[thotvedt]

Our side by side Maytag MSD2756G (I don't remember the last two letters), was not keep the fridge compartment cold, though the freezer seemed fine. I called an appliance repair place out for an estimate and the technician took off the cover over the evaporator coils. There was no frost on any of them, but there was a big block of ice at the very top. He said the sealed system needed be replaced at a cost of $600-$700 dollars and I should just buy a new fridge. We used a blow dryer to melt the block of ice, and it seems to be working perfectly. Was that just a temporary fix? Was his assessment accurate? We have a window of opportunity to purchase a second hand, but new fridge for $500. But we obviously don't want to spend the money if we don't need to.

Advice would be great!

[denman]

We used a blow dryer to melt the block of ice, and it seems to be working perfectly.
Did you look at the evaporator coils after you defrosted the unit.
If you only see frost at the top of the coils then he was probably correct.
You are low on freon and have a leak some where.
Here is a link
http://www.applianceaid.com/refrigerator.htm

Take a look at #20, the Example pictures at the bottom of the page. Note the first one does not work.

Was that just a temporary fix? Was his assessment accurate?
Could be, could be.

Only other thing which could cause this that I can think of is if someone in past moved the defrost thermostat lower on the evaporator coils so that the heater is shutting off before all the ice has melted.
If you saw that the defrost thermostat was coated in ice before you defrosted it then this is not the case.

[thotvedt]

Actually, yes. I did look at the coils after it started to cool back down and they were frosted evenly.

[thotvedt]

I'm unable to view example picture #1, but if you look at #2, my coils were completely bare and clean, but there was literally a block of ice sitting on top completely encompassing the coil end points and even some of the wiring.

[denman]

Sounds to me that your unit is OK as far as the compressor and sealed system.

[thotvedt]

So you think it might be the defrosting unit?

[denman]

Yes but something is strange because it is defrosting most of the evaporator coil.

Do you find a lot of frost on the inside of the freezer.
I am thinking perhaps you have a door seal problem and the defrost cannot completely clear the heavy frost off the coils so over time the frost turns to ice and builds up.

I would check that the defrost thermostat is clipped toward if not all the way at the top of the evaporator coils.

I am going to search around and see if I can find some tech info on the unit.

[denman]

That did not take long, i just got rid of the G at the end of your Model Number

Here is a service manual which includes info on some MSD2756's, yours should be close.
http://www.servicematters.com/maytag...s/16010154.pdf

It does show where the defrost thermostat should be located