Freezer/Fridge not cold

February 26, 2007 4:45 PM

KitchenApplianceFilter: My Whirlpool fridge (the number inside says ET8WTK) seems to be messed up.

This morning I thought I'd mistakenly not shut the freezer tight; things were semi-thawed. So I closed it and went to work.

Today when i got home from work I went to get some ice and it was half melted and i noticed that the food (bags of frozen veggies etc) was "melty." The small amount of ice cream in the carton was completely melted.

This is pretty basic bare-bones fridge and has no bells & whistles. It was in our house when we bought it and was only a year or so old, but there is no manual.

I don't see any way to separately set the freezer temp. And now it seems like the fridge part isn't cold either.

How can I test it or troubleshoot?

posted by I_Love_Bananas to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

I have had the same problem with my Frigidaire. In my case the compressor would shut down, then the food would thaw. I could unplug the freezer/refrigerator for 2 hours or so and allow the compressor to cool down. Then it would restart just fine and run for several weeks.

They finally replaced the control board and the thing that is attached to the compressor that automatically shuts the compressor off it it reaches a certain temperature. So far it is working ok, but it has only been 3 weeks since the repair. So it remains to be seen if it really is fixed.
posted by JayRwv at 5:03 PM on February 26, 2007

If you can find the defrost timer turn it with a screwdriver type tool and see if the compressor comes on.
posted by hortense at 5:07 PM on February 26, 2007

Response by poster: It was the compressor... $55 later all is well.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 8:46 AM on February 27, 2007