Freezer not cooling enough

[wenham]

I have a Kenmore side-by-side and it recently stopped cooling enough in the freezer side. It wont go below 32 degrees. The frig side is fine. The compressor is running fine as well as the evap motor, no ice on the coils, all door seals are fine. Because of the higher freezer temp it has also stopped making ice. Im inclined to think it may be something wrong with the De-Frost system. Any help welcomed.

Thanks, Jim

[woodchuck]

Have you checked the coils behind the back of the freezer. You'll have to empty it to see it. You can also see if the heaters are on when you take the back off. If you see ice on these coils then you have a problem with your defroster. The cold air for the fridge comes from the freezer through a duct blown by the evaporator fan. If it's iced up it can't pull the cold air. You will eventually notice a higher temp in the fridge. TROUBLESHOOTING HELP (http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/appliance/refrigerator/diagrefrigerator.php)

[wenham]

The coils looked good. Only a little frosting at the top where the refrigerant enters. The heaters were not on when I checked. I found no ice build up where air passes to the frig side. The only thing I can see is that deep in the grill under the refrig seems to be alot of dust. The vacum cant get in that far. Would that cause my problem? I also just did a force defrost and all went as it should. Also, How long can I expect to wait for the freezer to reach a acceptable temp?

[woodchuck]

The condenser coils with the dust can be cleaned better with compressed air if you can't reach it with your vacuum. You can also get compressed air in a can like for cleaning key boards.
Make sure the condenser fan is running any time the compressor is.

[wenham]

Well I did some more looking around and the coils have little to no frost. The only frost is at the very top and the bottom coils are drastically warmer as if no refrigerant is making it to the bottom coils. Im guessing now that I have a system issue (compressor, freon). Would you agree?

[woodchuck]

Yes I would agree. The presence of spots of frost can mean low freon. Probably a leak requiring a professional to service and recharge.

[richapplyguy]

Usually this bad of a leak is due to an evaporator leak,rather expensive to repair.
If not, a bad compressor or capillary, all very expensive.

[wenham]

If a freezer is warm how long should it take to get it to proper temp if it was working well. (1 hr, 5 hrs, 2 days)?

[wenham]

Well.... I gave in and called a Tech to come out at look at my frig. Just as I eventually thought, it was the compressor. He offered to put a jumpstart kit on but no guarantee that it would work. Considering the age (13 years) I'm loading up the wife and kids and heading to Sears. This forum is a great service for people that want to fix it themselves and will tell my friends about it. Thanks for all the info folks!

[richapplyguy]

If buying from Sears, I would make sure who made your fridge and buy Whirlpool only.

[wenham]

Thanks for the info. We bought a Whirpool, they are delivering it Sunday, then my wife can buy some food and I acan get some beer.

[richapplyguy]

Don't ever authorize a 3nt hard start kit on a refrigerator, for the modern small compressors they tend to destroy the start windings real fast.