I believe that my Kenmore chest freezer is stuck in defrost mode. The food on top is cold but not frozen. It has done this for the last few years, however, it usually “fixes” itself. My question is, I looked in the panel where the compressor is but did not find anything that looked like a defrost timer. Does this model have a defrost timer? Thank you!
Chest freezers do not have auto defrost so there is no timer.
Thank you for the reply. So, based on the symptoms, do you have and suggestions as to why the freezer intermittently does this?
The most likely cause is a leaking door seal.
Take a piece of two inch wide paper and place it between the seal the the units frame.
Then pull it out to check the seal.
Work your way all around the door every 6 inches or so.
When it does this does the compressor run all the time or is there any other symptom that seems strange
I would put a thermometer in it and check the temperatures.
Perhaps turn it a little colder.
Could be that the thermostat is sticking open once in a while.
This could be checked by turning it slightly colder when this happens.
If the compressor kicks on, I would replace the thermostat.
Condenser coils dirty/dusty? These are the coils outside that convert the refrigerant from a hot gas to a hot liquid. If its dusty, it doesnt remove the heat and cooling becomes poor. Real easy to gather dust around the coils. They may be in the back, or bottom of both. .