 2019, 6:12 am

miami85 wrote:

We also had the same thing happen a few times to ours.