My freezer stopped freezing. There was ice on the evaporator coil. I cleared that. All fans and compressor are running. I replaced the relay and capacitor. The refrigerator is cold to the touch from the outside and cool on the inside. what should I do next?
Why isn’t the freezer getting cold
refrigerator
Best Answer
Ice buildup on the evaporator is a sign of a low refrigerant charge. To verify this is the problem I would defrost the unit first, it could also be a bad defrost timer or a fan that died or even bad door seals. Since we don’t know the model or type all are guesses but these are the common problems.
If you defrost the coil and it immediately comes back (I mean in a couple of hours) low refrigerant charge is the most common issue. If after defrosting it takes several days to ice up I would be checking the door seals, fan and defrost timer.
I have found newer fridge/freezers do not last like they used to. I have found adding a service port and recharging brings the unit back to life for a few more years--I almost never find any leaks but believe there must be some that are smaller than my leak checkers can detect. With these once the problem occurs I have found in 3-5 more years they do it again. The lucky thing with r134a I have found is the charge is quite small many times less than a pound so it is easily fixed or topped off.