Purchased a used side/by/side recently to keep in the garage and it has worked fine. We used a plug we hadn’t needed before. A few days ago I noticed the light was out and when my husband checked it had popped the plug. Reset the plug, moved it to another plug we knew worked good but it doesn’t seem to be holding the correct temperatures. I think the refrigerator portion is OK but the freezer was warm enough to thaw the meat a couple days ago, then dropped back down and seemed to be Ok but the next day it was up to 30. It’s at zero again tonight but am hesitant to trust it right now. Hate to spend a lot of money repairing a used refrigirator — any ideas of what may be happening?
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Sounds like your box may be low on gas. You should get it checked by a refrigerator repair tech. They have gauges to determine if the gas is low. If you get this repaired, and it re-occurs, you would need major repairs.
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How did you transport the fridge? if not kept upright, the oil and refrigerant may have migrated to somewhere they shouldn’t be. plug in empty for a few days and see how it works. it might keep popping a GFCI plug or breaker due to the compressor and components. once it cools down, you should be able to load it up with food; you might just want to try bowls of water to see if it gets cold enough to freeze
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I have a fridge with the freezer on top. Recently I noticed that the ice cream is always soft. The ice maker is working, cubes are hard and nothing else seems soft. Temp control is in the fridge portion and the freezer control is set to it’s highest point. Just checked the temp in the freezer and right now it’s around 15° when it should be near zero. The fridge part seems to be fine. The freezer is what I’m concerned about. I recently cleaned all the dust bunnies out of the coils on the bottom of the fridge so I know that’s not the problem. Any ideas before I call someone in? And before telling me to give up eating ice cream?
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Any chance there is a small coil under the fridge with a fan blowing across it? if the dust bunnies are multiplying rapidly and the small coil is not clean, the compressor struggles and the dust bunnies win! are you keeping your frozen treats in the door or on the shelf? how often is the freezer opened? can you pull a piece of paper through the closed door; place a piece of paper mostly inside the freezer, close door and try to pull it out; if it comes out without much resistance, gasket is leaking and needs replacing. you may need to try this paper trick in several places on door.
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Now let me get this straight: You purchase ice cream in the convenient single-serving size (aka half-gallons) and don¹t finish it in one sitting? Call someone in Œcause it sounds like you have a low-refrigerant condition.
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Never stop eating ice cream! First blow out the “dust bunnies” again and clean it good. Check your compressor motor and see if it is running a little hot. Sometimes just unplugging it and letting that compressor cool off and plugging it back in will work. I know my old (30 years old) refrigerator needs that TLC once in a while. Check your fan motor, it might need lube or is starting to give out. I replaced the fan motor on mine about 6 months ago with a big commercial one left over from a grocery store I owned. It helped a lot but it sounds like a jet plane taking off now. Oh well, free is free, and ice cream is still good! My
wife calls me tool time bones! As a last resort have a refrigeration guy check it for low gas. Home refrigerators don’t usually need it but it is worth a try.
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There is sometimes a small trapdoor valve between the refrigerator and freezer that is driven by a solenoid. This can get hung up and not open appropriately. I had this problem with a GE Profile side by side that was fixed under warranty by replacing the solenoid valve.
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Ice takes <32 to get hard, Ice Cream, I guess 10', (you are at 15');
zero usually give ice cream hard;
Cold control should never have to go to full cold; in fact, that usually can
cause problems with defrost;
but can also indicate a defrost problem;
failure to defrost causes airflow problem, leading to improper cooling;
leading to increased run and increased ice/ frost
a vicious circle;
I agree with others, call for service or check further yourself