[brianfromwashington]

Hi,
We have been researching a lot on this forum under this topic, but are still having difficulty. From the information we gathered, we followed steps indicated on the different postings. We really don’t know much about refrigerator repairs, so your help would be greatly appreciated.
Our issue is similar to some of the postings about refrigerator not cooling and freezer is still working (0 degrees). The refrigerator suddenly stopped cooling and got warm. Initially, it the temperature indicator was flashing between two different numbers. One of them was 130 degrees. We checked the doors and kept the doors closed for a while and waited to see if it would get cooler. It got cooler, but the temperature was flashing again between two numbers, 60 degrees and 85 degrees.
This is what we have done so far to check and have tried to follow some of the advice from the other postings.
1. Checked the back panel in the lower freezer for frost or snow. There was some frost, but not a lot. We unplugged the refrigerator again, open the doors, and it appears that it is not cooling again.
2. We unplugged the refrigerator for 24 hours (took the food out). Waited for refrigerator to cool for 24 hours, and the refrigerator continued to flash the temperatures of 60 and 85.
3. We took panels off front and back of refrigerator and vacuumed and cleaned. There really wasn’t much build up of dirt, etc.
4. Checked fan in back and it is blowing and turning. Seems fine.
From what we understand so far, if the back panel has frost/snow, the evaporator coil is iced over and it is a defrost problem., but our attemps at defrosting the coil were unsuccessful. It seems that Maytag refrigerator’s commonly have problems with the defrost system (Evaporator heater and thermostat?). If there is no ice and it is clean, then it indicates that it’s probably the air diffuser (damper control) and it was recommended to also change the thermistor (temperature sensor).
Are we missing something? Could it be something different still? It is not clear exactly how to proceed now. How do we do further testing to know what it is. Do we just order the damper control and thermistor parts and replace them ourselves? Can we try to do this ourselves or do we need a experienced technician? Thanks for your help.
Brian