The freezer stopped freezing last night. Temp is at 40 degrees. The refrigerator is staying at the 40 degrees too.

A new compressor, starting device and defrost timer were replaced in 2009, as well as a few other internal parts. It has run perfectly until today.

The fan is running and I can feel the compressor running too. The compressor is not overly hot to the touch. I have turned off & On the power switch a couple of times today and can her the compressor go on a short time after I have restarted the unit.

I did rotate the temp control buttons from min to max (but not to stop) on both the frig and freezer sections to see if that would have any effect on temp control and it did not.

Any ideas on what might be the cause of the problem?

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, the door seals are all fine. Both the internal and external fans are running.

Had a tech come out today and look it over. Found 120 volts at compressor on red, black & white wires-tested correctly. Bimetal checks out ok. Found a small patch of frost on coils behind panel in freezer compartment. System runs all the time because it cannot come to temp. Freezer stays at about 40 degrees and the refrigerator at about 48 degrees.

Tech said it is probably a leak in the closed system. Cost est is $1,500 to $1,800 minimum to repair. Tech said compressor would need to be replaced.

Since all of the closed system was replaced in 2009 why should the compressor need replacing? Shouldn't they only need to find the leak, repair it and recharge the system?

The tech that came out yesterday unfortunately was not a closed system tech. She merely did some quick tests on easy to see/touch areas and didn't even pull the unit out to look for any issue on the other 4 sides.

In 2009 when a leak appeared it was very apparent from the compressor oil and related fluid of the system near where the leak was found. No such mess was seen by me or the tech in performing a visual from the front side of the unit. The compressor can be seen very easily from the front and nothing appears out of the ordinary. I believe that when they rebuilt the system in 2009 they put a dye pack in with the Freon so that they could easily find any potential leak areas upon completion of the recharge. This should hopefully make the hunt for the leak easier.

With all of the above and below in terms of analysis, I guess my question still remains the same...why replace the compressor if it still runs? Is a closed system under positive or negative pressure? If it is positive and some Freon leaks out causing the system to not cool enough...yet it still cools, then the likelihood that contaminates have entered the closed system is not high, right? So the compressor contamination issue should be null...right?

Just trying to figure out why they seem to think the compressor needs replacing. When the tech yesterday said the cost to repair would be in the $1,800 range and I asked why, she said it was because the compressor needed to be replaced. When I asked why she could not come up with a good answer. The company is sending out a closed system tech on Friday to confirm what has been found so far and hopefully provide more info.

Denman

Thank you again for your timely responses.

Can you tell me if the Kitchenaid closed system when running correctly has a positive or negative pressure?

If there is a leak but the system is still cooling a bit, would this compromise the integrity of the compressor?

If so, how would it?

Many thanks!

Two techs arrived Friday at 2 pm and proceeded to run tests and pulled the back of the frig off. Found a factory tube where the braze has begun to fail, thereby causing a leak and the low performance of the total system.

Will need to replace the drier and a few other parts...rough estimate coming in around $1,300.

Going to ask Kitchen aid if they will help with the parts cost since the problem seems to be caused by MFR defect. Any advice with this process?