[Sean C]

My fridge is a side by side. After reading several posts, I am not sure if ice collecting on the top part of the coils (only) is indicative of a bad defrost or bad compressor. The symptoms are cool air at the bottom and warm air on top in both the freezer and fridge area. I had the unit unpluged for several days, before taking the panels off the back. I then turned it back on and let it run over night. This is when I saw frost collected on the top three coils only.

[richappy]

You have a bad refrigrerant leak, or a bad compressor. Leaks are hard to find, maybe new fridg time.

[Sean C]

Thank you very much for the quick reply. I was hoping you would say it is just a defrost issue. I cycled the defrost heater by pushing the door switch 5 times. That did power the heater, so I feel that is fine. The coils are very cold. One thing I did notice was the fan never turned on to move the cold air. Will that allow ice build up on the top part of the coils? I am assuming that ice just doesn't build up on the coils that quickly and therefore you state that it is the compressor. After the ice melts, it takes 10 minutes for frost to begin building up. It is actually just on the top 1-2 inches of the coil and fins.

[richappy]

Measure the back wall freezer temperature. With the fan blowing, it should be below 10 degrees, if much higher, this confirms system problems as mentioned above.

[Sean C]

The fan never seems to turn on. Will the fan turn on even though I have all the covers off? If the fan were to run, I am sure that cold air will ciculate. I still ponder the idea of frost build up due to the fan not running, but the coils continue to be very, very cold.

I actually placed bottles of water strategically around the freezer and fridge area. The lower bottles in the freezer did freeze. The temperature there was around 0 F. At the mid level, the bottles were cool and the temperature was around 50 F. Top was warm. No temp taken.

I also placed bottles of water in the fridge area as well. Lower bottles were cool. The mid level water bottles were warm with a temp reading of around 70 F in that area.

[richappy]

You might have a bad fan motor, or lack of voltage to it. If 115 volt motor, you cna stick 115 volts to it to see if it will run, if so, you probably have a bad door switch.