Hello,

I have a Frigidaire fridge that is about three years old. About a week ago it failed to keep cooling. The light works, and the compressor seemed to be working non-stop. It was very hot to the touch (almost too hot to hold your hand to for more than a few seconds), and from my amateur YouTube assessment, I pulled off the capacitor & relay thinking the relay may be the problem (although I have a nagging feeling that the symptom doesn't match my diagnosis). The relay does click when shaken, so something is loose in there, and in one of the videos I watched, the dude said that's always a dead giveaway that the relay has gone. I did check the ohms on the leads of the compressor, and they seem to fall into the 'OK' range.

So I'm hoping someone can help with my diagnosis and let me know if I'm on the right track.

I have a Supco 3 n' 1 start (1/4-1/3 HP) that I could attach to see if it starts working again, but I worry that this is the higher HP model and wouldn't be good for the fridge, even temporarily.

Thanks for any help you can give.

The condenser fan motor is running, and the condenser coils are clean. The evaporator fan motor, however, was not running (it was getting voltage, but I don't know if there's a sensor inside the fan that tells it to turn of and on and I happened to test it during a period where it was telling the fan to stay off). But that still doesn't seem to make sense. If the evaporator fan wasn't running, shouldn't there have been a build-up of ice in the back of the freezer?

The evaporator is not cooling enough to make frost patterns (after an hour or two). Water is condensing, but I'm reluctant to leave the fridge on too long with the compressor running full time.